WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A judge has again delayed the trial of a Kansas online gamer allegedly involved in a deadly hoax to give the parties time to finalize documents for an alternative to prosecution that could spare him from a criminal record.

WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man who led troopers on a 100-mph chase pleaded guilty Monday to a federal firearm charge, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Codey Elsasser, 26, Arlington, Kan., pleaded guilty to possessing a short-barreled rifle that was not registered as required by federal law. Elsasser was driving 88 mph in a 65 mph zone when a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper tried to stop him. Elsasser fled, reaching a speed of 100 mph as he drove from Barton County to Rice County before stopping.

In the car, troopers found a .223 caliber rifle with a barrel length of 10 and 5/8 inches, a 9 mm pistol, a 12 gauge shotgun, a bulletproof vest and parts of a homemade silencer. Elsasser was a convicted felon and was prohibited from having firearms. He admitted he smoked methamphetamine the morning of the arrest.

Sentencing is set for July 29. The parties have agreed to recommend a sentence in a range of 63 to 78 months in federal prison.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Four men were sentenced in federal court Monday for stealing 654 firearms from United Parcel Service trailers in Springfield, Mo., en route to Bass Pro Shops, according to the United State’s Attorney.

A federal prosecutor says authorities have recovered only 73 of the hand guns and 2-gauge shotguns.

During a sentencing hearing Monday, U.S. Assistant Attorney James Kelleher said most of the guns are in public circulation.

Frank McChriston, 35, and Derrick White, 33, both of Dallas, Texas; Quinton Haywood, 27, of Glenn Heights, Texas; and Eric White, 28, of Arlington, Texas were sentenced in separate appearances before U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips. McChriston was sentenced to seven years and eight months in federal prison without parole. Derrick and Eric White were each sentenced to seven years and three months in federal prison without parole. Haywood was sentenced to seven years and six months in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered the defendants to pay $206,132 in restitution, for which they are jointly and severally liable.

All four defendants admitted they aided and abetted each other to steal cargo that was being shipped across state lines, from Beretta USA in Maryland to the state of Missouri. They also pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting each other to possess stolen firearms.

Co-defendants Raynord Hunt, 36, and Keith Lowe, 29, both of Dallas, have pleaded guilty to the same charges and await sentencing.

According to court documents, the defendants stole 600 Beretta .380-caliber handguns and 54 Beretta 12-gauge shotguns from United Parcel Service (UPS) trailers in Springfield in October 2017.

The firearms were in the process of being shipped from Beretta Firearms in Maryland to Bass Pro Shops in Springfield. The trailers in which the firearms were shipped had been parked in the UPS freight lot in a configuration to prevent access to the trailer doors, by being parked back-to-back, with the roll-up doors facing each other. The trailers were then blocked by longer trailers, which should have acted as a preventative measure from someone backing a truck-tractor to the trailer and pulling it forward.

Sometime between noon on Oct. 28, 2017, and 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, 2017, thieves hot-wired two truck-tractors and used them to push and pull various trailers around the lot, allowing the thieves access to the trailer doors. UPS employees discovered the theft on Oct. 29, 2017, and notified law enforcement.

GEARY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a reported aggravated assault and have two suspects in custody.

Just before 3:30a.m. Monday, deputies responded to U.S. Highway 77 in rural Geary County for a subject in the roadway, according to a media release.

Deputies made contact with a man seeking help. They determined the victim was on State Lake Road with one of the suspects when he was ordered out of the car at gun point by a second suspect.

The victim was allegedly threatened by both subjects, one with a knife and one with a gun, battered and restrained against his will. The two male subjects left the scene and the victim ran to U.S. 77 Highway where he was able to receive assistance.

The victim. who is not being identified by authorities, was treated and released on the scene by Junction City Fire / EMS, for minor injuries.

Deputies are investigating the case as an aggravated assault with the possibility of more charges, according to the release. The Sheriff’s Department identified the two suspects as Michael Leroy Whitaker, 33, Topeka, and Jason Robert Snider, 33, Chapman. They were in custody Tuesday in Geary County, according online arrest reports››

CRAWFORD COUNTY– A tornado touched down south of Pittsburg, Kansas Monday evening taking a path from 180th and 400 highway in Cherokee, Kansas and moving northeast toward 270th and 530th Avenue. east of Pittsburg, according to a statement from the city. No injuries have been reported, according to the sheriff’s department.

