LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The murder trial of a Lawrence man who has been in custody for more than four years will be delayed to give attorneys time to assess new evidence from the victim’s recently unlocked phone, a judge has ruled.

Rontarus Washington Jr., 22, was set to go on trial Monday for first-degree murder and aggravated burglary charges in the November 2014 slaying of 19-year-old Justina Altamirano Mosso. But Judge James McCabria this week pushed the trial back until September.

Washington has been held at the Douglas County Jail since March 2015. McCabria said he understood the delay was frustrating, but that he felt it was necessary to give time for attorneys to sift through the data from Mosso’s phone.

“It’s kind of a critical piece of evidence,” said prosecutor C.J. Rieg. “That’s why I’ve been trying to get it open for the past four years.”

Mosso was found stabbed and bludgeoned inside the Lawrence apartment of her estranged husband, Felipe Cantu Ruiz. Ruiz had testified that he moved out of town with a friend on Nov. 7 and had left her the keys.

Washington lived in an apartment on the same floor as Ruiz. Washington had told detectives he entered Ruiz’s apartment that night to steal money and found a dead woman in the bathroom.

Lawrence police said they found Mosso’s phone several weeks after the slaying on the roof of the apartment complex, wrapped in mismatched socks whose corresponding pairs were found in Washington’s apartment.

Rieg said she learned that the Heart of America Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory in Clay County, Missouri, had the software capabilities to open Mosso’s phone in February. McCabria ordered the FBI electronics lab to unlock the phone, and attorneys received the data earlier this month.

Washington’s attorney, Angela Keck, said it would be foolish to go to trial without looking through the phone data for evidence that could help the defendant.

Washington and attorneys will meet with the judge next week to set a new trial date, which is tentatively scheduled for mid-September.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The man believed to be the last Kansas City-area resident to survive the attack at Pearl Harbor has died.

96-year-old Dorwin Lamkin of Overland Park, Kansas, died March 17. A cause of death was not disclosed.

Born in Wisconsin, Lamkin joined the Navy in 1940. He was a corpsman on the USS Nevada when the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941.

Lamkin later served at several battles while on the USS San Francisco in 1943 and 1944. He was awarded several medals and citations.

He was the longtime president of a chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association and helped lead the drive to create the Pearl Harbor Memorial Park in Mission, Kansas.

TOPEKA, KAN. – A Kansas man pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal charge that he drove to Missouri to meet what he believed was a mother who was willing to sell her 10-year-old daughter for sex, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Michael David Mitchell, 64, Ottawa, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of interstate travel to engage in unlawful sexual conduct. The investigation began when investigators received information that Mitchell was looking for a woman with a minor child who he could make his sex slaves.

Mitchell communicated with an undercover investigator posing as a broker who could find Mitchell what he wanted. In his plea, Mitchell admitted that in June 2017 he drove from Ottawa, Kan., to Independence, Mo., to meet a woman he had been told was willing to make the deal. He brought money with him to pay a $5,000 finder’s fee.

Sentencing is set for April 24. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Richard Greever, who represents landlords in Hutchinson, sparked controversy at the latest city council meeting when he accused city staff of peeking in windows

“You’re allowing inspectors the right of way to peek in windows where our mothers, wives, daughters, granddaughters might be undressing,” he said.  “One city inspector was in the yard, looking in the window of one of my female, single, tenants. It scared the bejabbers out of her.  I tried to get her to file charges under the breach of privacy, the peeping Tom statute.  She refused and said, “he knows where I live.’ ”

Greever’s comments didn’t stop there. He warned the council that convicted murderer Dennis Rader also worked for a government organization. That brought a sharp response from councilwoman Jade Piros de Carvalho who told Greever, ” We are not going to apply at all that out city staff who work hard every day to make this place run and provide valuable amenities are rapists or murderers. That is not going down! You’re saying it in a public forum and it’s sickening.

Her interjection brought an end to Greever’s accusations. However, he did ask the council to limit city officials from entering private property unless they have a warrant or a complaint from the resident of that property. This all has to do with the rental inspection program which is set to sunset at the end of the year, so the council will look at it again in the fall on whether they want to continue it.

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SALINE COUNTY – The suspect from the officer involved shooting that occurred Feb. 5, in Saline County has been arrested.

According to a media release from the KBI, on March 19, Colt F. Wright, 25, of Derby, was released from Ascension Via Christi St. Francis in Wichita, where he received medical treatment from injuries sustained in the shooting with police.

When released from the hospital, Wright was arrested and booked into the Saline County Jail on seven counts of attempted capital murder, aggravated battery against a law enforcement officer, aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, and fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer.

The Kansas Attorney General’s Office is expected to prosecute the case