Monthly Archives: July 2008

Homeless, unemployed plead guilty to felony thefts

July 31, 20086:26 p.m.

Seems like tough economic times play out in the courtrooms, too: A homeless man spent two weeks in the county jail for stealing food and some CDs, and an unemployed man falsified work time sheets. Both pleaded guilty to low-level felony thefts today in Sedgwick County District Court.

The homeless man, Brandon Smith, said during his plea that his house burned down, leaving him and his wife destitute. He later stole a loaf of bread and sandwich meat from a grocery store in May. In June, he’d also pocketed some compact discs. Judge Eric Yost granted a motion to reduce Smith’s bond from $10,000, releasing him from a two-week stay in the overcrowded county jail on his own recognizance.

The unemployed man, Jerry Goodman, said he had gotten some advance work orders from a contract labor company. But the jobs didn’t materialize. “They didn’t give me any work, and I turned them in as hours,” Goodman told the judge at his plea. He ended up collecting more than $1,800, resulting in a felony on Goodman’s record. He had been free awaiting his plea.

Both face probation at sentencing in September.

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Dog owner goes to trial in Wichita’s first felony animal cruelty case

July 31, 20086:22 p.m.

Marques Eason is set for trial next week — the first under a state law that makes animal cruelty a felony.

Kansas legislators enacted Magnum’s Law, or Scruffy’s Law, in 2006, when Apollo, a a four-month old Dachshund mix puppy, died of blunt force trauma. Witnesses said at a preliminary hearing in December that Eason threw the dog down the stairs.

Lawrence Williamson represents Eason; Aaron Smith is prosecuting. The trial is set to begin Monday before Judge Rebecca Pilshaw.

Also set for trial Monday is Tiffany Berry, charged with felony murder stemming from a home invasion robbery in which a man died.

Prosecutors say Miguel Moya was shot multiple times in a house at 104 E. Eighth St. and Keena Elam was injured in a robbery that netted just over $400 in cash.

Berry, 26, is the first of two defendants to go to trial. Michael E. Phillips, 26, remained at large in the Nov. 19 shooting until he was arrested after a traffic stop on July 6.

Richard Ney is defending Berry against prosecutor Margaret McIntire before Judge David Kaufman.

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New public defenders’ conflict office finishes first month in Wichita

July 30, 20084:12 p.m.

Three public defenders have finished their first month in the new conflicts office, and they say they’re just finishing up their cases from their old office.

Chrystal Krier, Pam McLemore and Nika Cummings each brought about 60 cases with them when they moved into their new office in the historic Occidental Building at 2nd Street and Main. Fortunately, they only picked up 13 new cases in the first month, allowing them to clear their old files.

The three expect to get as many as 30 cases per month at the new office, which handles defendants too poor to hire their own lawyers, but whom the regional public defenders office can’t represent because of legal conflicts. These may include cases such as those with multiple defendants.

The office opened after Richard Ney, Brad Sylvester and Doug Adams stopped taking assignments from state court. They now work on private retainers.

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Will Kline have to testify in Tiller case?

July 30, 20089:23 a.m.

Judges and former attorney generals may be receiving subpoenas for a week-long hearing in November to suppress evidence in a misdemeanor criminal case.

That’s not surprising, when that case involves Wichita abortion provider George Tiller.

Dan Monnat, who represents Tiller, said those witnesses — including Phill Kline — could be on the witness list for the hearing set the week before Thanksgiving. Monnat said he plans to file a motion to suppress the abortion records from Tiller’s clinic that Kline began pursuing the year he took office. Kline began his probe in a secret investigation before a Topeka judge. It took Kline nearly his full term to get the records, which he received in October 2006, right before he was defeated by Paul Morrison.

Morrison could also be on the witness list. He filed the current charges last summer before having to leave office amid a sex scandal.

Monnat said he hopes to challenge how Kline got the records, which Morrison used to file charges.

Tiller is charged with 19 misdemeanors stemming from how he got second opinions from another doctor, which are required to perform some late-term abortions. Tiller is set for trial in March 2009.

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Defense: Stories conflict too much to convict 18-year-old

July 29, 20087:25 p.m.

Kamaronte Jones’ public defender said today that the scene at a Wichita party last August was too chaotic to yield enough evidence to convict the 18-year-old of murder.

Sedgwick County public defender Mark Orr told jurors this morning that witnesses called into court this week will tell too many differing stories to find Jones guilty of first-degree murder.

But C.J. Rieg said that while party-goers scattered after seeing Keith Fritter Peters fatally shot just after midnight on Aug. 26, enough stuck around to give police a detailed description of the shooter. Enough details, Rieg said, to prove premeditation.

