With multiple people charged in connection with the May shooting death of 18-year-old Skylar Powell the Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney is looking to join the cases.

The six individuals charged in connection with the case include Justin Smith, Kyle Smith, Jay’Den Maynard, Dayne Matthews, Ashten Surritte and Gabriel Dawson. Prosecutors believe Powell was killed during a drug transaction and attempted robbery May 17 in the area of 2200 Calhoun.

A motion was filed by Buchanan County Prosecuting Attorney Dwight Scroggins on July 19. Scroggins said when cases go from the lower level to the circuit court level they are assigned to either Division 3 or Division 4. Because there are multiple defendants some were assigned to one and some to the other.

“The fairest way in my mind was to get them all together and put them in front of one judge,” Scroggins said. “It’s all the same witnesses, all the same evidence that’s the reason you can join them is for judicial economy.”

A hearing on the motion to join will be held Monday, Aug. 15 at 2:15 in Div. 3.

A northeast Kansas man is accused of trying to ask a child for a sexual act at a St. Joseph library

James Hopkins, 73 of Elwood, Kan. is charged in Buchanan County with a felony of enticement of a child.

According to court documents, on July 5 at the Carnegie Branch Library located at 316 Massachusetts, Hopkins is accused of trying to solicit and coax a child less than 13 to engage in sexual contact.

“The defendant asked the child victim if he could perform oral sex on him, according to the child’s statement,” said Officer Quentin Abbott with the St. Joseph Police Department. “In August 2015, while at a public park in St. Joseph, Mo. the defendant was arrested for soliciting sexual activity with another juvenile.”

Hopkins is being held on $25,000 cash only bail.  An arraignment is set for Tuesday.

The St. Joseph Health Department is seeing an increase in the number of people coming in for vaccinations with the start of the upcoming school year right around the corner.

Connie Werner, Clinic Nurse Supervisor with the Health Dept. said this week the number of people coming in for back to school vaccinations has gone up.

“The state of Missouri requires children to have certain vaccinations in order to go to school.  Unless you have a medical or a religious exemption those are required, at least for public schools prior to walking into the door that first day,” Werner said.

Students in the St. Joseph School District head back for the first day of classes Monday.  Werner said many parents are coming in this week to get their children’s vaccinations up to date.

“With multiple people coming down the wait time unfortunately increases as there is more people trying to get through,” Werner said. “It’s a walk-in clinic.”

It’s an average trend the health department sees.  In 2015 during the month of June Werner said the health department gave 136 shots, in July that number increased to 299 and jumped up to 765 shots in August.

“Kindergartners have their set of Kindergarten shots, 8th grade shots and now Senior shots,” Werner said. “We call them grade shots but it’s really based on the child’s age.”

The St. Joseph Health Department is open Monday through Friday for vaccinations from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

“As long as you’re checked in by that time you’ll get your shot,” Werner said. “Please bring your shot record with you so we know what shots are needed to give.”

She said immunizations have come a long way to keep everyone healthy.

“This is such a progress in science,” Werner said. “The diseases that used to kill people off not a huge long time ago we now don’t know what those are because the immunizations have stopped those diseases from being in our societies.  To keep everyone vaccinated helps to keep everyone healthy not only the child getting the shot but for those around them that can’t get that shot as well.”

A group of school counselors and social workers from St. Joseph schools gathered Wednesday morning for a suicide prevention training. 

St. Joseph School District Coordinator of Counseling Kim Hill said a different professional development topic is covered every year at the back to school meeting. 

“This came to the forefront of our agenda because of some recent suicides and violence in our community, so we thought it would be very good,” Hill said. “We had people in the community reach out to us and offer to come talk and we felt that it would be good timing to have them come and share with us. There’s also some new legislation, it’s bullying legislation, but within it are some legislative guidelines for schools in terms of suicide prevention and awareness, so it just seemed like a good fit for us to proactively focus on this at the beginning of the year.” 

Speakers included, Assistant Professor at Northwest Missouri State University Dr. Jackie Kibler and Missouri Western State University President Dr. Robert Vartabedian. 

