LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — A Lawrence man who claims he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot an acquaintance has rejected a plea deal that also would have resolved two other cases.

22-year-old Steven Drake III said Thursday that he was “absolutely” opposed to the deal.

Prosecutors say they would have recommended a 15 ½ year sentence in exchange for him pleading guilty to three charges — second-degree murder in the September 2017 shooting of 26-year-old Bryce Holladay, vehicular homicide in the November 2016 crash that killed 24-year-old Taylor Lister and aggravated battery in the July 2017 beating of a teenage boy.

Drake is currently charged with first-degree murder in Holladay’s death, which carries a possible sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for 50 years.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s Republican Gov. Mike Parson and Republican legislative budget leaders are predicting a 2 percent growth in state revenue next fiscal year.

Parson, House Budget Chairman Scott Fitzpatrick and Senate Appropriations Chairman Dan Brown announced the estimate Friday.

The growth estimate is important because it’s used to help craft a budget for the fiscal year that begins in July.

Fitzpatrick says the estimate is conservative but realistic. He says the state’s finances are on solid ground.

But top Democratic House budgeter Rep. Kip Kendrick says the state will miss out on $320 million in revenue next fiscal year because of a 2014 tax cut.

SEDALIA, Mo. (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man suspected of driving a getaway car after a Sedalia bank robbery.

The man identified as  David A. Graves, 52, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of felony stealing. He is suspected of waiting outside the Central Bank in Sedalia on Wednesday while another man went inside and demanded that a teller give him all the money she had in her drawer.

Officers initially believed the Graves fled the area on foot with an undisclosed amount of money. An investigation later revealed the man ran to an awaiting vehicle.

The suspected getaway driver was convicted of felony stealing in 2013 and spent five years on supervised probation. He has multiple low-level stealing and shoplifting convictions from the Sedalia Municipal Court from 2009 and 2013.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Missouri attorney general’s office is not pursuing legal action against two groups related to concerns that former Gov. Eric Greitens’ used their resources for political gain.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the attorney general’s office on Friday notified The Mission Continues charity and Washington University that their cases will be closed.

Attorney General Josh Hawley this year launched an investigation related to a donor list that Greitens’ obtained from The Mission Continues in possible violation of laws that forbid charity insiders from benefiting from charity resources.

Hawley’s office also investigated whether Washington University violated the Merchandising Practices Act. That review was related to questions of whether Greitens used grant funds to bolster his political career.

Greitens resigned in personal and political scandal in June.

ULYSSES, Kan. (AP) — A 16-year-old Kansas boy will soon earn his high school diploma — and a few days later he’ll travel to Harvard to collect his bachelor’s degree.

Ulysses High School senior Braxton Moral will attend both commencement ceremonies in May, becoming the only student to successfully pursue a four-year high school degree and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard at the same time.

Harvard has changed the rules, Braxton’s father Carlos Moral said, so his son will “the one and only” reaching that milestone. Braxton Moral will be 17 when he gets his diplomas.

Carlos Moral said they began to realize their son was special when he was in the third grade.

“They told us: ‘You need to do something. He’s not just gifted. He’s really, really gifted,'” he said.

Braxton Moral skipped the fourth grade.

The Ulysses school district allowed him to take some high school classes while he was still in middle school. Before high school he took a class offered at Fort Hays State University. Then he was admitted into Harvard.

Braxton Moral simultaneously studied at the high school and the Harvard Extension School. The program typically serves adults who work and can’t attend classes on campus full time.

Ulysses High School math teacher Patsy Love served as the proctor for the Harvard program, administering Moral’s tests in Kansas. Moral spent the summer before his junior year at Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“We constantly are monitoring Braxton to make sure he is not too overwhelmed,” said Julie Moral, Braxton Moral’s mother. “No achievement is worth him being unhappy.”

Braxton Moral is on track to graduate from the Bachelor of Liberal Arts program, with a major government and a minor in English, said Harry Pierre, associate director of communications for Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education.

Braxton Moral said he hopes to attend Harvard Law School next.

