An investigation is underway into the death of a Missouri woman held in the Sherman County Jail in northwest Kansas.

St. Joseph Post spoke to the Sherman County Sheriff’s office.

On Wednesday, Emergency Medical Services responded to a call at the jail for an inmate in medical distress, according to a media release.

Brenda Sewell, 58, of Kansas City, Missouri, was taken to Goodland Regional Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

Sewell was arrested January 20th by the Kansas Highway Patrol on drug charges.

No further comments will be made pending the results of the autopsy and investigation.

JC Post

A car owned by D.E. Lacer of Junction City has drawn the attention of the national television show “Chasing Classic Cars.”

The show’s host, Wayne Carini, visited Lacer’s auto warehouse Tuesday.

Lacer said the 1955 Mantarey “was one of one built.”

Carini said he was contacted by Lacer with some pictures of the automobiles he owns.

“We’re just here to see them. One in particular is this Mantaray, which is a fabulous fiberglass car that was made back in the ’50s,” Carini said, noting it looks like a concept car. “Looks like a Buick LeSabre … made back in the 50′s, but it was made by a couple of aeronautical engineers out in California.”

Lacer operates Del Motors in Junction City.

He said  ”Chasing Classic Cars” is his favorite television show.

“I knew the Mantarey was a rare car. My mom’s had that thing in the family for as long as I can remember,” he said. “It’s kind of an honor to my mother, my dad, to show off some of their cars.”

Video of many of the cars owned by Lacer and stored at his warehouse will be in the show. Carini said you can expect to see it in the show this fall.

(AP) – Missouri women would have to wait 72 hours after seeing a doctor before an abortion could be performed under legislation being considered by the House Health Care Policy Committee.

The panel heard testimony from supporters Wednesday on how the bill would give women more time to think before terminating a pregnancy. Opponents argued the measure would just be a logistical delay designed to push women further into pregnancy before having an abortion, which can increase risk.

Under current law, a woman must wait 24 hours after seeing a doctor before an abortion can take place. Only South Dakota and Utah require 72-hour waiting periods.

The committee took no action on the legislation Wednesday.

(AP) – The attorney for Missouri death row inmate Herbert Smulls, scheduled to die by injection on Jan. 29, has asked a federal court for a 60-day stay of execution over concerns about the execution drug.

Attorney Cheryl Pilate filed the motion for a stay on Tuesday with U.S. District Court in Jefferson City. A spokeswoman for Attorney General Chris Koster says the state will respond by Friday, but otherwise declined comment.

Smulls was sentenced to death for killing a St. Louis County jeweler in 1991. He would be the third Missouri death row inmate to be executed since November.

Pilate cites several concerns over Missouri’s use of the drug pentobarbital, manufactured by an unnamed compounding pharmacy. She says Smulls would be at “grave risk” of suffering excruciating pain during the execution.

(AP) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is asking the state’s Republican-led Legislature to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

But the measure’s chances of passing are unclear. Some Republicans expressed caution Wednesday and criticized Nixon for championing the proposal while ignoring other policy initiatives.

Current state law prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex and disability.

Many Democrats applauded Nixon for including the proposal among his priorities outlined in the State of the State address Tuesday night.

Legislation to bar discrimination based on sexual orientation passed the Senate on the last day of session last year, but never received a House vote.

At least one House member — Anne Zerr, of St. Charles — said she was glad Nixon pushed for the measure in his speech.

(AP) — Can a person legally buy a gun for another out-of-state person while telling a gun dealer the weapon is for himself? The Supreme Court will soon decide whether that’s OK.

Justices on Wednesday heard from Bruce James Abramski, Jr., a former police officer. Abramski bought a Glock 19 handgun in Collinsville, Va., in 2009 and transferred it to his uncle in Easton, Pa.

Federal officials say Abramski assured the Virginia dealer he was the “actual buyer” when he already had discussed with his uncle how he would buy the Pennsylvania man a weapon with his police discount.

Abramski’s lawyers told the high court that since both he and his uncle were legally allowed to own guns, the law shouldn’t have applied to him.

Justices will rule later this year.

 

(AP) – An Independence man has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for an investment fraud that cost 13 victims about $724,000.

Sixty-seven-year-old Richard J. Gumerman was sentenced Tuesday to three years and 10 months in federal prison without parole. He was also ordered to pay $722,326 in restitution.

Gumerman pleaded guilty in July to one count of mail fraud and one count of filing a false income tax return. He admitted that he used investor funds for personal living expenses and other costs, including giving money to Hooters’ restaurant waitresses. Federal prosecutors say the scheme lasted from 2007 to December 2011. Gumerman did business as Gumerman Trading Company.

He also admitted that he filed a fraudulent tax return in April 2011.

(AP) – Authorities in Central Oregon say they’ve detained a Missouri man who cut off his GPS bracelet and fled four days before he was to be sentenced for sex abuse of a young person.

Police and sheriff’s deputies picked up 49-year-old Timothy Wayne Register Tuesday morning at a motel in Bend and were holding him for extradition proceedings.

He was convicted in July in Morgan County of charges that included first-degree statutory rape, statutory sodomy and two counts of child molestation involving a victim under the age of 14. He fled in October.

Morgan County Sheriff Jim Petty said a bail bondsman provided information about a phone number for Register, and the phone was traced to the motel.