Jamie HatfieldHUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A Hutchinson woman will be sentenced July 22 for killing her former lover and leaving her body in a rural Reno County creek bed.
Jamie Hatfield pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree intentional murder for the June 2015 strangulation death of 38-year-old Mary Ann Arnett. The plea agreement amended the original charge of premeditated first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
Prosecutors say Hatfield and Jonathan Perser-Wilson strangled Arnett at a Hutchinson home.
The Hutchinson News reports the two then stuffed Arnett’s body in a plastic tote and dumped it in a creek.
Police shot and killed Perser-Wilson after a confrontation 10 days after Arnett was killed that included Perser-Wilson throwing knives and other objects at officers.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Wichita Board of Education has shortened the school year while adding 30 minutes of class to each day.
The Wichita Eagle reports that students will begin classes later in the fall, finish earlier next May and have 15 fewer school days under the calendar approved by the board with a 5-1 vote Monday night.
Board member Joy Eakins voted against the measure, saying that outsourcing the district’s custodial services would be a better option.
The new calendar was proposed as a way to trim about $3 million from next year’s budget. A majority of Wichita teachers voted in favor of the change last month.
Students will go to school 158 days instead of 173, and teachers will work 175 days instead of 190. The change won’t affect teacher salaries.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A new synthetic drug that can be purchased online and could be connected to at least 50 deaths nationwide has several states scrambling to contain its spread, with Kansas law enforcement agencies seeking an emergency ban.
At least three other states — Ohio, Wyoming and Georgia — already have taken action to ban U-47700 after it was connected to overdoses.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said that the agency is studying the opioid but hasn’t yet moved to control it.
Nearly eight times more potent than morphine, U-47700 comes in various forms and can be injected, snorted or taken orally.
Johnson County, Kansas, District Attorney Steve Howe said two deaths in his county have been connected to U-47700.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Planned Parenthood attorneys are asking a federal judge to prevent Kansas from cutting off Medicaid funding for the organization.
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson was having a hearing Tuesday in a lawsuit filed last month by two Planned Parenthood affiliates against the state health department’s top administrator.
The agency plans to cut off funding July 7.
Robinson will decide whether to block the department’s action while the lawsuit proceeds. Federal courts have blocked attempts to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood in other states, including Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Louisiana and Utah.
Planned Parenthood attorneys argue Kansas is acting based on its “animus” toward the organization.
The state’s lawyers argue that it would premature for Robinson to act because the health department hasn’t formally cut off Medicaid funding.
File PhotoKANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis federal judge orders the release of unredacted grand jury transcripts in the Ferguson police shooting death of Michael Brown to lawyers for his family. U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber signed off on an order requiring prosecutors to hand over the testimony and the names of grand jury witnesses to attorneys for Brown’s family pressing a wrongful-death lawsuit.
The grand jury’s November 2014 decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for shooting Brown rekindled sometimes violent protests that immediately followed Brown’s death three months earlier.
At the time of the decision, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch made public heavily redacted transcripts of grand jury testimony. But he didn’t release the witnesses’ names.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — It’s primary day in Iowa, and voters in the state that kicked off the presidential nominating season now are set to choose general election candidates for state offices.
The top contest on the primary ballot Tuesday is the Democratic race to choose a challenger for longtime Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.
Patty Judge, a former state lieutenant governor, was recruited by national Democrats to take on Grassley, who has faced scrutiny for rejecting hearings for a U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Judge’s main competitor in the four-person race is state Sen. Rob Hogg, a more liberal candidate with key endorsements from labor groups but less fundraising.
Candidates also are seeking primary victories in three of Iowa’s four congressional districts and legislative contests.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Hostess Brands says it is voluntarily recalling various snack cakes and doughnuts over concerns they may have come in contact with peanut residue not included in the ingredient list.
The Kansas City, Missouri-based company’s recall announced Friday covers more than 700,000 cases of Ding Dongs, Zingers, Chocodiles and various doughnuts sold in grocery, dollar, drug and convenience stores in the U.S. and Mexico.
The recall covers single-serve products and multipack boxes.
Hostess says Friday’s announcement is a result of a recall by supplier Grain Craft of certain lots of its flour for undeclared peanut residue.
Consumers are encouraged to destroy the recalled items or return them for a full refund.
Hostess says it has received notice of two allergic reactions involving the recalled products as of Friday.
(UPDATE 2:21 P.M. PLATTE COUNTY PROSECUTOR NEWS RELEASE) – An Edgerton man who was found in Arizona following the death of four of his family members was arraigned in Platte County Associate Circuit Court on June 6 for allegedly stealing a car from the crime scene. Grayden L. Denham, 24, of Edgerton, is accused of stealing a car from Russell and Shirley Denham, who lived at the location.
Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said Denham was arraigned following his extradition from Arizona. Platte County Sherriff’s Department deputies transported Denham from Arizona, and he arrived at the Platte County Jail on June 4.
On February 20, Russell and Shirley Denham were found dead at their home in Edgerton. Their granddaughter Heather Ager, 32, and her three-month-old son Mason Schiavoni, were also found dead. A fire had completely destroyed a home on the property, and all of the victims’ bodies had been burned.
According to court documents, Grayden Denham, who normally stayed at the residence, was not located there. Grayden Denham allegedly stole a 2012 brown Nissan Versa, which was owned by Russell and Shirley Denham.
Grayden Denham was located in Arizona on February 21 along with the 2012 Nissan Versa. The Nissan Versa’s Missouri license plates had allegedly been removed and replaced with stolen Oklahoma license plates.
The stealing charge is a Class C felony. It is punishable by up to seven years in prison. Grayden Denham remains in custody on a $100,000 cash only bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 14 at 9:00 a.m. in Division IV of the Platte County Circuit Court.
Zahnd and Platte County Sheriff Mark Owen have earlier said that Grayden Denham was a person of interest in the homicides. Zahnd said that case remains under investigation by the Platte County Sheriff’s Department and the Missouri Fire Marshall’s Office.
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PLATTE CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man police consider a person of interest in the deaths of four of his relatives in northwest Missouri has been extradited from Arizona.
The Kansas City Star reports Grayden Lane Denham was returned to Platte County custody on Saturday. He is being held on $100,000 cash-only bond.
Denham is being held on a theft charge but authorities want to question him about the deaths of his grandparents, his sister and his 3-month-old nephew. The four were found dead in February outside the grandparents’ burning home near Edgerton.
No charges have been filed in the victims’ deaths. Authorities have not said how they died. As we previously reported, the bodies were found burned outside of the home.
Denham was arrested Feb. 21 while walking naked in Seligman, Arizona. The theft charge alleges he took his grandparents’ car and drove to Arizona.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state archaeologist says the planned Bakken oil pipeline should avoid a sacred Native American burial site in northwest Iowa’s Lyon County.
The Des Moines Register reports that John Doershuk toured the site Friday with state and federal officials and Sioux tribal leaders whose ancestors ceded the area to the federal government in 1851.
Doershuk says in a follow-up report that the site has significant cultural and historical importance for the Upper Sioux Community, Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other Sioux people.
The Iowa Utilities Board has scheduled a meeting Monday to discuss allowing Dakota Access LLC to begin building the pipeline in Iowa. It’s unclear whether a change of the route will be required to avoid the burial site.
