Rape charges against a Missouri man have been dismissed in Douglas County District Court due to insufficient evidence, although the charges could be refiled at a later date. The man, Daoud Lateel Holmes, 23, of Kansas City, Missouri, was charged with two felony counts of rape and one felony count of aggravated sodomy, according to charging documents. Holmes was originally charged with one count of rape, but the ...
A murder trial for two men was continued on Tuesday after an attorney for one of the defendants was allowed to withdraw less than two weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin. The men, Javier Isidro Romero, 19, and Andrel Darnell Spates Jr., 21, both of Lawrence, are each charged with one count of murder in the first degree in connection with the fatal shooting of 21-year-old Christian Willis, of Wichita, ...
A Eudora man was granted two years of probation Monday for aggravated battery in a case in which he was originally charged with raping a woman after a party at his home last year. The man, Derek Sean Conner, 34, pleaded no contest in March to two counts of aggravated battery as part of a plea agreement with the state. The plea reduced a felony rape charge to two felony counts of aggravated battery. The charges ...
A Douglas County judge is contemplating the next steps in a case after seeing a video Friday in which a defendant told police that he shot at a bar and at a public library because he “wanted to kill some people.” The man, Junah Augustus Sisney, 20, of Baldwin City, has been charged with one count of attempted murder in the first degree and one felony count of fleeing and eluding police, according to ...
A Lawrence man avoided prison on Thursday after a Douglas County judge suspended his sentence to probation after he was convicted of threatening with a gun a tow truck driver who was towing his vehicle. A jury found Brandon Andrew Harry Seepersad, 27, guilty of one count of aggravated assault with a firearm in February. The charge relates to an incident on March 27, 2021, in the 1000 block of Emery Road, as the ...
A young man was sentenced to probation Thursday for his role in an attack on an off-duty Lawrence police officer. The juvenile, 17 at the time of the incident, was originally charged in Douglas County Juvenile Court with attempted murder, but the charge was later amended to felony aggravated battery. He entered a no contest plea to the charge in March. The charge relates to an incident around 2 a.m. on Nov. 4, ...