Storm damage reported includes damage to outbuildings and secondary structures, shingles blown off houses, wind damage, large trees down, and downed power lines. Westar Energy is responding to downed power lines and addressing power outages.

Search and rescue crews have been activated. Local first responders are checking residences to make sure everyone is accounted for. Anyone needing to locate loved ones or report missing residents should call (620) 230-5625.

Residents were advised to stay away from Langdon Lane and the surrounding area effected. Current weather hazards include downed power lines, debris, lightening and heavy rain. More weather risks are headed our way with a second round of thunderstorms in the forecast for this evening.

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Late Monday, the National Weather Service reduced the severe threat of violent storms to a small area of southern Oklahoma and northern Texas. But it kept an area stretching from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Wichita Falls, Texas, under tornado watch — the level of threat just below a tornado warning — until 5 a.m. CDT Tuesday morning

The biggest threat overnight appeared to be flash flooding from torrential rains that accompanied the storms, forecasters said.

The National Weather Service had warned that Monday evening could bring perilous weather to a large swath of western Texas, most of Oklahoma and southern Kansas. The storm was expected to move later Monday into western Arkansas.

As predicted, more than a dozen sightings of tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and Missouri early Monday evening, although they were in sparsely populated areas. Oklahoma residents were particularly nervous Monday because it was the sixth anniversary of a massive tornado in Moore, south of Oklahoma City, that killed 24 people.

A tornado struck western and northern portions of the southwestern Oklahoma town of Mangum on Monday afternoon. Glynadee Edwards, the Greer County emergency management director, says some homes incurred roof damage and the high school’s agriculture barn was destroyed, but the livestock survived.

“The pigs are walking around wondering what happened to their house,” she said.

Emergency officials reported a tornado near Lucien, in northern Oklahoma, severely damaging a house and destroying a barn. One storm cell near Crescent, 32 miles north of Oklahoma City, spawned twin tornadoes.

National Weather Service meteorologist John Pike in Norman, Oklahoma, said a developing layer of relatively warm air aloft late Monday afternoon and evening over central Oklahoma was capping development of the kind of supercells that spawned tornadoes earlier in the afternoon in western and northern Oklahoma. Storm cells that did develop, however, followed one after the other in what is called “training,” leading to scattered reports of flash flooding Monday night.

The Storm Prediction Center website shows the main severe thunderstorm threat Tuesday will be over Missouri and northern Arkansas, with a slight threat in a surrounding area bounded by Dallas; Springfield, Illinois; Garden City, Kansas; and Oklahoma City.

The threat of nasty weather had prompted measures to prepare for the worst. School districts in Oklahoma City, nearby Norman and elsewhere in Oklahoma canceled classes with forecasts of hail and wind gusts of up to 80 mph (128 kph). A flood watch was in effect for the greater Oklahoma City region. Schools in Abilene and elsewhere in West Texas sent students home early.

Tinker Air Force Base near Oklahoma City moved several planes to other military installations in anticipation of storm damage. Meanwhile, state workers in several Oklahoma counties were sent home early.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement that the state emergency operations center was activated and urged motorists not to drive around barricades or into flooded roadways.

In Oklahoma City, emergency management officials opened the Multi-Agency Coordination Center, an underground bunker on the city’s northeast side that serves as a clearinghouse for coordinating information about severe weather events and other major emergencies.

Some flights at Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City were canceled to avoid damage to aircraft and the possibility of extended delays elsewhere.

The Monday storms followed a spate of tornadoes in the Southern Plains on Friday and Saturday, leaving widespread damage and some people injured.

CLOUD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas felon on new charges after an arrest.

Just before 4:30p.m. Friday, a Cloud County Sheriff’s Deputy arrested 40-year-old Lisa Burchett of Concordia on a Cloud County District Court warrant for two counts of abuse of a child and endangering a child, according to Undersheriff Nick Patterson.

Burchett has ten previous convictions  including burglary, theft, aggravated escape from custody, drugs and forgery four times. She is being held in the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center.

