A 20-year-old St. Joseph man is heading to prison for ten years for his role in the drug deal and robbery that led to the fatal shooting of Sklylar Powell last June.

Dayne Matthews was sentenced Wednesday by Circuit Judge Patrick Robb for his guilty plea to charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence.

Matthew’s defense lawyer Shelley Peters argued for probation in the case. Peters argued that Matthews remained in the passenger seat of the vehicle during the ill-fated marijuana deal and robbery. She said her client watched the muzzle flash and gunfire, that he drove away while gunfire was still going on, and in fact was hit by one of the bullets. She offered the judge a photograph of Matthews’ injury, which she admitted was not too serious and only required a band-aid.

Peters said Matthews didn’t learn that Powell was killed until the next day, at which point he contacted police at the urging of his father.

“Dayne’s role was the guy who knew a guy who could get some weed,” Peters said.

Matthews then apologized to the family and friends of the victim, and to the people of St. Joseph, admitting he had made bad choices and accepts full responsibility for those choices.

Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins argued that Matthews was one of the three main players in the transaction, including the victim and Ashton Surritte. Surritte set up the drug robbery at Powell’s request. She pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted robbery in October and was sentenced in December to serve 15 years in prison (click here).

Scroggins also argued that Matthews was a regular drug dealer, who was making deals at more than $1,000 each. Judge Robb agreed that the size of the transaction was an aggravating factor.

Robb ordered Matthews to serve ten years for possession with intent to deliver, and two years tampering with physical evidence. Those sentences will be served at the same time.

A large group of Matthews’ family were on hand for the sentencing, and were drying when the defendant was taken away by deputies to begin serving his sentence.

Several northeast Kansas community members have rallied behind an idea inspired by a Doniphan West fourth-grader to give students a place to shop for items they may need.

“There’s another student in school and I saw she had really ripped up clothes and it was a spirit week.  It was a pajama day actually, and her nightgown was really ripped up,” said Noah Denton, a fourth-grader at D-West. “I just felt so bad for her and I thought, ‘I know I can do something about this, or try.’  So I went home and I asked my mom if I could write something down on paper and she said, ‘Yeah, you can try.’  So I wrote something down on paper and I presented it to PTO.”

Denton said his idea was a clothing closet for any student to use.

“If they don’t have any clothes or if their clothes are dirty or something, the teachers wash the clothes sometimes, but they can get new clothes.  They can check them out for the day and return them or they can take them,” Denton said. “It makes me feel really good, I’m glad I get to help all the kids that need it.”

Crystal Tracy said she jumped on board to help organize the project.

“Once this idea was brought up, the fourth-grade class wanted to do something with it right then but of course it takes a little bit of time to get things built up and get things started and that’s how Tiffany Rhodd and myself got involved,” Tracy said. “The teachers and staff reached out they wanted somebody to kind of be in charge and get the project going.  What we did was we sent out flyers and put stuff in the paper.”

Tracy said the closet is being used daily by D-West students.

“For example, if they’ve left a coat at home they are more then welcome to come check out a coat from the closet.  On the flip-side of that they are more than welcome to keep the coat forever.  So if a child doesn’t have a warm winter coat and they need that coat they can keep it,” Tracy said.

She said they set up different drop off locations and community members responded donating numerous items.

“We have all different ages using it because Doniphan West has preschool through sixth-grade at the elementary school so we’re accepting all sizes of clothing from preschool on up,” Tracy said. “We’re having to get more specific items.”

Tracy said right now there’s a need for socks, hygiene items and shoes.

“It’s not just for kids that necessarily need that item, it’s for kids that want to come in and maybe want a Doniphan West shirt to wear for the next day.  Maybe it’s a Spirit Day and they would like a Doniphan West shirt,” Tracy said. “We have people that have volunteered graciously to wash all of the items and bring them to the school.”

She said the kids in the fourth-grade fold the clothes, hang them and keep track of what’s being taken out and brought in.

“It’s really a great tool for the fourth-graders to learn how to run a small business,” Tracy said.

Since the cold weather is nearing an end the closet is asking for dress-up items for Easter like dresses, ties etc., summer wear, shoes size four and up, socks, and personal hygiene items.  She said donations can be sent to school with the children or dropped off at the school. Casey’s in Highland and the Walter Wellness Center are also listed as drop-off locations.

 

The St. Joseph Police Department has announced sobriety checkpoints will be held sometime during the months of March and April.

In a news release, Sgt. Chris McBane said the Northwest Missouri DWI Task Force will be conducting checkpoints in Buchanan County sometime during those months.

“We appreciate the cooperation of motorists that find themselves passing through a checkpoint,” McBane said. “Our goal is to take impaired drivers off the road making them safer.”

Drivers who find themselves in a checkpoint are asked to pay extra attention to the posted signs and officers working.

“The goal is to reduce drunk/impaired driving,” McBane said. “We encourage the use of a designated driver or a taxi cab if you are going out.  Please remember driver sober and always wear your seat belt.”

The Missouri State Auditor’s Office has released a 2016 report on criminal activity seizures showing thousands seized in Buchanan County.

According to the auditor’s office, state law requires prosecuting attorneys and the Attorney General to report seizures made under the Criminal Activity Forfeiture Act (CAFA) to the State Auditor and the Director of the Department of Public Safety.  Last year, 116 seizures in the state were reported under CAFA.  The overall dollar value for property seized in 2016 was $6,253,326.  Of that total $482,142 was returned, $2,745,658 was transferred to a federal agency, and $97,067 was transferred to the state.

