(Updated ) –  A St. Joseph man was rushed to the hospital Thursday morning with severe injuries after crashing his vehicle into a tree.

Emergency crews responded around 8:40 a.m. Thursday to the 2800 block of Pear St. on a single vehicle crash.

St. Joseph Police Department Traffic Officer Officer Brendon McGinnis said 49-year-old John Everett was driving westbound on Pear when his vehicle cross the road and struck a tree.

McGinnis said Everett was distracted by his phone which is what caused the accident.

Everett was extricated from his vehicle by the St. Joseph Fire Dept.

McGinnis said Everett was transported to Mosaic Life Care with severe non-life threatening injuries to his legs.

There were no passengers in the vehicle.

Police shut down traffic on Pear between 28th St. and Belt Highway for around an hour.

McGinnis said a ticket was issued in the accident.

 

 

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Suddenlink has announced the launch of new high-speed Internet service with a download speed up to 150 Megabits per second (Mbps) and an upload speed up to 7.5 Mbps in the St. Joseph area.

The company said it’s now the fastest residential Internet service offered in the area.

Suddenlink also announced that Internet speeds for its existing customers have been increased at no additional charge. Customers with 15 and 30 Mbps services are being upgraded to 50 Mbps, while those with 50 Mbps services are being upgraded to 75 Mbps. Customers are being notified directly about the new speeds.

Suddenlink’s standard Internet service offerings in the St. Joseph area will now have download speeds up to 50, 75, 100 and 150 Mbps. (Customers who currently subscribe to 107 Mbps service will continue to be provisioned for that speed.)

Introducing faster Internet speeds is an early step in a new program announced in August 2014 that will progressively boost Internet speeds and eventually make a 1 Gigabit per second service available. The three-year program includes an investment of almost a quarter-billion dollars, above and beyond other capital improvements.

In addition, while Suddenlink already offers its business customers a range of custom services capable of multi-Gigabit speeds, the company also plans to enhance its standard commercial services through this project.

Suddenlink will communicate additional details to customers in the area as the investments continue and again when the 1 Gigabit service is available.

More information about local Suddenlink high-speed Internet services is available at Suddenlink.com, by visiting Suddenlink’s customer care office at 102 N. Woodbine in St. Joseph, or by calling toll-free 1-888-822-5151.

Three people from St Joseph and one from Maryville are among 11 defendants who have been indicted for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute at least 10 kilograms of methamphetamine worth nearly $500,000.

The federal indictment alleges that all of the defendants participated in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine from Jan. 1, 2010, to April 15, 2015.

The indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require the defendants to forfeit to the government $494,200.

That was the amount of money allegedly was received in exchange for the unlawful distribution of methamphetamine, based on a conservative average street price of $1,400 per ounce and the total conspiracy distribution of at least 10 kilograms.

In a news release, US Attorney Tammy Dickinson announced the indictment of the following suspects:
Mike Kamal Ahmad, also known as “Viper Mike,” 39, Carey Michael Vannostran, 39, and Patrick Thomas Baker, 50, all of Kansas City, Mo.; Lori L. Justus, 51, Nicole Marie Bartram, 35, and Jono Dean Hamlin, 43, all of St. Joseph, Mo.; Scott Dewain Yount, 42, of Maryville, Mo.; Joseph Michael Tooley, 32, of Fordland, Mo.; and Matthew Lee Gusman, 31, Mike Andrews Lawson, Jr., 25, and Kayla Caroline Cornelison, 22, all of Red Oak, Iowa, were charged in an indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury on April 15, 2015.

That indictment was unsealed and made public following the arrests and initial court appearances of the defendants.

Ahmad would be required to forfeit to the government a 2001 Dodge Viper and a 2003 Hummer H2, both of which allegedly were used to facilitate the drug-trafficking conspiracy.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Rhoades. It was investigated by the Buchanan County Drug Strike Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

We’ve heard complaints from a lot of you about the charges filed in connection with a fatal stabbing last weekend in St Joseph. Richard Berry was found stabbed to death in the Third Fork of the Platte River Saturday night. This week three people were charged with second degree murder.

Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins says his office operates under a charging philosophy based not only on what he thinks he can prove in court, but also on the range of punishment available.

Scroggins says murder in the first degree allows only the death penalty or life without parole upon conviction. Defendants convicted of second degree murder face anywhere from ten years to life in prison, with a possibility of parole after about 25 years.

“If I think that that range of punishment is appropriate as punishment for the crime that has occurred, then we charge murder in the second degree,” Scroggins said in an interview.

“I would say probably, across the State of Missouri, 97, 98 percent of all homicides are either charged, or end up pleading, to murder in the second degree. That is the norm. That is not unusual at all.”

Scroggins also says his office files the charge that’s appropriate for the crime committed, and will not reduce that charge in a plea bargain.

“We are not going to charge somebody with murder in the second degree, and reduce it to voluntary manslaughter. If I think it is manslaughter, I charge it as manslaughter,” Scroggins said.

“We do not charge murder-one and then reduce to murder-two in the plea, which is commonly done in other jurisdictions, so that makes it seem like there are a lot more murder-one cases elsewhere than there are here. In reality I doubt that that’s true.”

“If I think that what I can prove is first degree murder, the only thing that adds, beyond making it a much higher burden of proof for me, is that it takes away the possibility of parole.”

Scroggins says that the life expectancy of defendants sent to prison is dramatically reduced. So, he says many of those defendants sentenced to life, with the possibility of parole after 25 years, may still serve the rest of their lives in jail.

He adds that no one is guaranteed parole after 25 years. That’s simply the earliest that the Parole Board may consider releasing an inmate on parole.

Three people have been charged with second degree murder in the stabbing death of 28-year-old Richard J. Berry Saturday night. Kellie Hoard, Primalton Peterson, and Sean Liechti are due in court Friday.