NEW YORK (AP) — Dressbarn, the women’s clothing chain that’s been around for nearly 60 years, is closing all 650 of its stores including locations in Salina, Manhattan, Newton, Shawnee, Olathe and Wichita.

The company’s chief financial officer, Steven Taylor, said Dressbarn has not been operating at an “acceptable level of profitability in today’s retail environment.”

Its owner, Ascena Retail Group Inc., says it wants to focus on its more profitable brands. Ascena also owns Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant and other clothing stores.

The company did not say when Dressbarn will shut all its stores. Dressbarn employs about 6,800 people.

After the news was announced Monday, shares of Ascena Retail Group Inc. rose 2.6% to $1.17 in extended trading. Shares of the Mahwah, New Jersey-based company are down more than 50% so far this year.

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a suburban Kansas City teen was killed when an $8 Xanax deal fell through.

The affidavit released Monday in the case against Matthew Lee Bibee Jr. says 17-year-old Rowan Padgett was killed in March after Bibee arranged to buy the anxiety medication through another suspect, 16-year-old Jordan Denny. Bibee, Denny and a third teen are charged with first-degree felony murder.

Denny told authorities she kicked Padgett out of her Olathe, Kansas, house after he asked for sex. But he stayed in the area and was there when Bibee arrived with friends to get the Xanax. Denny told investigators that she asked Padgett to leave with Bibee because her supplier had fallen through and her father had called police.

Padgett was killed after getting into the car with Bibee, who was wounded two days later in an exchange of gunfire with police.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Monday vetoed an extra $51 million payment to Kansas’ public pension system while signing the bulk of a state budget approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Kelly said in a message to legislators that she used the governor’s power to veto individual items in the budget to excise “non-essential” spending in several provisions and bolster the state’s cash reserves. The rest of the spending blueprint includes more than $18.3 billion for state government for the budget year beginning in July, a record amount.

Legislators included the extra $51 million for the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System to help make up for shorting the state’s annual contributions in recent years, when the state repeatedly faced budget problems. But Kelly called it “imprudent” when other parts of state government still need extra dollars, despite extra spending in the budget.

“When I built my state budget proposal, it was tempting to approve every spending request made by agencies and organizations because all had endured severe budget cuts in recent years,” Kelly said. “But I felt that fiscal restraint was absolutely critical to sustaining Kansas’ recovery.”

Republican legislators were expected to try to override Kelly’s veto of the pension payment and perhaps several other items on May 29, the last and only remaining day they’re scheduled to be in session this year. It was not clear they could muster the necessary two-thirds majorities in both chambers.

Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, said Kelly had “turned her back” on teachers and state employees.

“Instead of protecting the retirement of hardworking Kansans, Laura Kelly would rather pocket the money to fund her big spending agenda,” Wagle said in a statement.

The budget includes pay raises for state workers, as well as extra spending on prisons, social services and higher education. Lawmakers also increased spending on public schools, and the budget would boost overall state spending by 6.6 percent, or nearly $1.14 billion.

Kelly has clashed with Republicans over how best to deal with a shortfall in the longer-term funding for the state’s public pension system. A 2012 law set an aggressive schedule of increasing state contributions to eliminate the gap by 2035, and Kelly argues that it’s unrealistic. But legislators in both parties rejected a proposal from her to restructure the annual payments.

The governor also vetoed an extra $1.9 million in funding for community mental health centers. And she rejected earmarking $1.5 million for specific programs in the Department of Education budget, saying local school districts should use new state dollars for programs that they “deem appropriate.”

“There is a lot to celebrate in this state budget,” Kelly said. She added later, “I am confident we are headed in the right direction.”

TOPEKA —A disturbance by 10 teens Sunday evening at the Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex (KJCC) in Topeka resulted in property damage in three living units, according to to a media release from the Kansas Department of Corrections.

An investigation, being led by the Kansas Department of Correction’s Enforcement’s Apprehension and Investigation Unit, has yet to identify the amount of property damage caused by the 10 juvenile males ranging in age from 17-19 or the reason for the incident.

“This isn’t normal for our facility, the fact that no injuries occurred is a credit to the professionalism and response of our staff,” said Randy Bowman, Deputy Secretary of Juvenile Services.

