TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to two years and three months in prison for putting a gun to the head of a woman at a Topeka day care center where seven small children were present and saying he was going to kill her.
Myles Stanford -photo Shawnee Co.
Debra Zollicoffee described Myles Stanford as a “monster” at his sentencing hearing Monday. Stanford also faces 12 months of supervised release after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in the October 2017 incident at Nanny’s Daycare Center in southeast Topeka.
Prosecutors say the children who were present ranged in age from 13 months to 3 years. One child was a son Sanford has with his girlfriend, who is related to Zollicoffee.
Stanford’s public defender, Heather Nelson, says tensions were “really high” that day.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Board of Regents is seeking $25 million from state lawmakers to fund a financial aid program for college students.
Elaine Frisbie -photo Kansas Board of Regents
The board’s budget request is part of a plan to funnel up to $50 million into need-based financial aid for Kansas students enrolling in technical schools and universities. The financial aid would also be available for private schools that aren’t part of the Regents system.
Qualifying students could receive up to $5,000 each.
Elaine Frisbie is the board’s vice president of finance and administration. She says state funding would be matched with private donations through university endowments or foundations.
Frisbie says lawmakers would consider the $25 million request in the next legislative session but it wouldn’t begin until fiscal year 2021, if approved.
21-year-old Brock Robinson and 20-year-old Azaiah Forester agreed to testify against a third man, Erik Jones, as part of the murder plea.
The plea deal says Taven Williams was killed in January 2017 when he attempted to stop the three Columbus, Kansas, men from robbing another man in Joplin, Missouri. The target of the robbery was wounded.
No one was arrested until two months later when Joplin police stopped a pickup truck that Robinson owned and Jones was driving. Jones was cited with driving while intoxicated, and the officer found a handgun in the truck that matched the serial number of a gun stolen from the home where Williams was killed.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Political committees with ties to Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and former President Barack Obama are aiming digital messages to black voters in five states with pivotal U.S. senate races.
The Senate Majority PAC and Priorities USA Action plan to spend “seven figures” in Missouri, Florida, Indiana, North Dakota and Arizona. In Missouri, Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill faces a tough challenge from Republican Attorney General Josh Hawley.
Democrats behind the targeted digital messages say they are making sure that their voters will be enthused to vote in 2018, even though it’s not a presidential election year. They point to the precedent of Alabama, where Democrat Doug Jones won a special Senate race last year with the help of black voters.
LAFAYETTE COUNTY — One person died in an accident just after 11:30p.m. Monday in Lafayette County.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2018 Ford passenger driven by Faith E. Jordan, 22, Columbia, was eastbound on Interstate 70 just east of Concordia. The vehicle struck Huedell M. Waker and Melinda K. Walker, 45, Kansas City, who were standing outside a disabled vehicle that was partially blocking the right lane.
Huedell Walker was pronounced dead at the scene. Concordia EMS transported Melinda Walker to Western Missouri Medical Center. Faith was not injured.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — University of Missouri officials say a broken water main caused more than $100,000 damage at the Hearnes Center, and that figure might increase.
The water main break in an exterior line happened on Saturday. It sent thousands of gallons of water and mud into the arena.
Missouri Athletics Department spokesman Nick Joos said the wood floor will have to be discarded. He says officials will have to determine what damage occurred under the floor.
The cause of the break has not been determined.
The Hearnes Center was the home of the Tigers basketball team until 2004, when Mizzou Arena opened.
It is currently used for university athletics and other events. The next scheduled event is an Oct. 5 volleyball match.
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — The Latest on Bill Cosby’s sentencing hearing (all times local):
3:35 p.m.
Cosby -photo courtesy Montgomery County Correctional Facility
Bill Cosby will spend the first few days of his prison sentence at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility outside Philadelphia.
Cosby left the suburban Philadelphia courthouse in a dark SUV after a judge sentenced the 81-year-old to three to 10 years in state prison for sexual assault.
A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County district attorney’s office says Cosby will be held at the county jail for at least the next few days. From there, he’ll be taken to SCI Phoenix, a new state prison outside Philadelphia, where staff will assess his physical, medical and security needs.
Cosby could end up in a long-term medical care unit.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct during his 50-year career in entertainment. The 2004 assault on Andrea Constand was the only one to lead to criminal charges.
