JEFFERSON COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a murder and now have three suspects in custody three
Just before 10a.m. Wednesday, The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a Douglas County Detective advising he had received a call from a subject stating they witnessed a murder Tuesday night at Perry Lake, according to Sheriff Jeffrey Herrig.
Blevins -photo Jefferson Co.
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office responded to the reported area at Perry Lake. They found the body of an unidentified man with apparent gunshot wounds. The victim was later identified as 22-year-old Taylor Sawyer.
Following an investigation, deputies made an arrest in Lawrence.
They booked Jonathan Blevins, 22, Topeka, Kansas into the Jefferson County Jail Wednesday afternoon on requested charges of Intentional 2nd Degree Murder.
Sarah Hammerling -photo Jefferson Co.
On Friday night, deputies arrested 18-year-old Ashlyn Hemmerling on a requested charge of first degree murder, according to the sheriff’s office booking report. They also booked 37-year-old Sarah Hemmerling on a requested charge of Obstructing apprehension of prosecution; Committed or charged with felony. Both are being held on a $100,000 Bond, according to the sheriff’s department.
KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A former Kansas postal worker was sentenced Tuesday to five years on federal probation for smuggling marijuana through the mail, according to U.S. Attorney Tom Beall.
Terrell Dewayne Shears, 25, Overland Park, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
In his plea, he admitted he gave addresses on his route to marijuana traffickers in Arizona. The traffickers mailed parcels containing marijuana to addresses on his route and Shears intercepted the packages. Shears dropped the packages off at an apartment building where he had been instructed to leave them and texted a recipient he knew only as “John” to pick them up.
Investigators seized more than 40 pounds of marijuana from his postal vehicle.
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who walked away from his post in Afghanistan and triggered a search that left some of his comrades severely wounded, was spared a prison sentence by a military judge Friday in what President Donald Trump blasted as a “complete and total disgrace.”
The judge gave no explanation of how he arrived at his decision, but he reviewed evidence that included the five years Bergdahl was held captive by the Taliban and the wounds suffered by troops who searched for him, including one who now uses a wheelchair and cannot speak.
The case was politically divisive. President Barack Obama traded Taliban prisoners to bring Bergdahl back, drawing sharp Republican criticism. As a presidential candidate, Trump called for the soldier to face stiff punishment. He could have received up to life in prison.
The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military.
The judge also gave the 31-year-old a dishonorable discharge, reduced his rank from sergeant to private and ordered him to forfeit pay equal to $1,000 per month for 10 months.
In court, Bergdahl appeared tense, grimaced and clenched his jaw. His attorneys put their arms around him and one patted him on the back. One defense attorney cried after the sentence was announced.
Defense lawyer Eugene Fidell told reporters that his client had “looked forward to today for a long time.”
Bergdahl “is grateful to everyone who searched for him,” especially those who “heroically sustained injuries,” Fidell added.
Trump’s statement came in a tweet about 90 minutes after the sentencing. “The decision on Sergeant Bergdahl is a complete and total disgrace to our Country and to our Military,” the president wrote.
Bergdahl pleaded guilty last month to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. The judge had wide leeway in deciding the sentence because Bergdahl made no deal with prosecutors to limit his punishment.
Prosecutors had sought a stiff penalty because of wounds suffered by service members who searched for Bergdahl after he disappeared in 2009.
The defense sought to counter that evidence with testimony about Bergdahl’s suffering as a captive, his contributions to military intelligence and survival training and his mental health problems. The argument for leniency also cited Trump’s harsh campaign-trail criticism.
The dishonorable discharge threatens to deprive Bergdahl of most or all his veterans’ benefits, but it also triggers an automatic appeal to a higher military court. Before that, a general who can reduce, but not increase, the sentence will also review it.
Fidell told reporters that he looks forward to the appeals court review of Trump’s campaign statements, which the president appeared to reaffirm on the day Bergdahl pleaded guilty last month.
As a candidate, Trump “made really extraordinary reprehensible comments targeted directly at our client,” Fidell told reporters Friday, calling the situation “one of the most preposterous states of affairs” in American legal history. He said the defense team sees “an extremely strong basis for dismissal of the case.”
During the multiday sentencing hearing, Bergdahl testified that he was sorry for the wounds suffered by searchers. He also described brutal beatings by his captors, illness brought on by squalid conditions and maddening periods of isolation.
A psychiatrist testified that his decision to leave his post was influenced by a schizophrenia-like condition called schizotypal personality disorder that made it hard to understand the consequences of his actions, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder brought on partly by a difficult childhood.
Prosecutors, who had asked for a sentence of 14 years in prison, did not speak to reporters. But one of them, Maj. Justin Oshana, said during closing arguments Thursday that Bergdahl “does not have a monopoly on suffering as a result of his choices.”
Scores of troops joined in an all-out search for Bergdahl in the weeks after he abandoned his remote post near the Afghan town of Mest.
Prosecutors cited two missions that resulted in wounds, including a soldier whose hand was shattered by a rocket-propelled grenade and another who suffered a head wound that put him in a wheelchair and rendered him unable to speak. A Navy SEAL suffered a career-ending leg wound, and a military dog was killed by an insurgent firing an AK-47.
The judge ruled that those firefights with insurgents would not have happened if not for Bergdahl.
One of the wounded soldiers, Jonathan Morita of California, called the lack of prison time for Bergdahl “unacceptable.” Morita, who testified during sentencing, still does not have full use of his dominant hand after he was hit by the RPG, which did not explode.
“The dishonorable discharge means he can’t receive any of these services like I can. He’ll pay the fine like people get fined for illegal fishing. Ok, whoop-de-doo,” Morita said in a phone interview.
