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.
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.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has for a second time delayed cutting off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood and postponed its action against the abortion provider until June 7.
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri spokeswoman Bonyen Lee-Gilmore said Wednesday that the state sought another extension to prepare for the first hearing in a federal lawsuit challenging the cutoff. She said the delays show there’s no public health emergency.
But Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s spokeswoman, Eileen Hawley, said the delays give both sides adequate time to prepare their arguments and the judge time to review them.
The state initially planned to cut off Medicaid funds on Tuesday and then delayed the action until May 24.
A hearing on Planned Parenthood’s request for a court order blocking the cutoff is scheduled for May 25.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The Latest on the fatal shooting of a police detective in Kansas City, Kansas (all times local):
Noon:
A Kansas man is charged with capital murder in the shooting death of a police detective during a confrontation that ended when the defendant was shot by officers in Missouri.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman announced the charges Wednesday against 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, of Tonganoxie.
Authorities allege Ayers fatally shot Kansas City, Kansas, Detective Brad Lancaster, on Monday as he responded to a suspicious person report near the Kansas Speedway.
Ayers also is charged with two counts of aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated burglary, two counts of kidnapping, and one count each of aggravated battery and criminal possession of a firearm.
He was arrested in Kansas City, Missouri, after he wrecked a car and was shot by officers. Jackson County, Missouri, officials charged Ayers with seven counts Tuesday.
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9 a.m.
A spokesman for the Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission says a man accused of gunning down a Kansas City, Kansas, police detective was ordered to leave the Hollywood Casino parking lot prior to the fatal shooting.
Commission spokesman Fred Waller says Curtis Ayers was loitering outside the casino near Kansas Speedway on Monday when a security agent ordered him to leave. Waller says Ayers was told he would be arrested for trespassing if he returned.
Waller says Ayers’ name and birth date were reported to Kansas City, Kansas, police, which is normal procedure in such cases.
The 28-year-old is accused of fatally shooting detective Brad Lancaster, who responded to the suspicious person report.
Ayers was expected to be charged in Wyandotte County on Wednesday for Lancaster’s death.
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2 a.m.
A suspect in the shooting death of a Kansas police detective is facing more charges.
Wyandotte County District Attorney Jerome Gorman scheduled a news conference Wednesday to announce charges against 28-year-old Curtis Ayers, of Tonganoxie, Kansas.
Ayers is suspected in the killing of Kansas City, Kansas, Detective Brad Lancaster, who died at a hospital Monday about three hours after being shot during a confrontation near a racetrack.
Kansas authorities have alleged Ayers fled in Lancaster’s car, then carjacked another vehicle with two children inside. He is accused of abandoning that vehicle, leaving the children unharmed, and taking another car. Authorities say he wrecked that car in Kansas City, Missouri, and was shot by officers there.
Ayers was charged Tuesday in Jackson County, Missouri, with seven counts arising from that confrontation.
Tuesday rollover crash in Colorado photo courtesy FOX-31
JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO – Three teens who died in Tuesday’s crash in Colorado have been identified as students from St. John’s Military School in Salina, according to the school.
A fourth teenager from Kansas was the only survivor of the accident that occurred just after 4:30p.m. in Jefferson County, Colorado.
The driver of the Dodge Dakota has been identified as Jake Whitting, age 18, Glen Head, New York.
One of the passengers has been identified as John Yoder, 19, Denver, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
The second passenger Akinwumi (AJ) Ricketts, 16, also died as a result of the crash, according to officials.
Marshall Otter, 17, Ulysses, Kansas was transported to St. Anthony Hospital in Denver.
Alcohol and/or drugs are suspected and will be investigated by the coroner, according to Colorado State Patrol.
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, CO – Three people died and a teenager from Kansas was injured in an accident just after 4:30p.m. on Tuesday in Jefferson County, Colorado.
A Dodge Dakota pickup was southbound near12448 South Foxton Road when the driver lost control of the vehicle, according to Trooper Nate Reid with the Colorado State Patrol.
The pickup traveled off of the right side of the roadway and rolled down an embankment coming to rest in a creek.
Four males were in the vehicle at the time of the crash. The driver and two passengers died on scene. The third passenger, a 17 year old boy from Kansas, was transported to St. Anthony Hospital with serious injuries.
Names of the victims have not been released.
This crash remains under investigation by the Colorado State Patrol.
KDWPT
