One of three defendants convicted in the murder of a St. Joseph man is accused of trying to escape from the Western Reception, Diagnostics and Correctional Center.

Sean Liechti, 25 was charged last week in Buchanan County with a felony for attempted escape from custody while under arrest.  The charge stems from an incident that allegedly took place Dec. 30 2015 at the WRDCC located at 3401 Faraon St.

“Liechti was witnessed by video to forcibly exit his cell and fled through multiple unsecured doors until he reached the recreation yard on the exterior of the building without authorization,” Investigator Thomas Gratto with the Missouri Department of Corrections said in court documents. “The rec gate was secured where Liechti was subdued and escorted into the facility.”

In October, Liechti was sentenced to serve ten years in prison for second-degree murder for his involvement in the April 25th 2015 stabbing death of Richard Berry.  Kelli Hoard and Primalton Peterson have also been convicted for their part in Berry’s murder.

Buchanan County residents will soon be able to text 911 in the event of a crisis.

“We’re always going to encourage people to call 911 just because we get better location information from that, we can obtain information a lot quicker from a caller and all of our 911 operators go through extensive training where we listen to things like background noise and we’re able to obtain a lot more information about the call from that but unfortunately there’s situation where that’s not an option,” said Dawn Hill, dispatch supervisor. “Such as an active shooter or a domestic violence situation so we want to look at what we can do to provide to our community to keep them safe.”

“I know of one incident we had, I think it was last year.  It was a domestic situation and the victim was hiding in the bathroom and she had dialed 911 but she was afraid to speak,” said Cmdr. Mike Wilson with the St. Joseph Police Dept. “This would give an option to let the officers know or let the first responders know that she was there and needed assistance.”

Hill said the overall benefit to the community mostly will be will be for the speech and hearing impaired members.

“Currently they have to go through a third party service to get emergency services,” Hill said. “This will provide that service to the part of our community with disabilities where they can access emergency services in a more timely manner.”

Cmdr. Wilson said the texting option is not available just yet.  He said currently staff is getting trained on it and working with the software but he hopes to have it up and running by early spring.

“When the text comes in to the 911 it will pop up on our screen and we can do our call taking through text just like we do a voice call,” Hill said.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won their Missouri presidential primaries by razor-thin margins. Ms Clinton topped Sen. Bernie Sanders by just 1,531 votes out of 626,075 votes cast in the Democratic Party primary. (49.611% to 49.366%)

The margin was also close in the Republican Party primary. Donald Trump beat Sen. Ted Cruz by just 1,726 votes (40.831% to 40.646%).

Ms Clinton won primaries in Florida, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina. Florida is the biggest delegate prize and Clinton now has about two-thirds of the delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.

Trump also picked up a lot of delegates with wins in Missouri, Florida, Illinois and North Carolina. John Kasich won in Ohio.

After losing in his home state of Florida, Senator Marco Rubio announced he was suspending his campaign. With that, Senator Cruz told supporters that “after tonight, there will be a clear choice between two candidates.”

The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department said it’s searching for Leonard T. Barr as a person of interest in connection with an incident Tuesday at the mid-belt Taco Bell.

As we previously reported, deputies responded to the Taco Bell around 10:15 a.m. in reference to a report of a stolen vehicle in the drive thru.

“The officers attempted to stop the vehicle which was in the drive thru, at which time the suspect began ramming the patrol vehicles forward and reverse,” said Col. Bill Puett. “The suspect attempted to ram one of the officers at which time the officer defended himself and fired rounds at the vehicle.”

The suspect was able to get away from deputies in the stolen vehicle which was later found unoccupied.

Barr is being sought by the sheriff’s department as a person of interest in the case.  Anyone with information is asked to call the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office at (816) 236-8800 or the TIPS Hotline at (816) 238-TIPS.

The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department is investigating after a suspect in a stolen vehicle got away from deputies Tuesday morning at the mid-belt Taco Bell.

Col. Bill Puett with the Sheriff’s Department said deputies responded to the drive thru at the Taco Bell around 10:15 a.m. in response to locating a stolen passenger vehicle.

“The officers attempted to stop the vehicle which was in the drive thru, at which time the suspect began ramming the patrol vehicles forward and reverse,” Puett said. “The suspect attempted to ram one of the officers at which time the officer defended himself and fired rounds at the vehicle.”

The suspect was able to get away from deputies in the stolen vehicle which was later located unoccupied.  Puett said it did not appear that the suspect was injured.

Authorities are searching for Leonard Barr as a person of interest in the case.  CLICK HERE for details and a photo provided by the department.

(Missourinet and Post) – Missouri’s presidential preference primary is tomorrow. Stephanie Fleming with the Secretary of State’s office says the predicted voter turnout for Tuesday’s election would be an increase from the 2012 presidential primary.

“The predicted turnout is a compilation of local turnout estimates submitted to our office by election authorities in each jurisdiction. We receive all of their estimates and average them together, which gives us a projected turnout of more than 34%. If that estimate is met, more than 1.3 million ballots will be cast,” said Fleming.

“The most recent presidential election in 2012, there was a predicted turnout of 23%. It’s right around the one-third mark. As we all know in elections, the turnout that really matters is actual turnout. So we’re hoping that every eligible registered Missouri voter heads to the polls in Tuesday.”

Buchanan County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey also anticipates an increase.  She said during the 2008 primary there was a 37% turnout, she expects to see around 40% of registered voters cast a ballot in Buchanan County on Tuesday for this year’s primary.  Anyone in Buchanan County who has questions about their voter registration should call the Buchanan County Clerk’s Office at (816) 271-1414.

Voters will see nine presidential candidates on the Democratic ballot, twelve on the Republican and five on the Libertarian ballot.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Voters must bring a form of identification – a utility bill, a voter registration card or a student ID for Missouri college students.

Election figures are not final at the end of the night. The results are considered unofficial until the election is certified, which takes a couple of weeks.

For more information on Tuesday’s election, go to www.govotemissouri.com

Around 40% of registered voters are anticipated to head to the polls Tuesday in Buchanan County for the 2016 Presidential Preference Primary.

County Clerk Mary Baack-Garvey, Friday anticipated a voter turnout of between 35-40% for the primary.  She said that number is higher than normal.

The deadline for voters who want to cast their ballot absentee in person in the office of the County Clerk is 5 p.m. Monday.

Across the state, election officials are projecting that 34 percent of registered voters will cast ballots in this week’s presidential primary.

Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander released the projections Thursday. They are compiled from estimates made by local election officials.

The estimates range from a projected low of 7 percent turnout in Washington County to a high of 74 percent in Caldwell Country.

Missouri is one five states holding primaries Tuesday, along with Florida, Illinois, North Carolina and Ohio. Missouri’s share of delegates at stake is the smallest among those states.

(AP contributed to this story)