A motorcyclist from Savannah has died from injuries sustained when his Harley hit a deer on I-35 in Daviess County this week.

The accident happened at 9 pm on Saturday, July 1. A crash report from the Missouri State Highway Patrol indicates Thomas Beaver, 58, was ejected from the bike after it hit a deer in the southbound lanes of the interstate eight miles north of Winston, Missouri in Daviess County.

Beaver was transported by helicopter to the Truman Medical Center. The Patrol confirms that Beaver died at the hospital on Thursday.

(UPDATE) A St. Joseph man charged with a felony for stealing sandwiches from a local grocery store was sentenced Friday. Brent Rhyne, was charged for an incident in January, in which he took several sandwiches from the store without paying for them. He has been convicted of at least three stealing offenses in 2013, and has another misdemeanor stealing charge pending.

Rhyne on Thursday pleaded guilty to a class-e felony count of stealing, and expressed an interest in taking part in a drug-treatment program at an Institutional Treatment Center.

On Friday, Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg sentenced Rhyne to four years under a statute that allows him to retain jurisdiction for 120 days. At that time, Rhyne could be granted probation to continue treatment.

A St. Joseph man charged with resisting arrest for fleeing from Drug Strike Force officers was ordered to serve two years in prison.

Jay Bee Baskett, 29, was charged after a pursuit in which he passed several vehicles on a two-way street at high speed on March 10.  The pursuing officers said they called of the search when Baskett pulled out to pass two vehicles and nearly ran a motorist in oncoming traffic off the road.

Baskett pleaded guilty Thursday before Circuit Judge Daniel Kellogg, who ordered a two-year prison term with credit for time already served.

Baskett’s attorney Michelle Davidson raised some serious concerns about the warrant those officers were trying to serve.  The defendant was on probation in an unrelated 2013 drug case at the time of the pursuit.  Davidson examined Scott Adams with the Missouri Division of Probation and Parole about the earlier case, in which the DOC either misread or lost the documents, and mistakenly filed a warrant for a parole violation.  Baskett was on probation, not parole, but that didn’t stop authorities from taking him back into custody without a hearing.  Davidson told the judge her client had been imprisoned twice, for 526 days, without due process.

That other case actually came up for a probation violation hearing June 2 before Circuit Judge Patrick Robb, who ruled that the probation period had expired.

Lawyers in the case point out that an invalid warrant is no defense to the separate crime of resisting arrest.

 

A judge has ruled regulations passed by the Andrew County Health Department to be invalid and unenforceable in regards to a hog farm operation north of Savannah.

According to court documents, on Wednesday, Andrew County Judge Randall Jackson found the ordinance enacted by the Andrew County Health Department in 2010 on Concentrated Animal Farming Operation (CAFO) to be invalid. The court found that Missouri law does not give county health center boards the authority to pass regulatory ordinances such as the CAFO ordinance, but that only county commissions have the authority to pass broad-sweeping regulatory ordinances and only in compliance with state law.

The suit, originally filed by the health department against Joseph and John Knoff, Stone Ridge Pork and G.J.L. Farms, L.L.C. will not be going to trial. Court documents stated that since the ruling is dispositive of the case, the court found it unnecessary to address other grounds raised by defendants in attacking the validity of the ordinance. The Court also ruled that court costs should be taxed against the Andrew County Health Department.

A final judgement is expected to be issued on or by July 17.