KANSAS CITY, KAN. – A Kansas man who admitted selling a pound of methamphetamine a week was sentenced Monday to 13 years in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
Cornejo -photo Wyandotte Co.
Joseph L. Cornejo, 30, Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
When investigators served a search warrant at his home in the 5000 block of Parkview, they found methamphetamine, almost $2,000 in cash and nine firearms including handguns and rifles.
Cornejo told investigators he had been selling about a pound of methamphetamine a week and sometimes he traded meth for guns.
JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – A suspect who was shot and wounded by a Joplin police officer has been charged with six felonies.
Blanton -photo Joplin Police
36-year-old John Blanton, of Webb City, has been charged with first-degree assault on law enforcement, armed criminal action, first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, receiving stolen property and resisting arrest. He remains hospitalized under police watch. No attorney is listed for him in online court records.
Joplin police say the shooting happened Friday after an officer followed the driver of a vehicle that was believed to be stolen to an apartment complex. The driver then exited the truck and took off running, with the officer in pursuit. Police say the officer fired when the driver fell and raised a handgun.
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JASPER COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating an officer-involved shooting that hospitalized a stolen car suspect.
On Friday, the Ozarks Drug Enforcement Team (ODET) reported said observing a stolen vehicle at 1832 South Maiden Lane, Kum N Go, according to a media release.
They described the vehicle as a spray painted white Dodge Pickup and a Joplin Police Officer responded to the area.
The stolen vehicle left behind the store, drove west of Price Cutter and pulled southbound across 20th Street and into the neighborhoods to the south.
The Joplin Police Officer, driving a fully marked police car, got behind the vehicle. A moment later, the officer stated the vehicle was pulling into the north parking lot of Springview Gardens Apartments, at 22nd and McCoy.
The driver got out of the stolen truck and ran on foot southbound, down a corridor between apartments and into the courtyard of the complex. As the officer was chasing him, the suspect fell onto the ground and turned towards the officer. At the same time, the suspect then raised a handgun, pointing it at the officer. The officer fired at the suspect, striking him and stopping the threat.
Additional officers arrived on scene and immediately began providing the suspect medical attention until METS arrived. The suspect was then transported to Freeman Hospital and is being treated for what is described as non-life-threatening injuries.
The Joplin Police Department requested the Missouri State Highway Patrol respond to the scene to investigate the shooting.
The officer involved shooting is currently being investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. By policy, the Joplin Police Officer who fired his duty weapon has been placed on administrative leave pending the investigation.
The suspect in this case has been identified as John M. Blanton, 36, Webb City, Missouri.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – Conservation officials say more than 7,300 feral hogs have been killed in Missouri in the first nine months of the year.
The highest density of feral hogs is in the southeast part of the state. The Missouri Department of Conservation says crews there killed 3,849 feral pigs from January through September. Elsewhere, 2,358 were removed in the Ozark region, 823 in the southwest region, 186 in the St. Louis region, 116 in the Kansas City region and one in the northeast region.
The department said in a news release that the highest densities of feral hogs occur south of Interstate 44, with very few feral hog sightings in the northern portion of the state. Conservation officials consider feral hogs to be an invasive species.
WARRENSBURG, Mo. (AP) – The University of Central Missouri is appointing interim president Roger Best to become permanent president of the school in Warrensburg.
Roger Best, Ph.D. is, the university’s 16th president.
The college’s Board of Governors announced Best’s appointment Monday. He has been interim president since former president Chuck Ambrose announced in June 2018 that he was leaving the job after eight years.
Best has held several positions since arriving at the university as an assistant professor in 1995. He was named executive vice president and COO after an administrative restructuring in January.
TOPEKA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison for his role in a methamphetamine trafficking organization that operated out of a pizza parlor, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.
Price -photo Shawnee County
Michael Price, 43, Topeka, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. In his plea, he admitted he was part of a drug trafficking ring headed by co-defendant Adolfo Barragan-Rodriguez, who ran the operation from a Pronto Pizza restaurant he owned in Topeka.
In his plea, Price admitted he bought methamphetamine from co-defendant Michelle Belair and then sold it. He also assisted Belair and Barragan-Rodriguez with distributing methamphetamine.
Barragan-Rodriguez and Belair already were sentenced. He was sentenced to 180 months and she was sentenced to 156 months.
BRANSON, Mo. (AP) – Records show a water pump had been replaced with a less powerful system in a tourist duck boat that sank in a Missouri lake, killing 17 people.
Duck boat involved in the fatal accident- Photo courtesy NTSB
The original Higgins pump is capable of removing as much as 250 gallons of water per minute. But it was replaced with two less powerful pumps in the boat that sank in July at Table Rock Lake in the Branson area.
The capacity of those two pumps wasn’t clear. But Coast Guard duck boat inspection records show that other Higgins pumps have been replaced in recent years in other ducks boats with pumps that combined can extract just 20 gallons of water or less per minute.
The sunken boat’s owner, Ripley Entertainment, declined to comment.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas voter registrations have surged this past year heading into the midterm election.
Strong voter turnout at the Sedgwick County Election Office today! Early voting ended at noon, but folks still in line will still be able to cast a ballot. As a reminder, polls open at 6 a.m. tomorrow and will remain open until 7 p.m. pic.twitter.com/KLc7kg9jHT
The Kansas Secretary of State’s office released the latest numbers Monday showing more than 1.84 million registered voters.
Republicans remain the dominant party with 817,713 registered voters, while Democrats grew their ranks to 463,114. Unaffiliated voters totaled 543,403, while Libertarians totaled 17,618.
A comparison shows the state has added 40,825 people to voter rolls since September 2017.
Kansas appears to be becoming more partisan with the number of unaffiliated voters falling by more than 15,000 in the past year in the state.
Both major parties each added more than 27,000 registered voters to their ranks, with Kansas Republicans having an edge of several hundred voters over Democrats in new and switched registrations over this past year.
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say things went from bad to worse for a suspect in a hit-and-run crash in Kansas City, Kansas.
Officers were working a H&R Accident at 75th & State. When they were talking to the suspect he had a list of names on his arm, turns out to be buyers of his products – marijuana, shrooms, & ecstasy. pic.twitter.com/QIxyuZapYI
Police Chief Terry Zeigler tweeted Sunday afternoon that he had a list of names on his arm that turned out to be buyers of marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms and ecstasy. Police also tweeted a picture of the drugs in glass mason jars.