According to the report released Tuesday, in Buchanan County the 2016 estimated value of seizures reported was $15,164.  The report said $6,412 was transferred to the state, $6,110 was listed as pending and $2,642 was not reported as being dispositioned. The report did not show any money returned.  A total of seven seizures were listed as being reported in 2016 in Buchanan County under CAFA.

To view the report in full CLICK HERE.

The St. Joseph School District has announced Chris Early to take on the role as principal at Lafayette High School.

Early has been serving as Lafayette’s assistant principal since 2013. He will replace Dr. Tyran Sumy. Dr. Sumy announced her retirement earlier this year after more than 20 years with the district.

“This is bittersweet for me and I am sad to leave Lafayette, but I feel Mr. Early is very qualified for this position,” said Dr. Sumy. “He is the type of person who will take Lafayette to the next level.”

Early built his resume as a leader in education at Lafayette. His experience – which spans nearly 20 years – includes instructional coach, communication arts department chair and communications arts instructor. His teaching career began in the East Buchanan C-1 School District where he spent two years as a communication arts instructor.

Early has a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Northwest Missouri State University, a K-12 Gifted Education Certification from the University of Missouri and a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education in English from Missouri Western State University. He is currently enrolled in the Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis Doctoral Program through the University of Missouri/Northwest Missouri State University.

Early will begin his new role as Lafayette’s principal during the 2017-18 school year. His contract was approved during executive session at the Board of Education meeting on Monday, February 27, 2017.

The St. Joseph School District Board of Education on Monday accepted the resignation of a board member, and announced they will accept applications to fill the seat for the next two weeks.

As we reported earlier, Chris Danford resigned her position on board Feb. 16. The board formally accepted that resignation Monday.

Superintendent Dr. Robert Newhart says there has been some misinformation circulating on social media about how the board will fill the seat. Some residents are citing the wrong statute.

“We are following statute, we are following board policy,” Newhart said. “That precedent actually was set back in April of ’15 when you had to fill a previous position as well.”

The district’s legal counsel Joe Hatley pointed out that the law requires the board to fill the seat.  “There is one statute in Missouri that does call for a special election whenever there is a board vacancy, but that only applies to the Kansas City School District,” Hatley said.

But he says St. Joseph, and most of the rest of the state, are governed by a different statute. “That statute requires that vacancies be filled by appointment, by the board, as soon as practicable,” he said. “The statute doesn’t specify the process. It leaves each individual school district to develop its own process and impelent that.”

“You all have done that through board policy BBE. That’s what you’re getting ready to embark upon.”

Newhart announced a two-week window during which those interested in serving on the board can apply for the vacant seat. You must deliver a hard copy to the Board Secretary at 925 Felix in downtown St. Joseph by March 13.

“What this will entail is a hard copy letter of intent, stating qualifications, stating reasons for wanting the position, with three letters of reference, by March 13th at 4:30 p.m. in hard copy form,” Newhart said.

When St. Joseph News Press Editor and Publisher David Bradley told a national broadcast audience that the people of St. Joe were “fairly well satisfied” with the first 30 days of the Trump presidency, he may not have expected a protest outside the newspaper’s offices. He told the PBS News Hour last week that we, in general “are turned off” by protests.

About 60 people turned out to protest on Monday, and Bradley came out to greet them and address their concerns. Bradley was interrupted several times, but managed to get his message out.

“They asked me to come and talk about what my feelings were about what the reaction was to Donald Trump…” Bradley said.

“He’s an idiot,” one of the protesters interrupted.

“Okay, well, let me talk,” Bradley continued. “Anyway, I said I thought he’d only been in office for 30 days, I said he’d said some things that I thought were probably mistaken, that he had to take back, and had to change.”

“I think we’ve got to watch his actions more than what he says,” Bradley said.

The protest sprung up on Facebook soon after the PBS broadcast last week (click here). One of the protest organizers, Marianne Kunkel, said she and others were really frustrated by what Bradley said, representing our entire town as being “fairly well satisfied.”

“He said that we, in general, as a town, were turned off by protests, and that we would prefer to sit back and relax, and take that approach towards our president’s agenda, his policies, everything he’s put forward in the first month,” Kunkel said, “and that does not represent a lot of us.”

Bradley countered asssertions that his newspaper is biased.

“The people in this area voted overwhelmingly for Trump,” Bradley said. “And we’ve run a lot of letters from people who are both for Trump and against Trump, and I’d welcome any of your comments or letters. We run columns in the paper that are for Trump and against him. There were two columns this morning that were against him, so we try to run all sides. ”

“This paper did endorse him. We thought he was a better candidate than Hillary,” Bradley said. A protester booed that comment. Bradley said “…well, that’s your opinion. The folks voted for Trump in this area and this state by 17 points, so he won overwhelmingly.”

Kunkel says this town is more diverse than that.

“It’s made up of people who do not look like Mr. Bradley, who are may feeling personally attacked by some of the things our president has tried to implement, like the travel ban, and some of the things he’s said toward women, and I would remind Mr Bradley how many women live in St. Joseph, and possibly feel personally slighted by his words,” Kunkel said.

“There are a lot of people who are nervous, and offended, and hurt,” she said, “and I think when our media represents us so thoughtlessly and homogenously, it’s dangerous.”