Felony murder can be a difficult concept, and it comes in many variations, as we’ve written about in a prior post. It’s often been a charge juries in Wichita struggle with: If the person doesn’t actually kill someone, are they still guilty of murder?
The New York Times reports in its new series on U.S. justice, “American Exceptions”, that holding accomplices as responsible as the people who commit violent crimes is the legal progeny of an old European law that’s since been disowned by other countries. As Adam Liptak reports it’s now purely American:
“Most scholars trace the doctrine, which is an aspect of the felony murder rule, to English common law, but Parliament abolished it in 1957,” Liptak writes. “… India and other common law countries have followed England in abolishing the doctrine. In 1990, the Canadian Supreme Court did away with felony murder liability for accomplices, saying it violated ‘the principle that punishment must be proportionate to the moral blameworthiness of the offender.’ “
Wichitia lawyer Laura Shaneyfelt heard about the flap over restroom signs at the Historic Courthouse and replied that the old building isn’t the only place sending confusing messages.
A sign outside the courtroom in the new juvenile justice hall reads “no disruptive children allowed,” she said.
“Who do you think is going to be in juvenile court anyway?” Shaneyfelt wondered.
But one could also argue that if there’s anyplace that needs such a sign, it’s juvie court.
Donald Storey took a band saw from construction site at Wesley Medical
Center but argued that he shouldn’t be convicted of burglary of a building, since the structure wasn’t finished.
Wrong, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled this morning. The Supreme Court upheld previous rulings by Sedgwick County District Judge Rebecca Pilshaw and the Court of Appeals, saying even though the building didn’t have doors, Storey still shouldn’t have gone in there without permission. He cut the lock box, took the band saw and put it in his trunk, before police arrested him at the scene.
“Under the facts of this case, an unfinished medical center consisting of a roof, a concrete floor, installed electrical work, and four brick walls with openings for yet-to-be-installed windows and doors constituted a building (under the law),” the court ruled.
Not everyone agreed.”Carried to the extreme, … the pouring of a concrete floor would be sufficient to make all property left on top of that floor amenable to a burglary,” Justice Lee Johnson wrote in a dissenting opinion.
Storey, 38, finished his sentence in December, but the felony conviction will increase his sentence if he’s convicted of future crimes.
It’s not unusual for people to get lost going between the various courthouses in Wichita. For years, people going to the Sedgwick County Courthouse looking for the city’s municipal court have been directed by a sign to the “black building across the street” — City Hall.
People apparently also are having trouble finding their way to the right restroom in Wichita’s century-old Historic Courthouse, home to the elections commission and the state probation and parole offices, among others.
“The men’s bathroom is located outside of the double glass doors,” County Commissioner Gwen Welshimer said in e-mail to County Manager Bill Buchanan. “There is a sign on it, but it is not visible from inside the hallway. Men, on almost a daily basis I am told, use the women’s bathroom.”
Welshimer said just last week a female employee at the old courthouse walked into the women’s bathroom and found a man standing there, exposed. Charlene Stevens, assistant county manager who oversees facilities, said no reports have been made by employees to the Facilities Maintenance or Security departments. But Stevens doesn’t doubt it happened.
Old hallways in 1888 building mean the facilities are not “public friendly,” Stevens said. Temporary, and more obvious, signs have been put up and will be checked daily, Stevens said, until new signs arrive. The permanent signs are on order.
Ex-cons may be volunteering for non-profits. Many of the organizations wouldn’t know, however, because they don’t screen their volunteers.
The National Center for Victims of Crime this morning released a study that says one in three non-profits in the U.S. don’t run background checks on volunteers, and one in eight don’t do any type of screening. These usually are agencies that serve populations vulnerable to victimization, such as the elderly, poor or disabled. An audit of background checks found more than 187,000 people with criminal convictions tried to volunteer or work on the staffs of non-profits that did perform screenings. Of those, more than 2,700 were sex offenders.
The name on the indictment is “John Doe,” but the identity-theft case emerging at the federal courthouse in Wichita has made big news for weeks in the nation’s Orthodox Jewish community — especially in New Jersey where the man and his wife lived for years under an assumed identity.
U.S. Magistrate Don Bostwick learned the man’s real name is Ted Riley Floyd after he arrived in Wichita for a court hearing three weeks ago. But in the Hasidic Jewish community of Lakewood, N.J., where he lived, practiced the Orthodox culture and sent his children to school, the 29-year-old was known as Nathaniel James Levi. He’s charged with making a false statement on a passport application.
The Yiddish news site Vos Iz Neias (What’s News) reports the discovery of Floyd’s true identity as “the biggest exposé to hit the bastion of Torah Judaism in years.” Concerned that members of its community had been exposed to a lifestyle that literally was not kosher, VIN tracked down Floyd’s former rabbi in Wichita to confirm Floyd had officially converted to Judaism. Rabbi Pinchas Aloof appeared on the Zev Brenner talk show to confirm he had converted Floyd.
A recording of the show appears on the blog Yid-Vid.com. Floyd’s antics have also made YouTube, including this parody: “Nathan Levy (sic) Dancing.”
Floyd had left Wichita with a couple of misdemeanor theft warrants pending in Reno and Barton Counties, according to a federal investigation. Bostwick ordered Floyd held without bond.The judge said in his order that Floyd was contemplating whether to stand trial in Wichita, or ask to return to New Jersey, where he could face more serious charges. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas would have to approve such a move.
Update:Â Floyd is scheduled for a change of plea hearing April 28 before Judge Monti Belot.
Prosecutors said Manuel Penalosa-Ramirez should remain in jail on $50,000 bond because he’s a gang member. His lawyer said he was not a gang member, but was an honor student at Derby High School.
Steven Wagle presented letters from school and family showing that Penalosa-Ramirez is a model honors student, trying to get his bond reduced to $5,000 Friday. Assistant Sedgwick County District Attorney Robert Short, however, argued that no matter how good his grades, Penalosa-Ramirez also is a gang member accused of firing an SKS semiautomatic rifle at a house in Wichita.
After hearing the arguments, Judge Clark Owens ruled that “honor student or not,” anyone accused of firing an SKS at a house deserves to have a $50,000 bond.
Jay Collins had a rough night last October. His Great Dane ripping his face apart was just the beginning.
Collins, 29, grabbed a knife, according to records from his trial last week, to defend himself against the dog attack, resulting in 17 stitches from his lip across his cheek. He had bite marks across both arms.
When police arrived, Collins didn’t know that he had killed the dog. Two Wichita police officers saw him with the knife and ordered him to drop it. Still in shock, Collins dropped the knife after several commands but didn’t immediately get down on the ground under the officers’ orders so they fired a Taser at him – three times. Then they arrested him for not dropping the knife on their first command.
A jury found Collins not guilty of assault on a law enforcement officer.
Bryant Richard is 35 years old. The girl he’s accused of having sex with is 17. While that normally wouldn’t be a crime, it is in this case, because Richard is the wrestling coach at East High School and the girl is a student. Kansas law makes that a low-level felony.
Richard, who is married, is set for a preliminary hearing April 25. He posted a $20,000 bond to be released from jail. If convicted, he would likely get probation with an underlying prison term from four to seven months.
No matter how his murder trial turns out, Steven Novotny’s legal troubles may be just beginning.
Novotny also is named in a federal racketeering indictment prosecutors say targets the Crips street gang. In that case, Novotny is accused of threatening a man with a gun in 2004 and distributing drugs for the Crips.
Jurors didn’t hear evidence of gang relations during the murder trial.