___
2:55 p.m.
Bill Cosby has left a Pennsylvania courtroom in handcuffs to begin serving a three-to-10 year prison sentence for sexual assault.
Defense lawyers tried to keep the 81-year-old out of prison while he appeals his conviction, saying he’s frail and legally blind. Judge Steven O’Neill refused their plea for Cosby to remain on house arrest, ruling Tuesday that Cosby will be locked up immediately.
O’Neill says Cosby could “quite possibly be a danger to the community.”
Cosby was convicted of drugging and molesting Temple University athletics administrator Andrea Constand.
Dozens of women have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct during his 50-year career in entertainment. The 2004 assault on Constand was the only one to lead to criminal charges.
___
2:25 p.m.
A judge has denied Bill Cosby that he’s not entitled to bail while the 81-year-old comedian appeals his sexual assault conviction.
Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced Cosby on Tuesday to three to 10 years in state prison. His lawyers are arguing that Cosby should remain on home confinement pending appeals. O’Neill says Cosby had no right to it.
The judge said it’s “time for justice” as he sentenced Cosby to state prison and fined him $25,000. The former “Cosby Show” star was convicted in April of drugging and molesting Temple University women’s basketball administrator Andrea Constand in 2004.
___
Bill Cosby has been sentenced to three to 10 years in state prison for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home.
Judge Steven O’Neill sentenced Cosby on Tuesday, five months after his conviction in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five to 10 years in prison. The defense asked for house arrest.
The 81-year-old comedian did not make a statement in court. Cosby sat back in his chair, his head on the headrest, as the sentence was read.
The entertainer once known as “America’s Dad” was convicted in April of sexually assaulting Temple University athletics administrator Andrea Constand in 2004.
Constand is one of about 60 women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct.
———–
11:35 a.m.
A judge has ruled that Bill Cosby is a “sexually violent predator.”
The classification means that Cosby must undergo lifetime counseling and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims.
Judge Steven O’Neill made the decision Tuesday as he prepares to sentence the 81-year-old comedian for drugging and molesting a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004.
Prosecutors are asking for five to 10 years in prison. The defense wants Cosby sent home on house arrest.
Cosby’s lawyers had fought the “sexually violent predator” designation, arguing that Pennsylvania’s sex-offender law remains unconstitutional despite several revisions.
___
11:15 a.m.
Andrea Constand says she’s had to cope with years of unrelenting pain, anxiety and self-doubt after Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted her at his home in 2004.
Constand writes in a victim-impact statement released Tuesday that Cosby’s 2004 attack on her was just “the tip of the iceberg” for the suffering that followed.
Constand says her training as a professional basketball player had led her to think she could handle anything, but “life as I knew it” ended on the night that Cosby knocked her out with pills and violated her.
She says the Cosby team’s subsequent attacks on her character left her with “insurmountable stress and anxiety.”
Constand says she now lives alone with her two dogs, “stuck in a holding pattern” as a middle-aged woman because she has trouble trusting people.
SPRINGFIELD — Authorities say a fleeing motorist has been injured in a shootout with law enforcement in southwest Missouri.
Harrell -photo Mo. Dpt. of Corrections
The shootout followed a three-county chase that started Saturday night when authorities attempted to arrest 37-year-old Mike Harrell with outstanding warrants.
Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. John Lueckenhoff says that officers saw a vehicle associated with the suspect while headed to a Barry County home to take him into custody.
Lueckenhoff says they stopped the vehicle and after the passenger got out, the driver took off. Efforts to stop the vehicle with tire-flattening stop sticks failed. Lueckenhoff says that in Christian County, the vehicle struck another car and rammed into an Aurora police car.
Lueckenhoff says the suspect then exchanged gunfire with officers. No officers were injured.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An iconic gay bar in New York City is hosting a fund-raising event for a Democratic Kansas congressional district candidate.
Sharice Davids courtesy photo
The Stonewall Inn will host the event Tuesday for Sharice Davids, a gay Native American, who is running against Republican incumbent Rep. Kevin Yoder in Kansas 3rd congressional district.
Tickets for the event start at $100, with prices ranging up $2,700 to be a host.
The Stonewall Inn was declared a national monument in 2016. Riots that began at the bar in 1969 when gay patrons protested against police raids are considered a turning point in the gay rights movement.
