Nebraska
Man charged in crash that killed 4
PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska man has been charged with four misdemeanor counts of motor vehicle homicide in connection with a crash that killed four people from Kansas earlier this year.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that Ronald Dubas of La Vista was charged in Cass County this month. Dubas posted bail and is out of jail ahead of a Jan. 11 hearing in the case. Online court
records don’t list an attorney who could comment on his behalf, and he has not yet entered a plea.
records don’t list an attorney who could comment on his behalf, and he has not yet entered a plea.
If Dubas is convicted, he could face up to four years in prison.
Prosecutors said the 56-year-old Dubas’ pickup truck crossed the centerline and collided with a 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt on U.S. Highway 75 just south of Union, Nebraska, shortly after 7 p.m. on Jan. 31.
Twenty-one-year-old Ashley Bracken and three of her passengers — Tatiyana Wade 22, Malaysia Reece, 4, and Keniah Robinson, 5 — died in the crash. They were all from Topeka, Kansas. A 20-year-old woman who was riding in the front passenger seat survived the wreck but was treated for serious injuries at an Omaha hospital.
It wasn’t immediately clear why Dubas crossed into oncoming traffic, but Cass County Attorney S. Colin Palm said a blood test did not find any alcohol in his system.
Illinois
2 men charged in shooting at packed mall
CHICAGO (AP) — Two Chicago men have been charged in a shooting at a suburban Chicago shopping mall that wounded four bystanders and sent thousands of last-minute Christmas shoppers running for cover last week.
Tyran Williams, 32, and Steve Lane, 29, face multiple felonies, including aggravated discharge of a firearm, in the Dec. 23 shootout at Oakbrook Center, a mall in west suburban Oak Brook.
A judge issued a $1 million bail Wednesday for both men during a court appearance.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said at a news conference that Williams and Lane fired at each other near Auntie Anne’s pretzel store at the shopper-filled mall after an argument broke out between Williams and Lane’s male companion.
“The facts allege in this case that on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, at the second largest shopping mall in the Chicago area, that these two defendants decided to settle a verbal argument by taking out handguns and firing multiple times with thousands of men, women children and families present,” Berlin said.
Williams was hit four times, while three women and a man who were in the area were also wounded in the shooting. Lane and his companion fled after the shooting, authorities said.
Berlin said a total of 12 shots were fired in the gun battle, and mall security estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 people were in the mall at the time.
Berlin said there is no evidence Lane’s companion was one of the gunmen. He said prosecutors have spoken to that man’s attorney and expect to speak with him soon.
Investigators recovered both guns used in the shooting and found DNA matched to Lane and Williams on those weapons, he said.
Mississippi
Murder suspect accused of shooting car that held his baby
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi homicide suspect faces additional charges after police say he shot into a car that held his baby daughter.
Johnte Vidal Pouerie, 21, of Greely, Colorado, and an unnamed 14-year-old are each charged with one count of felony homicide in the Dec. 17 death of 16-year-old Lazairus Smith of Gulfport.
Pouerie was being held on a $1 million bond. But his bond was increased to $1.15 million after he appeared Wednesday in Harrison County Justice Court where he also was charged with two counts of aggravated domestic violence and one count of aggravated assault, The Sun Herald reported.
Documents introduced in court accuse Pouerie of shooting at a Dodge Charger in which his daughter was riding on Dec. 10.
According to the records, the child’s mother told Pouerie she was going to dinner and he brought the child to her apartment in Gulfport, saying the child should go with her mom. The mother told police that she saw Pouerie in the parking lot as she rode away in a Dodge Charger driven by a male acquaintance.
They stopped to secure the child in a car seat and the mother returned to her seat in a hurry. She told police she saw Pouerie running toward them. The man driving said he heard Pouerie yell, “My baby better not be in that car.”
As the he sped away, he heard multiple gunshots, according to court records. Police found five bullet holes in the car and multiple shell casings in the parking lot.
No injuries were reported.
Washington
Father who caused infant’s brain trauma gets 6 years prison
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A Vancouver man who caused brain trauma and other injuries to his infant son was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison.
Wesley Palmer, 32, pleaded guilty in Clark County Superior Court to a first-degree attempted assault of a child, The Columbian reported.