Referring to the lack of prison time, he said: “That’s the one that’s completely unacceptable. It should have maybe not been the life sentence, but it should have been something.”
Without confinement hanging over him, Bergdahl already has a job offer from an animal sanctuary, and a military official who helps design survival training said he would like to use Bergdahl as a part of lectures to service members on how to survive captivity.
The soldier from Hailey, Idaho, was brought home by Obama in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. He has been stationed at a military installation in San Antonio.
At the time of Bergdahl’s release, Obama said the U.S. does not leave service members on the battlefield. Republicans roundly criticized Obama, and Trump went further while campaigning for president, repeatedly calling Bergdahl a traitor who deserved serious punishment.
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11:40 a.m.
A military judge has found that Bowe Bergdahl should serve no prison time for endangering his comrades by walking off his Afghanistan post.
The judge also gave Bergdahl a dishonorable discharge, reduced his rank to private and said he must forfeit pay equal to $1,000 per month for 10 months. The judge made no other comments.
Bergdahl appeared tense, grimaced and clenched his jaw. His attorneys put their arms around him and one patted him on the back.
Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and had faced up to life in prison. The judge had wide leeway because Bergdahl made no deal with prosecutors to limit his sentence.
Prosecutors had sought stiff punishment because of wounds to service members who searched for Bergdahl after he disappeared in 2009. He was held captive by Taliban allies for five years.
The defense sought to counter that evidence with testimony about Bergdahl’s suffering during five years as a captive of Taliban allies, his contributions to military intelligence and survival instruction and his mental health problems.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas has seen its budget picture improve after officials and university economists issued a new fiscal forecast that was a little more optimistic than the previous one.
The state’s forecasting group on Thursday increased projections for tax collections by a total of almost $225 million for the current and next budget years, through June 2019.
Tax collections have been better than expected for the past five months.
The new projections are an average of 1.8 percent higher than those in the previous forecast issued in April.
The new forecast was issued a month after the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that legislators did not increase spending on public schools enough this year to finance a suitable education for every child. The new forecast would allow for some new spending.
LOGAN COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 7:30p.m. Sunday in Logan County.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Toyota Tacoma driven by Robert A. Nolting, 57, Longmont, CO., was northbound on Logan County road 160 ten miles west of Russell Springs
The driver lost control of the vehicle. It traveled into the east ditch. He overcorrected into the west ditch. The pickup rolled three times and the driver was ejected.
Nolting was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Kennedy Koster Funeral Home.
He was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.
TOPEKA— Fire officials are working to determine the cause of a weekend house fire.
Just after 9:30 p.m. Saturday, three engine companies of the Topeka Fire Department responded to the blaze at 1241 SW High Avenue, according to a media release.
Upon arrival, fire crews found smoke coming from the two-story wooden frame home. Firefighters began an offensive fire attack keeping it confined to the home. A search of the structure revealed no occupants. They did rescue one dog from the structure.
Estimated dollar loss – $20,000.00, including $15,000.00 structural loss and $5,000.00 contents loss.
Kansas Gas Service, Westar Energy and the Kansas Chapter of the American Red Cross also responded to the scene.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The family of a mother and daughter killed in a double murder-suicide near Lawrence is planning a celebration of life for the two.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports 36-year-old Erin Berg and her 3-year-old daughter Mazey Berg were found dead Sunday. Police say Mazey’s father, 41-year-old Peter Sander, fatally shot them and himself.
Berg’s family is planning a celebration of life for the mother and daughter Saturday in Lawrence. Their obituary says their deaths are the result of “a senseless act of domestic violence.”
Berg’s mother, Kim Thomason, says her daughter and Sander never married but shared custody of Mazey. Thomason says Sander had been mentally and emotionally abusive but that he had never physically abused Mazey or her mother beforehand.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — The former controller of a Kansas company has been ordered to serve a year and three months in federal prison after pleading guilty to embezzling more than $135,000 from his employer.
Forty-three-year-old Alan Wenk was sentenced Monday in Kansas City, Kansas. That’s where he pleaded guilty in February to two counts of bank fraud.
Wenk has admitted the crimes happened while he was working as regional controller and corporate accounts payable manager for Performance Contracting Group Inc. in Lenexa.
Prosecutors say Wenk caused the company to issue 20 fraudulent checks to him and business entities he controlled.
COLDWATER – Law enforcement authorities have made an arrest in connection with a murder in Comanche County.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation reported in a media release just after 11p.m. on Friday, the Comanche County Sheriff’s Office and Coldwater Police Department received a call regarding a man with a gunshot wound.
They discovered that forty-three year old Garden City resident Lelyn P. Betts had been fatally shot.
Throughout the weekend members of the Comanche County Sheriff’s Office, Coldwater Police Department, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation developed information that identified Frank D. Asebedo, Jr. as the suspect in the shooting.
With the cooperation of the community and a major, coordinated effort by the law enforcement community, Asebedo, a 42 year old from Protection, Kansas, was arrested without incident in Protection for 1st Degree Murder and Criminal Possession of a firearm.
Asebedo is being held in the Ford County Detention Center pending a first appearance in the Comanche County District Court.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America have ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders while allowing church-sponsored Scout units to maintain the exclusion because of their faith.
The new policy, aimed at easing a controversy that embroiled the Boy Scouts for years and threatened the organization with lawsuits, takes effect immediately. It was approved Monday by the BSA’s 80-member National Executive Board in a teleconference.
The stage had been set for Monday’s action on May 21, when the BSA’s president, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, told the Scouts’ national meeting that the long-standing ban on participation by openly gay adults was no longer sustainable. He said the ban was likely to be the target of lawsuits that the Scouts were likely to lose.
