WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Wichita man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in a drunken driving crash that killed three people and injured two others.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Juan Pablo Gandara-Rodela was sentenced Wednesday for second-degree reckless murder in the July 2014 deaths.
The hit-and-run crash killed Zachary Taylor and Jake Hallacy, both 26 and of Valley Center, and 21-year-old Emily Phillips of McPherson.
Gandara-Rodela also admitted in January to leaving the scene of an accident and aggravated battery. Police have said Gandara-Rodela had been at a bar before running a red light in a sport utility vehicle and slamming into the side of a car.
Gandara-Rodela was working toward becoming a U.S. citizen. Under his plea, he will be deported after he is released from prison.
NEW YORK (AP) – Salvador Perez hit a three-run homer in yet another big first inning against Michael Pineda, and the slumping Kansas City Royals rebounded to beat the New York Yankees 7-3 Wednesday night.
Down by four runs six batters in, New York clawed back to 4-3 against Yordano Ventura before Lorenzo Cain hit a two-run single in the sixth against reliever Nick Goody.
Kendrys Morales added a solo homer in the seventh off Phil Coke as the Royals won for just the fourth time in their past 15 games.
After winning the opening two games of the four-game series, the Yankees were hoping to string together three straight victories for the first time since Sept. 1-4. They are 0-5 this year when attempting to win a third consecutive game.
Ventura (3-2), coming off losses at Seattle and Cleveland, gave up three runs and six hits in six innings.
FINNEY COUNTY – A Kansas teen was injured in an accident just before 10p.m. on Wednesday in Finney County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Ford F-150 pickup driven by Mark A. Perez, 18, Garden City was southbound on U.S. 83 at the entrance to the Southwind Housing Development.
The vehicle left the roadway going to the west and struck a telephone pole. The truck continued west and struck a brick wall at the Southwind Housing development.
Perez was transported to St. Catherine’s Hospital.
He was not wearing a seat belt, according the KHP.
STAFFORD COUNTY- A Hutchinson man was injured in an accident just before 8p.m. on Wednesday in Stafford County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 1998 Harley Davidson Motorcycle driven by William C Powell, 48, Hutchinson, was westbound on northeast 70th nine miles east of U.S. 281.
A deer entered the roadway from the south ditch, impacted the front of the motorcycle, and knocked the rider off.
The driver and motorcycle slid westbound on the pavement coming to a rest in the north ditch.
EMS transported Powell to the Stafford District Hospital. He was later transported to St. Francis in Wichita.
He was not wearing a helmet, according to the KHP.
PRATT–The Outdoor Writers of Kansas (OWK) organization recently donated $1,000 to help purchase hunting and fishing licenses for Kansas disabled military veterans. OWK challenges all organizations to match or beat their donation.
Each fiscal year, the Kansas Legislature appropriates funding to the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism (KDWPT) to provide hunting and fishing licenses for Kansas military veterans with service-related disabilities of 30 percent or more. Initially the funding was adequate, but as the number of veteran license applications has increased, the funding has run out before the end of the fiscal year. When that happens, KDWPT uses donations to pay for licenses. Currently, there are several hundred unfilled veteran license applications awaiting funding.
Anyone can donate, and hunters and anglers who purchase licenses online can check a donation box. Any individual or organization interested in helping can mail a donation made out to WildTrust, specifying the Disabled Veterans License account. Checks can be mailed to KDWPT, c/o WildTrust, 512 SE 25th Ave., Pratt, KS 67124. Visit www.ksoutdoors.com/License-Permits-Veteran-Hunting-and-Fishing-Licenses for more information.
OWK is a nonprofit professional organization made up of members dedicated to communicating about Kansas’ hunting, fishing, and other outdoor and wildlife-related recreation. Members meet twice a year and raise money to send youngsters to the Kansas Wildlife Federation’s Outdoor Adventure Camp, purchase equipment for the KDWPT Pass It On youth program, the Steve Harper OWK/Kansas Wildscape scholarship, as well as other outdoor programs.
Robert Johnson, Jr. -photo Kan. Dept. of Corrections
HARVEY COUNTY – Law enforcement authorities in Harvey County are investigating a suspect in connection with a series of burglaries.
Beginning in September 2015 the city of Newton experienced numerous residential and vehicular burglaries, which appeared to be the work of a single serial burglar, according to police. These offenses abruptly stopped in late January of 2016.
During the course of the investigation, the Newton Police Department learned of similar offenses occurring in many jurisdictions in the region.
These agencies partnered, shared information, and have diligently been investigating these crimes since the beginning.
Police reported on Wednesday they are confident the serial burglar has been identified, and an arrest has been made.