Vancouver police were contacted May 31 after the baby’s parents brought him to an emergency room. He was suffering a seizure and not breathing, a doctor said, and the baby was transferred to Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Deputy Prosecutor Erik Podorah said Wednesday the baby was hospitalized for about a week and then had to be hospitalized again about two weeks later.
A CT scan found old and new brain bleeds and a skull fracture. The doctor said the baby’s injuries and others “were consistent with abusive head trauma,” court records state.
The baby’s mother told police she left for work around 10 a.m. May 30 and left him in Palmer’s care, according to the affidavit. About 10 minutes later, Palmer called her, she returned home and saw Palmer holding the baby’s limp body, she said.
Palmer told investigators he became frustrated by the baby’s crying and demonstrated on a doll how he threw him down on a changing pad, according to court records.
Palmer apologized, saying “I should’ve been protecting my son, and now I feel I have to protect him from me.”
California
Judge halts earlier releases for repeat offenders
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A judge on Wednesday temporarily halted California’s plans to speed the potential prison release dates for repeat offenders with serious and violent criminal histories under the state’s “three strikes” law.
California corrections officials had filed emergency regulations to boost good conduct credits for second-strike inmates serving time for nonviolent offenses who are housed at minimum-security prisons and camps.
Their daily credits were to have increased from half off their sentences to two-thirds off their sentences starting with the new year Saturday.
Twenty-eight of California’s 58 district attorneys moved to block the rule.
A Sacramento County judge imposed a temporary restraining order barring the change until a hearing next month.
The prosecutors argued that it would apply to those convicted of, among other things, domestic violence, human trafficking, animal cruelty and possession of weapons by inmates who have previous convictions for serious and violent felonies. California has a narrow definition of what constitutes a violent crime.
Prison officials said they are reviewing the judge’s order and will proceed with other portions of the regulations that were not blocked.
“Many of these so-called nonviolent second-strikers have long and violent criminal histories — including repeat felony domestic violence convictions, sexual assaults and gun violence,” said Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.
She led the effort and is running for state attorney general on a law-and-order platform. The prosecutors did not oppose related changes in how good conduct credits are awarded to inmate firefighters.
“No one is contesting good conduct credits for fire camp work, but sneaking in another class of individuals with serious and violent criminal histories goes too far,” Schubert said.
Corrections officials responded in a statement that their primary mission is public safety.
“As part of that mission we will continue to ensure incarcerated people who are making efforts towards their own rehabilitation by maintaining good behavior and participating in programming and rehabilitative opportunities are afforded the chance to earn credits for their efforts,” they said.
Pennsylvania
Court rules pot smell alone can’t justify warrantless search
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The smell of marijuana can be a factor police use to justify a search without a warrant but can’t be the sole basis for it, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
The court said a state police search of a vehicle in Allentown three years ago was conducted only because the troopers smelled marijuana.
“The odor of marijuana alone does not amount to probable cause to conduct a warrantless search of the vehicle but, rather, may be considered as a factor in examining the totality of the circumstances,” wrote Chief Justice Max Baer for the majority.
Troopers pulled over the vehicle after it had failed to stop at a solid white line before an overpass, and smelled burned marijuana through a window, Baer recounted.
Police found a plastic bag with less than 1 gram of marijuana next to the front center console, with no markings that would have indicated it was purchased from a dispensary. They also recovered a loaded handgun from beneath the driver’s seat.
The defendant, Timothy Oliver Barr II, and the driver, his wife, produced medical marijuana cards.
The trial court ruled the search unconstitutional and said the evidence it produced was not able to be used in court, and dismissed the charge of possession of a small amount of marijuana.
The Lehigh County district attorney’s office had argued that the drug remains illegal for most in the state even though medical marijuana cardholders can legally possess it. In a brief, prosecutors argued the odor of marijuana “has not lost its ‘incriminating’ smell by virtue of its legality for some,” because it’s illegal for most.
The Supreme Court majority said there was sufficient grounds to support the trial judge’s determination that the troopers searched the vehicle based solely on the smell. The majority reinstated the order suppressing the evidence.
In a separate opinion, Justice Kevin Dougherty noted the marijuana recovered in the search was not in packaging provided by a licensed dispensary.
“Where an officer who smells marijuana also observes its packaging (or lack thereof) and there is no barcode or other identifying information that typically appears on the original packaging from a dispensary, that could be enough to establish probable cause,” Dougherty wrote.
