Kansas

Inmate on the lam turns himself in

An inmate who walked away from the minimum security Winfield Correctional Facility around midnight on New Year’s Day has turned himself in, authorities said.

Troy Hines, 42, knocked on the door of a home about two miles north of Winfield less than 24 hours after escaping and asked the homeowner to call the sheriff.

Cowley County sheriff’s officers picked up Hines at 11:50 p.m. Thursday.

Hines was discovered missing from the facility at 1 a.m. Thursday when officials decided to conduct a head count after inmates began playing around with the fire alarms, said Dan Durbin, a spokesman for the Winfield Correctional Facility.

Hines entered the Winfield Correctional Facility on a parole violation in March 2003. In Sedgwick County in 1981 and 1982 he was convicted on two felonies: indecent liberties with a child and aggravated battery.

Hines was scheduled for release in April. Now, Durbin said he would face new charges for escaping from custody.

Missouri

Chandeliers secured after crash in Capitol

An antique chandelier that crashed to the floor of the Missouri Senate in Jefferson City had been hanging by a chain with several weak links and lacked a safety cable that could have prevented the accident, state officials say.

The 600-pound brass and glass fixture smashed an antique mahogany bench Tuesday when it plunged nearly 50 feet while maintenance workers were checking its light bulbs in advance of next week’s start of the legislative session.

Maintenance workers were adding safety cables Wednesday to the Senate’s other three chandeliers, all of which suffered from the same problem, state officials said.

Missouri

Parking ticket arrest leads to lawsuit

A Centralia woman arrested for failing to pay a $2 parking ticket has joined her husband in filing a federal civil-rights lawsuit against police officers in this town north of Columbia, along with other city officials and the municipality itself.

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 18 in U.S. District Court in Jefferson City by Ann and Eric Robinette, seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages.

The flap dates to April 13, when Ann Robinette parked her 1995 Mazda outside Centralia’s community center. That’s where, the lawsuit charges, an officer issued a $2 ticket for being parked in a spot reserved for police.

When the woman missed her May 12 court date, an arrest warrant was issued. On June 7, officers served a warrant and booked Robinette into jail.

Colorado

Injuries from explosion claim life of 52-year-old

A Weld County maintenance man who accidentally triggered a propane explosion at the motel where he lived has died.

Johnny Weber, 52, suffered third-degree burns over his entire body on Wednesday morning after a propane tank exploded outside of his room at the Motel Roggen in Roggen, about 50 miles northeast of Denver.

Gene Haffner, a spokesman for the North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, said Weber died Thursday.

Weber was trying to light a pilot light when the tank exploded.