A federal appellate court has overturned the conviction of a former tribal casino manager and his family for allegedly stealing from a tribal casino near the Texas-Mexico border.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned the embezzlement convictions of Isidro Garza Jr., his wife and one of his sons. The trio had been among so-called the "Kickapoo Seven" — a group of tribal and casino employees from the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas accused of stealing from the tribe's small casino near Eagle Pass.

The appellate court overturned the convictions because it said that U.S. District Judge Alia Ludlum erred in transferring the case to Waco, about 300 miles from where the defendants, attorneys and witnesses lived.

The court granted a request from the state attorney general's office Friday afternoon, shortly before Alford Jones and Faye Brown were set to go free.

The ruling gives state attorneys another chance to make their arguments after two lower courts sided with the inmates. Gov. Beverly Perdue has said that she's disgusted with the state's legal system for saying the inmates should go free.

State courts previously determined that life sentences imposed during a period in the 1970s could be no more than 80 years long. Two dozen inmates could be freed immediately because of sentence-reduction credits applied to their terms.

A man who killed six people, including a sheriff's deputy, in a northwest Washington shooting rampage last year pleaded guilty Tuesday and will spend the rest of his life in a mental hospital or prison.

Isaac Zamora entered the pleas to 18 charges, including aggravated murder, attempted murder and burglary, after prosecutor Rich Weyrich agreed he would not seek the death penalty.

"Mr. Zamora won't ever walk the streets again," Weyrich said. "From a public safety standpoint, we've accomplished that."

Zamora, 29, began his rampage Sept. 2, 2008, near the town of Alger, 70 miles north of Seattle, and continued it on Interstate 5. Described by his family as mentally disturbed, he was captured after a police chase and later told investigators he killed for God.

The dead included a man who had accused Zamora of trespassing, a woman who lived nearby, two construction workers, a motorist on the highway, and Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Anne Jackson. Jackson had frequently tried to help Zamora's family deal with his mental illness, Zamora's mother said.

The trustee, Irving Picard, sought $198.7 million from Madoff's brother, Peter, who had worked at Madoff's Manhattan investment company since 1965, and sons, Mark and Andrew.

Also sued was Shana D. Madoff, Bernard Madoff's niece and Peter Madoff's daughter.

Lawyers for the Madoff's brother and sons did not immediately return a phone call for comment. A message for comment left at Shana Madoff's East Hampton home was not immediately returned.

Lawyers for Picard said in papers filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan that Madoff's family-run business "was operated as if it were the family piggy bank."

They said each of the family members withdrew huge sums of money to fund personal business ventures and to pay for expenses ranging from multimillion dollar homes, cars and boats to monthly credit card charges for restaurants, vacations and clothing.

The lawyers said $141 million identified as fraudulent proceeds were received by the family members in the six years before Madoff surrendered and revealed his plot last December while at least $58 million was received in the last two years.

Peter Madoff was the company's senior managing director and chief compliance officer while Mark and Andrew shared the title of co-director of trading.

Mark had worked with his father at the company since 1986 while Andrew had been there since 1988.

Shana Madoff, a lawyer, had worked there since 1995 as compliance counsel and in-house counsel, the court papers said.