Kansas.com: Crime andamp; Courts

Man pulls gun to defend music choice, police say

STAN FINGER — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:39 CST

A 46-year-old man went to jail Monday over a song.

The man was arrested after he pulled a rifle on another man at a convenience store in southeast Wichita, police said.

A 53-year-old man had stopped for gas pumps at Harry and Webb shortly before 4:30 p.m. Monday when a second vehicle pulled up to a nearby pump.

The music blaring from the second vehicle was so loud that the first man asked the other driver to turn it down. When he didn't, the first man asked him again.

Police said the second driver responded by walking to his trunk, pulling out a small rifle and pointing it at the first man.

Adoptive mother denies she abused missing boy

TIM POTTER — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:39 CST

Adam Herrman's adoptive mother Tuesday denied allegations by relatives who say they saw her abuse the boy over the years before he disappeared.

"They make it sound like I tortured him, but I loved him," Valerie Herrman said in an interview with The Eagle.

She said Adam ran away from their Towanda home nearly 10 years ago when he was 11, after she spanked him with a belt. She was upset but can't remember why, she said.

Adam's disappearance -- discovered by Butler County investigators only recently after a tip to the Wichita-Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Child Unit -- has triggered an intense investigation that has drawn national attention. Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said Monday that investigators are treating the disappearance as a death but haven't ruled out that Adam is alive.

Herrman said she and her husband, Doug, never reported Adam missing because they feared the spanking would lead authorities to take Adam and his two younger siblings away. They told relatives that Adam, whom the couple had adopted when he was a little over 2, had gone back to state custody.

Hearing in Tiller case centers on lovers' fight

RON SYLVESTER — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:39 CST

Linda Carter said she and Paul Morrison nearly broke off their affair after a heated argument over Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

Morrison was just months into his new job as Kansas attorney general. Carter was his lover and worked with his predecessor at the Johnson County District Attorney's Office.

Carter is a major witness in contentions by Tiller's lawyers that "outrageous conduct" by two of the state's top prosecutors led to the criminal case against the doctor.

Tiller's lawyers are trying to persuade Sedgwick County District Judge Clark Owens to dismiss the case.

During testimony Tuesday in a pretrial hearing for Tiller, who faces 19 misdemeanor charges filed by Morrison, Carter told of the argument that changed their relationship.

Suspect held in Towne East abduction, robbery

STAN FINGER — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:37 CST

A 21-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the robbery and kidnapping of a woman in the Towne East Square parking lot late one night last month.

A 40-year-old woman was approached in the mall's parking lot shortly after 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 19 by another woman who displayed a black semiautomatic pistol and forced the victim into the victim's vehicle.

The suspect forced the victim to supply her debit card and personal identification number and withdrew money from an ATM near the mall parking lot, police said. She then drove the victim to the area of Pawnee and 143rd Street East.

After making threats, she forced the victim out of the vehicle but kept her purse, credit cards and Christmas presents.

The vehicle was recovered in the parking lot of the Sonic Drive-In at Hydraulic and 47th Street South less than two hours later.

Shepherd, king returned to church

JOE RODRIGUEZ — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:30 CST

Just in time for Epiphany, the stolen king from Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church's outdoor nativity scene has returned to the church.

So has a shepherd that was stolen with the king last week -- as well as a camel that church members say was taken more than one year ago.

"I'm very pleased," said the Rev. Shawn McKnight, pastor of the church on East Douglas at Roosevelt.

The king, shepherd and a sheep were stolen from the life-size nativity scene sometime between 5 p.m. Dec. 29 and 8 a.m. Dec. 30, according to Wichita police. A fourth piece, another king, was also stolen, but was found Dec. 30 about one block away from the church and returned.

The nativity scene theft was not the first for the church.

POLICE CALLS

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:39 CST

Criminal complaints from police beats in Wichita. Missing dates indicate days where no reports were filed.

Beat 11

Aggravated assault

3800 block of W. 13th, 25-year-old male, Dec. 26.

Burglary

ANNULMENTS GRANTED

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:39 CST

Bishop, Cassie and Glen Jr.

Gary, Daniel Lee and Anderson, Kimberly.

Montano, Edmundo Ramon Jr. and Kisha Monique.

Neal, Kim D. and Bonnie B.

Nguyen, Hai and Moen, Myla.

