By Neil Ochs ~ Great Bend Post

An accident at a cemetery in rural Barton County on Tuesday afternoon resulted in the arrest of a Great Bend woman.

According to the Barton County Sheriff’s Office, at approximately 3:42 p.m., Great Bend resident Judy Shaw- Nitzel was driving a 1989 GMC pickup truck, when she struck the entryway to Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery, located on NW 50 Road, just west of Highway 281. Nitzel was not injured in the accident, but following the collision, attempted to flee the scene, walking westbound on NW 50 Road, before being arrested by the Barton County Sheriff’s Department.

Nitzel was booked into the Barton County Jail on $1000 bond for Driving Under the Influence, leaving the scene of an accident, and for failure to report an accident. Estimated cost of damages to the Cemetery is unknown at this time.

A 24-year-old woman faces six years in prison after pleading guilty to charges from a June standoff with Hutchinson police.

Kayla Salyer Rodriguez will be sentenced Feb. 1 after pleading guilty Monday to aggravated kidnapping and two counts of aggravated assault.

As part of her plea, Rodriguez admitted she threatened two women with a handgun on June 1 and kidnapped one of the women.

Police were in a standoff for more than six hours at a Hutchinson apartment after receiving a report that Rodriguez had forced another woman into the apartment with a gun. No one was injured.

Prosecutors say 27-year-old Jennifer Heckel was killed by three men who went to the wrong home while searching for Rodriguez to rob her of drugs and money.

A Kansas boy is in trouble for a statement posted on his Twitter account about school killings, even though police doubt the threat was credible.

The 15-year-old lives in west Wichita and goes to school in the nearby town of Maize. The Wichita Eagle reports officials in Maize contacted Wichita police Monday after the boy allegedly tweeted a threat to kill 20 students, his mother and himself.

He was interviewed at his home and arrested on a juvenile misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

Police Lt. Doug Nolte says the boy told officers he wasn’t serious about the threat and did not have the means to carry it out.

Nolte says police don’t believe the threat was credible but take all threats of violence seriously.

A week before Christmas, forecasters are warning that holiday travel could be disrupted by snow and high winds in the Southern Plains.

The National Weather Service says a storm out of the Rocky Mountains could bring white-out or blizzard conditions to parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas on Christmas night.

An exact track of the storm isn’t known, nor are snowfall amounts nor when the storm may be at its worst.

Forecasters said the weather could force travelers to change their plans next week and said later reports would have better predictions of where the storm may hit.

A sporting goods chain says it’s suspending sales of modern rifles nationwide because of the school shooting in Connecticut.

Dick’s Sporting Goods also says it’s removing all guns from display at its store closest to Newtown, where the massacre took place.

Authorities say a gunman killed 26 people, mostly children, with a military-style rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday after killing his mother. He then killed himself.

A statement posted on Dick’s website expresses sympathy for the victims’ families. It says sales of modern sporting rifles will be suspended during “this time of national mourning.”

Dick’s declined to answer Associated Press questions about how long the suspension would last or which weapons were being pulled.

Pittsburgh-based Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. has more than 500 stores in 44 states, including Wichita, Topeka, and Manhattan, in Kansas.

Kansas officials have exhumed the bodies of two men executed for the 1959 slayings of a Kansas family made infamous in Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, “In Cold Blood.”

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said the bodies of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith were exhumed Tuesday at the Mount Muncie Cemetery in Lansing at the request of Florida officials.

The Sarasota County, Fla., sheriff’s office asked for the exhumation to collect DNA that could help solve the 1959 murders of Cliff and Christine Walker and their two children in Osprey, Fla.

The Walkers were killed soon after the slayings of Herb Clutter and his family in Holcomb, Kan.

Sarasota officials say Hickock and Smith fled to Florida after the Kansas killings and were in the area when the Walkers were killed.

Former pop star Frankie Valens has a new gig as a preacher in western Kansas.

Valens and his wife, Phyllis, moved to Syracuse about a month ago, where he is pastor of the First Christian Church.

The 70-year-old Valens tells The Garden City Telegram he’s never preached from a pulpit. But he says he’s been testifying about his faith for years, so he is prepared for his new challenge.

Valens’ father pastored the same church in 1978 and 1979.

Valens was popular in the 1960s and ’70s for hits such as “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

After his career ended, he and his wife toured the country performing gospel songs and skits at various functions before settling in Clearwater a few years ago.

A Manhattan man who provided the weapon used in a murder has been sentenced to life in prison.

Forty-two-year-old Domingo Soto was sentenced Monday for aiding and abetting the death of 31-year-old Steve Freel in December 2011. He was also sentenced to four concurrent years in prison for drug charges.

The sentence came after a judge denied a motion to grant Soto a new trial.

Prosecutors say Soto provided the .45-caliber handgun that 20-year-old Michael Layne used to kill Freel, whose body was found along a rural road near Manhattan.

Layne pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in Freel’s death.

Prosecutors say Freel and Layne committed several armed robberies together but had a disagreement, which led to Freel’s murder.

Lawrence police are investigating reports that members of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity at the University of Kansas abused and killed a turkey at a party.

Police said Monday they received a report of possible animal cruelty at a party that drew about 150 people Friday night.

The Kansas City Star reports witnesses said the some fraternity members broke the turkey’s cage, chased the animal, choked it and broke its wing and a leg.

Police say they were told a fraternity member killed the bird to end its suffering.

A message left after hours for the Beta Theta Pi Foundation and Administrative Office wasn’t immediately returned.

The university said in a statement that the fraternity’s national chapter and the KU Interfraternity Council also are investigating the complaint.

A 19-year-old Topeka man who was left a paraplegic after an accident that killed a passenger in his car is scheduled to be sentenced to prison this week.

Hunter Hillmer is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for reckless second-degree murder for a March 19 accident that killed 15-year-old Madison Naill. He also was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol and aggravated battery for injuries sufferd by a second passenger.

State corrections officials said paralyzed inmates are housed at various facilities, and are kept in the general population.

Corrections department spokesman Jeremy Barclay says the state pays only slightly more to house a paralyzed inmate, mostly to buy necessary equipment.

Barclay said several paralyzed inmates might be transferred to Oswego when it reopens next month.