WICHITA, Kan. — Three people are charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of a man and woman near Wichita. The charges were filed Monday against 32-year-old Michael Wilking, 34-year-old Joshua Halstead, and 28-year-old Jacquellyn Arthur, all of Wichita. They are suspects in the deaths of 43-year-old Bradley Reece and 22-year-old Kayla Schmidt. The victims’ bodies were found Dec. 29 at a home southwest of Wichita. All three suspects are also charged with aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery. Authorities have not said what motivated the shootings.
Author: KMAN Staff
MISSION, Kan. — A judge has granted a stay in what was slated to be the U.S. government’s its first execution of a female inmate in more than 67 years. Lisa Montgomery killed 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in December 2004, cut the baby from her womb and then passed off the newborn as her own. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Judge Patrick Hanlon granted the stay late Monday. Her execution was scheduled for Tuesday at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, just eight days before the inauguration of Joe Biden an opponent of the federal death penalty. Montgomery’s lawyers…
SHAWNEE, Kan. — Law enforcement agencies in Kansas and Missouri expect to spend most of the week sorting through hundreds of thousands of dollars in stolen property. Police say officers found hundreds of items at a property in Shawnee including ATVs, tools, trailers and weapons. The property was found after Lenexa police received a tip during the weekend. On Monday, Kyle Davey, of Shawnee, was charged with two counts of felony theft and two drug charges. The items were stolen from several cities in Johnson County and from Jackson County, Missouri. Investigators have returned items to 11 victims so far.
WEBB CITY, Mo. — A former southwest Missouri junior high teacher has pleaded guilty to third-degree child molestation. Twenty-nine-year-old Nicholas Popejoy, of Arma, Kansas, agreed to a plea agreement Monday. A second count of sexual contact with a student was dropped. Popejoy was a science and math teacher, freshman boys basketball coach and coed track coach at Webb City Junior High School before he was fired in November 2019. A probable cause statement said Popejoy inappropriately touched a boy under the age of 14 on school grounds. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for March 1.
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas House Democrats have started the process to oust a newly elected lawmaker over multiple issues that include the 20-year-old’s rhetoric on Twitter and allegations of harassing and threatening girls and young women. A formal compliant filed Tuesday in the House about State Rep. Aaron Coleman will kick off a bipartisan investigation that will culminate in a recommendation and vote about his future in the Legislature. A two-thirds majority would be necessary to oust him. Coleman, of Kansas City, Kansas, was elected as a Democrat, but he tweeted Tuesday that he was unaffiliating with the party.
Riley County Commission Chair John Ford, new Emergency Management Director Russel Stukey and Fire Chief Michael Regel joined us to discuss county happenings.
The following summary of calls for service/reports filed by the Riley County Police Department is a portion of those received by police. Some names, addresses, and case details are withheld to follow local, state, and federal law as well as in an attempt to protect community members from being victimized further. Those arrested are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. MANHATTAN, KAN. – Officers filed a report for theft in the 1800 block of Alabama Ln. in Manhattan on January 11, 2021, at approximately 5:15 p.m. Officers listed a 25-year-old female as the victim when it was…
Pott. County COVID-19-related hospitalization numbers About five Pottawatomie County residents were hospitalized with COVID-19 complications as of Monday’s report. However, Leslie Campbell, Pottawatomie County health director, told the Pott. County Commission on Monday that area hospitals are taking in out-of-county patients as well. The Onaga Community Healthcare System has people from Jackson, Nemaha (and) Marshall (County) all in the hospital,” Campbell said. “So there’s more people in the hospital, they’re just not all from Pottawatomie County.” She says the county’s numbers may also not be indicative of how many COVID-19-positive Pottawatomie County residents are actually in Pottawatomie County hospitals. “They’re…
Pottawatomie County will soon create a online system allowing area residents to express their interest in getting a COVID-19 vaccine. According to a Pottawatomie County release, those on the “sign-up” list will be notified when vaccine doses for which they are eligible to receive are available. Eligibility is based on a timeline set up as part of the government’s COVID-19-vaccine distribution plan. Kansas is currently in phase one, meaning only healthcare workers, residents and patients of long-term care facilities and workers “critical to pandemic response continuity” are currently eligible to receive the vaccine. People who are 65 years of age…