Kibler spoke about suicide prevention and how to help students cope with pain. 

“The suicide research shows that the majority of people who survive suicide attempts identify that they don’t want to die, they just want the pain that they’re feeling to stop,” Kibler said. “So we talked about teaching kids that pain is a normal part of life and then helping them with coping strategies to deal with that pain.” 

Kibler said, in St. Joseph, there’s been a higher suicide rate than the national average over the last year and the national suicide rate has gone up for children age 10-14. She also said suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-25. 

“The district has some great things in place for prevention,” Kibler said. “One of the things that I tried to bring in working with the school district is taking more of a wellness approach to suicide prevention. I really emphasized self-care to the counselors, taking care of themselves and being able to model that for the kids and their colleagues, because this group in particular gives of themselves a great deal and so trying to take care of themselves is a piece of that puzzle, I think.” 

Kibler said some of her advice for suicide prevention in and outside of the school setting is to pursue real connections with people. 

“Kids today and adults today, we’re big with social media, we’re big with phones and it adds to our lives but it also takes away from our lives,” Kibler said. “There’s some researchers that say it provides a lot of connection, but it also provides a lot of loneliness. So I think that’s happening particularly with kids, also with adults, and so connecting in real ways, putting the phones away, which is hard, it’s not going to be natural for them to want to take that away and interact with you. But they need that interaction, they need that connection, so that’s what I would encourage: to have real connection.”

A St. Joseph man has been charged after a gas station was held up at knife point Monday.

Lucas Crockett, 34 is charged in Buchanan County with a felony for second-degree robbery.

According to court documents Crockett is accused of threatening the clerk with a knife at the Quick Stop located at 6739 Memorial Hwy.  Det. Frank Till with the St. Joseph Police Department said police reports, statement and video of the robbery as well as evidence collected tie the defendant to the crime.

“The defendant used the knife in an aggressive manner to threaten the clerk.  He made contact with the clerk with the knife to move him away from the register,” Till said. “Removed the cash register from the business and fled on foot.”

As we previously reported, officers allegedly arrested the suspect in the case not far from the gas station.  Police said the register was also recovered.

“There are numerous witnesses to parts of this crime, witnesses that live in this defendants neighborhood,” Till said. “He has a violent history and would possibly use violence or intimidation against those witnesses.”

Crockett is being held on $50,000 cash only bail.  An arraignment is set for Friday.

Another defendant has been charged in connection with the May shooting death of 18-year-old Skylar Powell in midtown.

Jay’Den Maynard, 17 of St. Joseph was charged Tuesday in Buchanan County with a felony of first-degree attempted robbery.  The charge can carry a sentence range of 5-15 years.

According to court documents, Maynard was identified as the lookout by multiple co-conspirators in the fatal attempted robbery.

“He was further implicated as assisting in the planning of the attempted robbery by his co-conspirators,” said Det. Frank Till with the St. Joseph Police Department. “A review of forensic evidence collected at the scene indicates that multiple shots were fired and the victim died of a gunshot wound.”

Bond has been set at $5,000 cash and $45,000 surety.  An arraignment is scheduled for Friday at 8:15 a.m. in Div. 6.

Five other suspects are also charged in the case including, Justin Smith, Kyle Smith, Dayne Matthews,Ashten Surritte and Gabriel Dawson.  Prosecutors believe Powell was killed during a drug transaction and attempted robbery May 17 in the area of 2200 Calhoun.

Police have a man in custody after a gas station was held up at knife point Monday evening in St. Joseph.

Capt. Jeff Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Department said a man wearing a bandanna over his face entered the Quick Stop located at 6946 Memorial Highway shortly before 7 p.m. The man was allegedly armed with a knife and took the entire cash register then ran from the gas station on foot.

A 34-year-old man was arrested not far from the gas station.  Wilson said the cash register was recovered.

The investigation is ongoing.  Wilson said the case will be submitted to the prosecutor’s office for consideration of charges.

No injuries were reported.