Police investigate rape, abduction near club

A Baldwin woman told police she was pulled into a stranger’s car, raped and robbed early Friday after leaving a nightclub.

About 2 a.m., the 22-year-old woman said, she left The Ranch, 2515 W. Sixth St., and began walking to her car in the 600 block of Crestline Drive.

A car pulled up behind her on Crestline and a man grabbed her and pulled her into the vehicle, said Sgt. Dan Ward, a Lawrence Police spokesman.

The woman said one man inside the car raped her as another drove. The men took her cell phone, money and wallet, then drove her back to where she’d been abducted and kicked her out of the car, Ward said.

The woman described her assailant as a black male with a long, baggy shirt and the driver as a black male with short-cropped hair, a white shirt and a blue bandanna. She said both appeared to be between 25 and 30 years old.

They were driving a 1980s American-made, two-door, dark-colored car, she told police.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Crime Stoppers hot line at 843-TIPS.

Courts

Sentencing delayed for convicted murderer

Sentencing of a Lawrence man convicted of first-degree murder was postponed Monday for the second time because of a defense attorney’s allegation of juror misconduct.

A Douglas County District Court jury last month convicted Lafayette Cosby, 25, of the April 4 shooting of acquaintance Robert T. Martin at a party at Jefferson Commons, 2511 W. 31st St.

But Cosby’s attorney, Greg Robinson, has asked for a new trial based on his claim that at one point before jurors delivered their verdict, a family member of Cosby’s saw a juror holding a copy of the Journal-World containing a story about the case. Throughout trials, judges instruct jurors not to read any media reports about the case at hand.

Prosecutors have argued that, based on a bailiff’s version of events, the juror hadn’t begun reading the newspaper but wanted to cut out the crossword puzzle.

Judge Jack Murphy rescheduled Cosby’s sentencing for Jan. 6.

Trial hearing

Judge denies motion to suppress evidence

A judge Monday denied a defense attorney’s motion to suppress evidence in the case of a Lawrence resident charged with trying to kill an acquaintance by beating his head with a crowbar in June.

Defendant Barry L. Sterling’s attorney, Kevin E.J. Regan, argued that on June 5, two Lawrence Police detectives investigating the beating of Travis Adams continued to question Sterling after he and his mother asked for an attorney.

Regan asked Judge Jack Murphy to find that any information detectives gathered after that point couldn’t be used in court.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Dave Zabel said because Sterling wasn’t being interviewed as a suspect at the time and was free to go, he didn’t have a right to an attorney. Murphy agreed.

Sterling, 20, is scheduled to stand trial in February.

Gasoline Prices

Patrol seeks fuel deals

The Journal-World has found a gasoline price as low as $1.70 a gallon at Citgo, Ninth and Iowa streets.

If you find a lower price, please call 832-7154.