Following are excerpts from the opening statements Rieg and Orr gave to the jury this morning:

For the state:

For the defense:

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Evidence begins begins Tuesday in murder trial for 18-year-old

July 28, 20088:32 p.m.

Opening statements are set for 9 a.m. Tuesday in the murder trial of Kamaronte Jones.

Jones was 17 at the time he was accused of killing Keith “Fritter” Peters, 18, on Aug. 26, 2007, during a party in the 1600 block of East Fortuna. Police said Peters was shot to death when he tried to break up a fight.

The Fritter Foundation was established in Peters’ honor help steer young people to an alternative to street gangs.

Assistant Sedgwick County District Attorney C.J. Rieg is prosecuting. Public defender Mark Orr represents Jones, now 18. Ben Burgess is the judge.

A jury was seated today.

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Why do capital murder cases take so long to go to trial?

July 23, 20087:18 p.m.

Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess heard 13 pretrial motions this morning in the capital murder trial of Elgin Ray Robinson Jr.

While most public attention comes during a trial, it is preceded by months of sometimes complex legal arguments. Pretrial motions are an attempt to resolve legal issues, so the trial runs more smoothly. In capital murder cases, there are dozens of such motions.

That’s part of the reason why Robinson is still awaiting trial, more than two years after being charged with arranging the murder-for-hire of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Chelsea Brooks. She was nine months pregnant by Robinson at the time of her death. Ted Burnett went to trial earlier this year for strangling Brooks. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Here’s just one of this morning’s arguments, presented in its entirety in three parts (the two Kansas Supreme Court cases cited involve defendants Gavin Scott and Gary Kleypas).

Defense lawyer Val Wachtel argues his motion to declare the death penalty cruel or unusual punishment under Kansas law: The response by prosecutor Kevin O’Connor: Burgess’ ruling

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Jury returns guilty verdict in Riener case

July 23, 20083:10 p.m.

A jury this morning convicted Scott Riener of attacking and injuring two police officers.

Testimony at Riener’s trial this week showed that he clotheslined a police officer who had chased him down by car, then by foot. The officer received 12 stitches. He had other medical complications from the injury after he was released from the hospital. Another police officer had earlier been dragged about 50 feet, when he had reached into the car during a traffic stop and Riener sped away.

The 6-foot-7 Riener had skipped out on parole a half dozen times. Because of his criminal history, he could be looking at a lengthy sentence when he returns Aug. 21 before Judge Rebecca Pilshaw.

The question is, when will Riener be up for parole next?

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Deputy “chief,” “police officer” of bogus Indian set for plea

July 22, 20087:20 p.m.

Updated: A man who has been described in court hearings as a deputy “chief” and a man who told people he was a “police officer” of the reservation for a non-existent American Indian tribe have decided to plead guilty.

They are the latest to admit guilt in the scheme of the Kaweah Indian Nation, a fake tribe that purported to sell memberships to illegal immigrants for hundreds of dollars with the false promise of legal citizenship.

Chuck Flynn has been charged with being one of the top officers of the so-called Kaweah Indian tribe. He’s set for a change of plea hearing at 11 a.m. Thursday before U.S. Senior District Judge Wesley E. Brown.

Britton Bergman also is set for plea before Brown, on Aug. 1 rescheduled for 10:15 a.m.Tuesday. Bergman, a college student, had claimed to be a policeman for the Kaweah’s at their office in Wichita.

What they’re pleading guilty to won’t become public until after the hearings.

Malcom Webber, the leader who also went by “Grand Chief Thunderbird IV,” and other defendants are set for trial Aug. 5.

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Repeat parole violator faces trial in dragging, beating of police

July 18, 20086:46 p.m.

RienerUpdated: The jury is set to get the case this afternoon.

A man set for trial next week had skipped out on his parole five days before police reported pulling him over in a traffic stop on June 27, 2007. Apparently to avoid detection, Scott Riener, 40, gave officers the name of his brother as his own, police said.

Problem was, Riener’s brother had a warrant for his arrest.

When confronted with his brothers’ warrant, police said Riener drove off, dragging an officer, who had reached into the car, about 50 feet. Another officer gave chase north on Broadway, then west on Morris before Riener’s car hit a curb. The officer chased Riener and became involved in a lengthy fight before finally arresting him. Police said both officers required treatment at a local hospital.

Riener, listed in prison records as 6 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 230 pounds, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated battery of an officer. He had been on parole six times in the past 15 years. He’d stopped reporting to his parole officer four times.

Wichita lawyer Mark Schoenhofer, a candidate for district attorney, represents Riener. Deputy District Attorney Kevin O’Connor is prosecuting.

The trial began Monday before Judge Rebecca Pilshaw.

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