Modern DNA test sought in 1977 case

HURST LAVIANA — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:38 CST

A 1977 murder case is going back to a Sedgwick County courtroom this month to see whether modern DNA testing can shed new light on the crime.

The Kansas Court of Appeals ordered the hearing at the request of Merrill Andrews, who was convicted of the murder by a Sedgwick County jury.

Andrews was paroled from a life prison sentence in 1999 after spending 22 years behind bars. He is now serving an unrelated, 10-year federal prison sentence for bank robbery.

The Court of Appeals ruling said a Sedgwick County judge was wrong in denying Andrews the hearing. The ruling also rejected the argument that Andrews was using a 2001 DNA law to go on a fishing exhibition.

"While some aspects of (the law) might allow a 'fishing expedition,' we must conclude such an expedition is one the legislature has concluded is worth conducting," the court said.

Authorities ask family of missing boy for DNA

TIM POTTER — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:02 CST

Detectives investigating the apparent disappearance of a boy from his Butler County home about nine years ago have asked his biological parents and sister for DNA samples, they said Saturday.

The samples could be compared to any evidence detectives find of him, they said.

Also Saturday, an attorney for Adam Herrman's adoptive parents said he ran away about nine years ago, when he was 11 or 12, that they didn't report it and that they feel "horribly guilty" for not doing so.

"And they've been feeling that guilt for nine years," Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise said.

In interviews with The Eagle on Saturday, Adam's biological parents, who have divorced, said they wish he had not been removed from their custody.

Cell phone users more likely to crash

HURST LAVIANA — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:07 CST

Ron Stranghoner was southbound on U.S. 169 with his wife, Rosy, and another couple. They were pulling a trailer with two horses that they planned to drop off before spending the day at the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore, Okla.

About 15 miles south of their hometown of Carlyle in Allen County, front-seat passenger Terry Higginbotham noticed a car approaching erratically from the opposite direction.

"Terry turned to me and said, 'I hope you're a good driver because we're going to be in one hell of an accident,"' Stranghoner recalled. "I told him, 'There's nothing we can do; we're pulling two horses.'...

Higginbotham and his wife were killed in the crash. Stranghoner and his wife were critically hurt.

During their 10-day stay at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, the Stranghoners were told that the woman driving the other car was talking on a cell phone when the crash occurred.

One answer found in missing-boy case

TIM POTTER — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 01:38 CST

His name is Adam Joseph Herrman.

He came to his foster parents when he was about 2, and a few years later they adopted him and his two younger siblings, says a relative.

And then, in 1999, when he was around 11 or 12, he may have disappeared while living in Towanda, Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy has said.

Over time, his adoptive parents have told relatives that the state took the boy back or that he ran away, according to the relative, who asked not to be named.

Adam was not reported missing, and investigators have been unable to find evidence that he is alive, Murphy has said.

Details of crash don't change two experts' conclusions

TIM POTTER — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 05:47 CST

Geoffrey Alpert and Brian Withrow -- academics and experts on police chases -- now know new details about a Wichita chase that ended in a crash killing three women.

With the release of a Kansas Highway Patrol investigative report this week, they've learned that the chase involving Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Molleker and driver Jennifer Stilley reached 120 mph on I-135 around 1 a.m. that Saturday, Nov. 15.

And that the chase continued at up to 90 mph after Stilley exited onto East 21st Street. That afterward, the 24-year-old Wichita woman's blood-alcohol level measured more than twice the legal limit. That Mia Alberson, driver of a car that collided with Stilley's car, failed to stop and yield before pulling in front of Stilley's car from a side street. That Alberson, 43, of Wichita, was driving despite a suspended license.

The new information has not changed Alpert's and Withrow's previous conclusions about the crash. Alpert, a University of South Carolina criminology professor and expert on high-risk police situations, says the chase was not justified, mainly because of the risk posed by high speeds.

Withrow, a Wichita State University associate professor of criminal justice and former Texas state trooper and state police supervisor, contends that the Kansas trooper was obligated to chase Stilley.

Butler County boy may have disappeared in 1999

HURST LAVIANA — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:26 CST

Law enforcement officers from two counties searched a south Towanda mobile home park Wednesday while investigating the case of a child who may have disappeared nearly a decade ago.

Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said investigators were focusing on the Pine Ridge mobile home park, where the boy lived in 1999. Murphy said the boy was 11 or 12 at the time.

He said the investigation was continuing, and that detectives could return to the site on Friday.

Investigators have talked to the boy's parents, Murphy said, but he declined to discuss what they said. The names of those involved are not being released.

Murphy said no missing persons report was ever filed in the case. He declined to discuss what detectives were searching for Wednesday or say what was found.

Police searching for shepherd and king

JOE RODRIGUEZ — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:35 CST

Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church members believe that whoever stole king and shepherd pieces from the church's outdoor nativity scene this week probably meant it as a prank.

"I think if somebody was really malicious," they would heavily damage them, said Bobbe Rosell, a longtime parishioner of the church at East Douglas and Roosevelt.

But the congregation isn't laughing or taking the matter lightly.

And neither are Wichita police, who say that the theft of those pieces carries potential felony charges.

"It may have been a prank," said Wichita police Capt. Brent Allred, "but anytime people take property from other people, it's a crime, and in this case, it would be reported as a felony-type crime."

Two men rob QuikTrip

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:12 CST

Two men robbed a QuikTrip at 3164 S. Hillside this morning and fled with an undetermined amount of cash.

Wichita police said the men entered the store about 3:30 a.m. and demanded money from the clerk. One was armed with a semiautomatic handgun.

One of the men took money from three registers. They were last seen running east from the store.

One suspect is described as a black male, 16 to 17 years old, 5-foot-6, 160 pounds, wearing a black jacket and black-and-white bandanna. The other is a black male, 17 to 18 years old, 6 feet tall, weighing about 280 pounds and wearing a gray jacket with black pants.

Inmates will get cable, but will pay for it

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 01:37 CST

Shawnee County plans to install limited cable television service in its jail and juvenile detention centers, but the inmates -- not taxpayers -- will pay for it.

The County Commission considered the issue because the federal government is requiring broadcasters to switch to digital signals starting Feb. 17.

The 43 TVs at the jail and detention center now receive only analog signals. Without cable, the new digital signals wouldn't go through the jails' steel and thick concrete -- meaning no TV.

The estimated cost of adding cable is more than $5,000.

But county commissioners agreed Monday to go ahead with the project after Corrections Director Dick Kline said the money would come from funds inmates pay to their commissary.

Chase speeds reached 120 mph

TIM POTTER — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:39 CST

On the last night of her life, 24-year-old Jennifer Stilley and her 29-year-old fiance, Joseph Batemon, went to Tess's Bar & Grill at MacArthur and Broadway.

They reserved three tables for a friend's birthday gathering and started drinking. It was about 8:15 p.m. that Friday, Nov. 14.

More than four hours later, they left the bar, Batemon would later say in a handwritten statement released by the Kansas Highway Patrol on Monday.

Stilley had a valid driver's license and no history of traffic violations.

But that night she wouldn't stop for a state trooper.

Search on for missing Sedgwick County prisoner

TIM POTTER — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:35 CST

Sedgwick County sheriff's officers searched Monday night for a prisoner who apparently escaped from an interview room at the courthouse, Sheriff Bob Hinshaw said.

The prisoner, identified as Ronald E. Kaub, 53, had been arrested Monday on a warrant and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail, Hinshaw said. According to jail records, Kaub had been accused of temporary deprivation of a vehicle, or "joyriding" Hinshaw said.

Kaub had been brought from the jail to a sheriff's investigations interview room on the second floor of the courthouse to be interviewed by Derby detectives, Hinshaw said.

The detectives were preparing paperwork. When they went to the interview room, the door was open, and Kaub was gone, Hinshaw said.

Kaub was discovered missing about 4:15 p.m.

POLICE CALLS

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:39 CST

Criminal complaints from police beats in Wichita. Missing dates indicate days where no reports were filed.

Beat 11

Aggravated assault

2900 block of W. Central, man, 28, Dec. 20.

Burglary

DIVORCES GRANTED

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 01:39 CST

Bird, David Glen, Falcon, Brandi Michelle.

Black, Jason Dale and Mead, Rona Lyne.

Childers, Mary J. and Atkinson, Richard Lee.

Holdt, Tiffany Renee and Ahmed, Hasaan Wali.

Ivester, Susannah Dawn and Nicholas.