During the early morning hours of Tuesday, a man was apprehended during the commission of a similar offense in Derby, according to police.
Rapid sharing of information led investigators to connecting numerous burglaries in the Newton area, Park City, Wichita, and Derby.
Numerous eye witness identifications and video evidence has identified as the suspect as Robert Johnson Jr.
He was paroled after a 20 year prison term, and moved to Newton in August of 2015, before relocating to Wichita.
Police believe Robert was targeting locations randomly, and acted alone while committing these crimes.
One factor, which may have played a role in ending the offenses in Newton, was the community’s response to warnings about securing residences. We believe it was this partnership with the community, which saw an increase in reported suspicious activity, heightened vigilance with regard to locking doors, and checking on neighbors, which made the difference.
KANSAS CITY— The U.S. government won’t appeal recent court rulings that stripped the lesser prairie chicken of federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The Fish and Wild Service said Wednesday that the Justice Department filed a motion Tuesday to dismiss its appeal of rulings in Texas. The rulings found that Fish and Wildlife failed to make a proper evaluation of a multi-state conservation plan when it listed the lesser prairie chicken as threatened.
Kansas Senator Pat Roberts said this wouldn’t be the last of the Obama Administration’s regulatory agenda. “I have said all along that with a little rain, we will see the lesser prairie chicken population bounce back. As we have come to expect with the Obama administration, they never let common sense get in the way of an costly regulation.”
Kansas First District Congressman Tim Huelskamp celebrated the announcement.
“After years of leading the fight against the Fish and Wildlife Service’s rule, starting even before the rule was in place, I am thrilled by this decision,” Huelskamp said. I appreciate the support and help from those in the agriculture industry like the Kansas Farm Bureau, Kansas Natural Resources Conference, members of the energy industry, and members of the Kansas delegation in challenging the Obama Administration attempted takeover.
“Most Washington bureaucrats and attorneys have never farmed, raised livestock or worked an oil rig. They do not understand that state and local governments, and business owners themselves, care about the environment.
Fish and Wildlife says that despite dropping the appeal, it “intends to reassess the status of the species based on the court’s ruling and the best available scientific data.”
Oil and gas groups opposed the threatened listing, saying it would cost companies millions.
The lesser prairie chicken lives in Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado.
SHAWNEE COUNTY-Law enforcement authorities in Shawnee County are investigating three suspects in connection with auto thefts.
The city of Topeka has seen a dramatic increase in auto thefts this year with over 200 reported through April, according to a media release.
Topeka Police in conjunction with the Kansas Department of Revenue, Kansas Highway Patrol, National Insurance Crime Bureau, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Police, Topeka Fire, and the Kansas Department of Health conducted a search at Focus Recycling, 131 Southeast Golden Avenue in Topeka involving stolen vehicles.
As a result, authorities arrested Maurice Lamont Stewart, 33; John Earl January III, 38; and David Ray Long, 40; all of Topeka.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A friend of the former security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association who is implicated in a jackpot-fixing scandal says she was given a winning Kansas Lottery ticket worth $15,000 in 2011 as an engagement gift.
Amy DeMoney testified Wednesday in a hearing for Eddie Tipton, who faces trial in July for ongoing criminal conduct and money laundering charges for games he allegedly fixed in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. Separately, Tipton is appealing last year’s fraud conviction related to a 2010 Iowa Hot Lotto ticket.
He denies prosecutors’ allegations that he manipulated the games’ number-picking computers.
DeMoney says she drove to Kansas to collect the winnings and gave Tipton $6,000 back as he requested. She says Tipton said he couldn’t turn in the ticket because he’d lose his job.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Every time the U.S. government tried to deport convicted criminal Jean Jacques, his native Haiti refused to take him back.
About six months after Immigration and Customs Enforcement last had custody of him, Jacques killed a young Connecticut woman. Now he is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
Jacques is a textbook example of the kind of immigrant living in the U.S. illegally that the Obama administration says should be deported.
But that’s easier said than done.
Republicans want the Obama administration to punish countries that won’t take their citizens back by withholding visas or cutting foreign aid.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a bill to subject officials’ emails about public business to disclosure even if they’re on private accounts or devices.
Brownback signed the measure Wednesday. Spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said he will follow its requirements.
The new law will close a loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act that has allowed government officials to use private communications to discuss public business without facing disclosure.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt issued an opinion last year saying the records law didn’t apply to such situations.
The issue arose after The Wichita Eagle reported in January 2015 that Budget Director Shawn Sullivan used a private email account to give two lobbyists a preview of budget proposals. Brownback later acknowledged using a private cellphone for most of his communications.
KDWPT
