TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The U.S. government has carried out its first execution of a female inmate in nearly seven decades. Authorities executed a Kansas woman who strangled an expectant mother in Missouri and cut the baby from her womb. Lisa Montgomery was pronounced dead at 1:31 a.m. Wednesday after receiving a lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Montgomery killed 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Skidmore, Missouri. She was the 11th prisoner executed since July, when President Donald Trump resumed federal executions following 17 years without one. President-elect Joe Biden, a death penalty opponent,…
Author: KMAN Staff
2021 State of the State address Gov. Laura Kelly delivered the annual State of the State address Tuesday evening via a virtual broadcast. While the speech is typically given to a room full of state senators and representatives, Kelly used the virtual format to “have a conversation” with Kansans about the current circumstances and the plan going forward. Kelly began her speech with an update on Kansas’s vaccine-distribution efforts, saying that 84,555 Kansans have been vaccinated and that the state is currently in the CDC vaccine tracker’s top tier for “vaccines administered per capita.” Kansas is currently in phase one…
Engaging with the local media, Garrison Commander Colonel Will McKannay of Fort Riley, came before the audience to speak on accomplishments in the past year during the pandemic and held a Q&A session pertaining to activities on the base. “In current times, as you know, 2020 was both a great and a challenging year for Fort Riley. You know, we all know the challenges faced by the entire world in the fight against coronavirus and Covid-19,” McKannay said. “I arrived at Fort Riley in the middle of this fight. And we continue to work as a community to protect each…
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.
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…