“Politics is end game for me,” he said, though he’s still too young to vote.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri state senator will seek during the upcoming legislative session to cap the amount of sales taxes that local governments can collect.

St. Louis-area Republican Sen. Andrew Koenig already filed legislation to cap the combined local sales tax for any Missouri city at a little more than 7.2 percent, Kansas City public radio station KCUR reported.

Koenig said he thinks there are too many taxing jurisdictions in Missouri, where both cities and smaller jurisdictions such as community improvement districts can impose sales taxes.

“You have a quarter cent here, a quarter cent there, a tenth of a cent — and there is not really a good method for keeping a lid on things,” Koenig says.

Koenig’s bill would exempt from the cap taxes collected mostly from visitors, such as hotel and rental car taxes.

A similar measure to cap local and state sales taxes at 14 percent failed last year.

That measure met pushback from St. Louis and Kansas City officials, some of whom are expressing similar concerns with Koenig’s latest bill.

“The bill that’s being proposed would limit our ability to collect the sales taxes that either have been approved by voters or serve what we believe to be an important service or function,” Kansas City councilman Kevin McManus told the radio station.

If passed, Koenig’s legislation could derail Kansas City Mayor Sly James’ proposed 3/8-cent sales tax for pre-kindergarten programs. James’ proposal would raise sales taxes in parts of Kansas City above Koenig’s proposed cap.

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma official says a man sought in the deaths of two people in eastern Kansas has died after he shot himself as law enforcement officers approached him.

Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office spokeswoman Amy Elliott confirmed Saturday that

Ben Converse had died and that his organs were being harvested for donation before an autopsy was conducted.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation said Friday that Converse had been located in Tulsa and shot himself with a handgun as officers closed in on him.

Kansas authorities say Converse was a person of interest in the shootings deaths of 36-year-old Molly Wilson and her father, 69-year-old John Tadlock, in Iola, Kansas. The two were found Thursday in their home in Iola, which is about 95 miles (150 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City.

UPDATE 9 p.m. Friday: The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), and the Iola Police Department, announced that Ben Converse, the person of interest connected to the murders of Molly Wilson and John Tadlock of Iola, Kan., was located in Tulsa, Okla. this evening.

The KBI, the Tulsa Police Department, and the Broken Arrow Police Department located Converse at approximately 5:15 p.m. on Friday evening. Once located, he fled law enforcement on foot. As law enforcement officers approached him near 66^th Street and Mingo in Tulsa, he turned toward them and shot himself with a handgun.

Converse was transported to a Tulsa hospital, where he is currently being treated for a life threatening, self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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ALLEN COUNTY– The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), the Iola Police Department, and the Allen County Sheriff’s Office are investigating after an Iola man and his daughter were discovered dead in their home Thursday evening.

According to a KBI media release, just after 5 p.m. on Thursday,  the Iola Police Department responded to 114 S. Kentucky in Iola, and discovered the victims who had died from apparent gunshot wounds. Special agents and the KBI Crime Scene Response Team responded to the scene.

The woman who died was identified as 36-year-old Molly E. Wilson. The man was identified as 69-year-old John Tadlock.

A person of interest has been identified as 38-year-old Ben Converse.

Converse is described as a white male, 5-foot-9 and approximately 175 pounds. He has hazel eyes. Converse may be driving a maroon 2011 Kia Forte with Kansas license plate 509 KZS.

He may be in the Oklahoma area. If you see Converse or the vehicle, please do not approach, but contact police.

 

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri death row inmate who says execution drugs could interact with his medical condition is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

Ernest Lee Johnson is arguing that a brain tumor removed by surgeons could cause seizures and severe pain in reaction to Missouri’s execution drug.

Johnson was sentenced to death for killing three Casey’s General Store workers during a Columbia robbery in 1994.

Johnson’s appeal is moving through lower courts. But Johnson wants the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene because the high court is currently considering a similar case of another Missouri death row inmate with a rare medical condition that causes blood-filled tumors.

Both argue complications with their conditions and the execution drug could lead to cruel and unusual punishment.