PINEVILLE, Mo. (AP) – A Joplin woman was sentenced to 15 years in prison after she admitted that she participated in a home-invasion robbery that left a man dead three years ago.

McDonald County authorities say 49-year-old Tomi Jo Stanley pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery in the 2014 death of Rodney Frederick near Jane. A second-degree murder charge was dropped as part of the plea deal.

The Joplin Globe reports Stanley and three others tried to rob Frederick of marijuana. Stanley didn’t go into Frederick’s home but a co-defendant said the robbery was her idea.

Frederick was shot and killed by Carl Jackson, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced last year to life in prison without parole. Two other men have been convicted and sentenced in the case.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A man was sentenced to life in prison without parole for binding, killing and abandoning the body of a woman in 2014.

Kevin Newman was sentenced Wednesday in the death of 22-year-old Ashley Onescu. Her bones were found near a Webster County creek about nine months after she disappeared on June 30, 2014.

The Joplin Globe reports authorities said Onescu owed Newman money. They and two other people were arrowhead hunting when Onescu and Newman left together but only Newman came back.

The only evidence that indicated she had been killed was a piece of rope used to tie Onescu’s hand behind her back. No physical evidence tied Newman to the murder but two people told police that he had confessed to them that he killed Onescu.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Kansas City police are investigating the death of a lawyer who was shot in his front yard moments after he walked his children to school.

Neighbors and Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker identified the man as 39-year-old Thomas Pickert, a personal injury lawyer.

Pickert was killed Wednesday in the upscale Brookside area of Kansas City. Police said Pickert’s wife heard a gunshot and then found her husband fatally injured outside.

Investigators interviewed a man who owns a white van seen in the neighborhood at the time of the shooting. Media reports indicate that Pickert recently won a $5.75 million judgment against that man. But police spokeswoman Kari Thompson said Thursday the man is not a suspect in Pickert’s death.

Thompson provided no other details about the investigation.

HOUSTON, Mo. (AP) — A 22-year-old southern Missouri man has pleaded not guilty to abandonment of a corpse and tampering with evidence in the killing of a transgender teenager whose body was burned.

The West Plains Daily Quill reports that 22-year-old James Thomas Grigsby, of Thayer, entered the plea after waiving formal arraignment Tuesday. Three others were charged with first-degree murder in the death of 17-year-old Ally Lee Steinfeld.

Authorities identified the teen by her birth name, Joseph Matthew Steinfeld Jr., after her remains were found last month in the town of Cabool, near the mobile home of one of the suspects. Court records say her eyes were gouged out and she’d been stabbed in the genitals.

Grigsby is accused of hiding what appeared to be burnt human remains after the killing.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former dean at Washington University in St. Louis has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison in a federal child pornography case.

Justin Carroll was sentenced Thursday. He pleaded guilty in June to one count of access with intent to view child pornography.

Carroll is a 67-year-old former dean of students who spent 36 years at Washington University. He was indicted in January, placed on leave that month, and formally retired in February.

Federal prosecutors say Carroll was part of a group of people who shared child pornography online. He admitted viewing more than 15 child porn videos and more than 600 images of children engaged in sex acts.

 

GRANTVILLE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say a man fatally shot his sister and another man before killing himself in northeast Kansas.

The bodies were found Wednesday at a home in rural Grantville in Jefferson County. Authorities on Thursday said 64-year-old Penny Nelson and 61-year-old James Chavez were killed at Nelson’s home. Chavez was a neighbor who was visiting at the time.

Sheriff Jeff Herrig says 66-year-old Harlan Gleason shot his sister and Chavez before shooting himself. His body was also found at the home.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Jefferson County detectives are investigating. A possible motive for the shootings has not been released.

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GRANTVILLE, Kan. (AP) — Authorities are investigating the deaths of three adults in northeast Kansas as a double murder-suicide.

The bodies were found Wednesday at a residence in rural Grantville in Jefferson County. Sheriff Jeff Herrig says authorities sent out an alert warning people in the area of possible danger after the first two bodies were found. The victims had been shot and killed.

Herrig says the alert was canceled after officers found the body of the person who is believed to be responsible for the double homicide at the same residence. The person had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The investigation is ongoing. The names of those killed weren’t immediately released.

WASHINGTON — Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is another step closer to becoming the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Brownback used social media Thursday to thank the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee for their support.

On an 11-10 vote Thursday, the panel recommended that the full Senate consider President Donald Trump’s selection of Brownback for the State Department post.

On October 4, Brownback was in Washington at the Dirksen Senate Office Building for the committee hearing on his nomination.

I appreciate the work and support of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and thank them for voting on my nomination favorably. #Kansas #ksleg

— Sam Brownback (@govsambrownback) October 26, 2017

Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause. -SDB

— Sam Brownback (@govsambrownback) July 27, 2017

President Donald Trump nominated the two-term Republican governor for the ambassadorship in late July. Brownback said he’ll step down as governor as soon as the Senate confirms him. Watch a replay of Brownback’s confirmation hearing presided by Senator Marco Rubio  from Washington here.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting during a robbery.

Just after 1a.m. Thursday, a 16-year-old-male shooting victim entered the emergency room of a Topeka hospital with a non-life threatening gunshot wound, according to Police Lt. Steve Roth.

The medical staff contacted law enforcement after the victim arrived by private vehicle. Although the victim was uncooperative, he did state that he had engaged in an internet sales action.

During the interaction in the 3200 Block of SE 6th in Topeka, he was shot in the hand by a white male with long brown/blonde hair who fled the scene in a van.

The victim did not wish to cooperate further.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Topeka Police Criminal Investigations Bureau.