OSAGE COUNTY — A Missouri woman died in an accident just after 1p.m. Tuesday in Osage County.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Ford Focus driven by Alicia A. Wood, 53, Belle, was southbound on MO 89 one mile north of MO 28. The vehicle crossed the center line and hit a northbound 2016 Suzuki Box Truck driven by Joseph C. Diaz, 33, St. Louis.

Wood was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Sassman Funeral Home. Diaz was not injured. Wood was not wearing a seat belt, according to the MSHP.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A former Holts Summit, Mo., woman pleaded guilty in federal court today to her role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, according to Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Jean Elizabeth Sanchez, 52, of Georgia, formerly of Holts Summit, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Willie J. Epps, Jr., to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in Callaway County, Mo.

Her husband, Justin Raul Sanchez, 49, of Holts Summit, pleaded guilty to the same charge on Nov. 1, 2016.

Jean and Justin Sanchez were identified by investigators as distributors of large quantities of methamphetamine in the Callaway County area. According to Tuesday’s plea agreement, the Sanchezes made three trips to Georgia in March and April 2014 to obtain large quantities of methamphetamine. On each trip, the supplier in Georgia sold them approximately one kilogram of methamphetamine, in a sealed silver coffee can, which they brought back to Holts Summit to distribute.

Jean Sanchez was stopped by state troopers on U.S. Highway 63 in Taos, Mo., on April 21, 2014, while returning from the third trip to Georgia, according to the plea agreement. The trooper located a large silver coffee can that contained 27 small baggies of methamphetamine (totaling .85 kilograms) underneath the third row of seats in the vehicle. The trooper also found a loaded Taurus .380-caliber handgun inside a glove on the front passenger floorboard.

On April 24, 2014, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at the Sanchezes’ residence. Officers seized two baggies containing methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, $7,817 and a drug ledger. Justin Sanchez was arrested and admitted to officers that he had been distributing methamphetamine from his residence.

Today’s plea agreement also cites two controlled purchases of methamphetamine by a confidential informant at Sanchez’s residence in April 2014. In each instance, the confidential informant agreed to pay $1,300 for 28 grams of methamphetamine.

Under federal statutes, Jean and Justin Sanchez are each subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison without parole, up to a sentence of 40 years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the United States Probation Office.

LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Lenexa police say a man who was shot to death by an off-duty officer at a Costco in Kansas didn’t appear to have specific targets when he walked into the store screaming and waving a gun.

Investigators say 58-year-old Ronald Hunt was living in his truck in the Costco parking lot in Lenexa before he entered the store Sunday.

Lenexa Police spokesman Danny Chavez says investigators have not determined Hunt’s motive for terrorizing customers and employees before he was shot. He says Hunt apparently never fired his weapon.

The Kansas City Star reports Hunt was a long-haul trucker who lived in the cab of his truck.

Investigators have had a difficult time finding any relatives. The only address listed for Hunt was the Swift Transportation Kansas Terminal in Edwardsville, Kansas.

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LENEXA, Kan. (AP) — Investigators are trying to determine why a Kansas man entered a suburban Kansas City Costco with a handgun and began screaming, prompting an off-duty police officer to fatally shoot him.

Police identified the man shot to death Sunday at a Costco in Lenexa as 58-year-old Ronald Hunt, of Edwardsville. Witnesses and police said he was yelling and threatening customers when Kansas City, Kansas, police captain Michael Howell shot him while customers and employees fled.

Howell, who was shopping at the time, has 22 years of law enforcement experience. The police department said Monday Howell fired his weapon after being confronted with a deadly situation.

No one else was injured.

Hunt’s motive and why he was in the store are under investigation. A Johnson County police unit is leading the investigation.

 

OLATHE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say the contractor who died at a Garmin construction site near Olathe was a 28-year-old from Holden.

Investigators say Jubal Hubbard died Monday when a pipe ruptured at the site of a Garmin expansion project.

Olathe Fire Capt. Mike Hall says Hubbard was working on a high-pressure valve near a loading dock area of a warehouse when the line ruptured.

The cause of the rupture has not been determined.

No one else was injured.

Construction began a year ago on a site for a new warehouse and distribution center for Garmin.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal appeals court has refused to hear the appeal of a Kansas man who tried to set off what he thought was a bomb at an Army post to support the Islamic State.

A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed on Tuesday the appeal filed by John T. Booker, Jr., of Topeka challenging some conditions of his supervised release. It ruled the Topeka man had waived his appeal rights in his plea deal.

Booker was sentenced in July to 30 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He pleaded guilty to one count each of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to destroy government property with an explosive.

He was arrested in 2015 outside Fort Riley in Kansas.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – Missouri’s U.S. senators are backing Joplin’s request for a deadline extension on several federally funded tornado recovery projects.

The Joplin Globe reports that Sens. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, and Roy Blunt, a Republican, wrote to Federal Emergency Management Agency officials Monday urging them to take a serious look at Joplin’s request. About $1 million in federal funds is at risk if Joplin doesn’t receive the extension sought last month.

At issue are repairs to city streets and sidewalks that were pushed back by related federal projects, such as upgrades to the sewer system, which had to be completed first. That resulted in the city missing a deadline.

Joplin has been working to rebuild from a massive 2011 tornado that destroyed a large swath of the city and killed 161 residents.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Authorities have found a woman dead inside a vehicle after the driver was stopped for speeding in suburban Kansas City while attempting to rush the woman to a hospital.

 

 

Officers & detectives working a homicide at 7th & Armstrong.

— Terry Zeigler (@KCKPDChief) November 28, 2017

 

Kansas City, Kansas, police said in a news release that police in neighboring Mission, Kansas, stopped the vehicle early Tuesday. Inside officers found a 28-year-old woman dead from an apparent gunshot wound.

The release says the investigation determined that the crime happened in Kansas City, Kansas. The name of the slain woman wasn’t immediately released.