Kansas Juvenile Correctional Complex, the state’s only juvenile correctional facility, has a population of 167.

 

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a disturbance that sent a man to a local hospital.

Just before 8:30 p.m. Sunday, police responded to report of a shooting in the 900 Block of North Market in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

At the scene police located a 37-year-old man who had been shot in the face with a BB gun. EMS transported him to a local hospital for treatment and he was released.

Investigators learned the victim and a known 43-year-old man were involved in a disturbance outside an apartment complex on North Market. The suspect shot multiple times with a bb gun that struck the victim.  The suspect then fled on foot. Police continue to work to locate the suspect.

SALINE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities  are investigating two robbery cases that occurred Saturday morning and looking for a suspect who is considered armed and dangerous.

Just before 1:30a.m.  Saturday,  deputies were called to the Shady Lady Gentlemen’s Club, 1540 W. Old 40 at approximately 1:17 a.m. Saturday for the report of a stolen wallet. Saline County Undersheriff Brent Melander said Monday that Melvin Suchy, 57, of Tryon, Neb., had been in the Shady Lady, but had gone outside to get some additional cash when someone grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket and jumped into a nearby dark-colored vehicle.

Suchy reached into the car and grabbed onto the steering wheel in an attempt to keep the thieves from leaving when one of the occupants of the vehicle pulled out a handgun and threatened to kill him if he didn’t let go of the steering wheel, Melander said. The thieves, who Suchy reported might be two Hispanic males, fled with his wallet, which included $20 in cash, Melander added.

At approximately 6 a.m. on Saturday, Salina Police were called to the Pilot Travel Center, 1944 N. Ninth, for the report of a truck driver being robbed. Michael Schwartz, 48, of Missouri, was walking from the Pilot store out to his tractor-trailer rig when he felt someone grab near his left rear pocket where he kept his wallet, said Salina Police Captain Paul Forrester. Schwartz turned around and confronted a white male, who he described as approximately 6-foot- tall and weighing 160 pounds.

The man had a handgun and demanded money from Schwartz, who gave him $900 from his wallet. At some point a female exited a nearby vehicle and also asked Schwartz about money, he added. She and the male got into a blue 2002 Ford Taurus and left northbound on Ninth Street, according to Forrester.

The car was later found burned up in the county, Forrester said. Police contacted the registered owner in Ford County, who said he had loaned it to someone.

From that report, police were able to develop a person of interest: Dustin Bilbrey, a 36-year-old white male who is 6’3″ and 180 pounds, Forrester said. Bilbrey was last seen wearing jeans, a gray shirt, and a red ball cap, and is considered armed and dangerous, according to Forrester.

Salina Police believe the two robberies are related.

Persons with information about Bilbrey’s whereabouts are encouraged to call the Salina Police Department at 785-826-7210 or call Crimestoppers at 825-TIPS, text SATIPS to CRIMES (274637), or visit www.pd.salina.org and follow the Crimestoppers link to submit a web tip.

 

SEDGWICK COUNTY— Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting and have identified the victim.

Just before 4:30p.m. Friday, police responded to report of a shooting at a residence in the 1500 Block of South Parkwood in Wichita, according to Captain Brent Allred. Upon arrival officers located 20-year-old Dieuvent Mpirwa of Wichita with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

An investigation revealed the victim and the suspect identified as 24-year-old Noah Kanyizere had a disagreement. The suspect pulled out a handgun and shot the victim. Police believe both the suspect and the victim knew each other.

On Saturday, police arrested Kanyizere in the 400 Block of Main in Wichita, according to Allred. He is being held on a $100,000 Bond, according to online booking records.
Police don’t know the nature of their dispute. It was not gang related and police don’t believe drugs were involved. Police ask that anyone who may have been at the residence or who may have details to contact CrimeStoppers.

Police will present their findings to the district attorney’s office.

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SEDGWICK — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting and have made an arrest.. 

Just before 4:30 p.m. Friday police responded to the report of the shooting and found one person dead.

On On Saturday, police arrested 24-year-old Noah Kanyizere in the 400 Block of Main in Wichita, according to the Sedgwick County arrest report.

He is being held on a requested charge of first- degree murder with a bond of $100,000, according to online jail records.

Police have not named the victim or additional details in the case.