Trial set for father charged in car crash

Trial has been set for Feb. 14 for a Missouri man who killed his son on the Kansas Turnpike and is now charged with trying to kill his three other children in a Lawrence car crash.

Prosecutors in Dist. Atty. Christine Kenney’s office were prepared Friday to put on evidence against Raymond D. Boothe at a preliminary hearing in district court, but Boothe waived the hearing.

Boothe, 36, faces three counts of attempted murder and one count of battery on a law enforcement officer related to the August 2002 wreck at 27th Street and Lawrence Avenue.

Boothe, who has a history of mental illness, crashed his car in Lawrence after stabbing his 11-year-old son, Levi, and leaving him to die on the turnpike in Leavenworth County. Police said the crash was an attempt to kill himself and his other children in the car.

Boothe is serving a 16-year sentence in Hutchinson for the Leavenworth County killing.

Police

62-year-old arrested after dispute at school

A 62-year-old Lawrence man was arrested on suspicion of threatening another man with a knife outside Central Junior High School, 1400 Mass., police said Friday.

Sgt. Dan Ward, a Lawrence Police spokesman, said the victim, a 47-year-old father of a CJHS girls basketball player, got into an argument Sunday with another student’s mother at the game when she yelled at his daughter. The man said in an interview that the dispute was not related to basketball.

After the two left the school and began arguing outside, the woman’s boyfriend arrived, pushed the 47-year-old man and threatened him with a box-cutting knife, he said.

The boyfriend was arrested later on suspicion of aggravated assault, but he was not formally charged this week and was released from jail Thursday.

Derby

Authorities release couple’s cause of death

An elderly couple found dead in their smoldering home died in a murder-suicide, authorities said Friday.

Derby police said in a news release that Lawrence E. Prilliman, 78, killed Donna L. Prilliman, 72, before killing himself.

When emergency workers arrived at the home around noon Thursday, the inside of the one-story home was fire-damaged, but the blaze had gone out. Police said the couple’s bodies were discovered in a back bedroom.

Police released no other details about the motive or the cause of death.

The state fire marshal’s office assisted with the investigation.