WRITER: Kim Callahan

Man who fatally stabbed 66-year-old and knifed his dog outside grocery store takes plea deal for voluntary manslaughter

A man who fatally stabbed a 66-year-old Lawrence resident and seriously injured his dog outside a grocery store was convicted Friday of voluntary manslaughter and cruelty to animals. Robert Earl Davis, 58, was originally charged with first-degree murder in the Aug. 18, 2021, death of Daniel Evan Brooks outside the Dillons grocery store at 1015 W. 23rd St., where police said they found him holding a knife. But ...

Judge agrees to keep arrest affidavit, plea agreement in liquor store assault from being seen by public

A Douglas County judge has entirely sealed the arrest affidavit of a repeat felon who took a plea deal last month and was convicted in a liquor store assault. The plea deal itself was sealed on Oct. 15, and two weeks later Judge Stacey Donovan also agreed, at the request of the parties, to keep the arrest affidavit of William Pope from being seen by the public. Donovan had the option to redact sensitive parts ...

Attorney's misrepresentation to judge leads to his ouster from attempted capital murder case on eve of trial

An attempted capital murder trial has been indefinitely delayed after a defense attorney made false representations to the court, leading to a sharp rebuke from the judge and a request from the defendant to get a new lawyer. The incident occurred Friday afternoon in the courtroom of Douglas County District Judge Stacey Donovan just three days before the trial of Junah Sisney was set to begin. Sisney, 23, is ...

Mother of baby who died at day care does not believe woman accused of murder was wrongfully convicted

Kaylen Ortiz believes that her baby boy was murdered nine years ago and that a day care employee was the killer. An expert witness' report that says Ortiz's 9-month-old died by natural causes has not changed Ortiz's mind. And she told a judge Thursday that it didn't change the mind of the person who hired the expert either: former Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez. Ortiz testified Thursday at the ...

'I am innocent,' woman accused of killing baby 9 years ago declares to packed courtroom

"Because I am innocent!" Carrody Buchhorn told a crowded Douglas County courtroom Wednesday when her attorney asked why she was there. "I want my certificate of innocence," she said, before emotionally describing how the police "had made everyone think" she had violently killed a 9-month-old boy. The falsehood, she said, had traumatically upended numerous lives, including her entire family's, for the better ...

Pathologist whose report led to Valdez dropping murder case testifies that baby died of natural causes, not abuse

Nine-month-old Oliver "Ollie" Ortiz died of natural causes, not child abuse: That's what a forensic pathologist hired by the Douglas County District Attorney's Office said almost three years ago, and that's what she said again in testimony Tuesday — in the process, heaping implicit scorn on the coroner's autopsy findings that said otherwise. Forensic pathologist Jane Turner's January 2023 report led then-DA ...