WRITER: Kim Callahan

3 months after actor killed in head-on collision, DA's office awaiting evidence to make charging decision

Updated at 3:52 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15 Nearly three months after a driver reportedly crossed a highway's center line and killed an area actor in a head-on collision, little is publicly known about the investigation into the fatality, but Douglas County District Attorney Dakota Loomis said he would make a charging decision when he has all the evidence. The Journal-World's records requests to the Kansas Highway ...

Hearing postponed after defendant in kidnapping and robbery case demands new attorney

A defendant accused of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery was set to have a preliminary hearing on Thursday but instead got a new attorney. Garnel Andreus Moore Williams, 31, is facing the two felony charges for a November incident in which Lawrence police said several people were held at gunpoint for hours and some were strip-searched after Moore Williams claimed money had been stolen from him at an ...

Defendant accused of brutal attack on homeless man in downtown Lawrence ordered to stand trial, but plea deal in works

A defendant accused of viciously attacking a homeless man in downtown Lawrence has been ordered to stand trial, although plea negotiations are underway. The 49-year-old man testified that the defendant, Shaun Donovan Bernie, 33, attacked him from behind last fall, causing significant injuries to his head and disfiguring his hand. The man testified that Bernie, who was also homeless at the time, would regularly ...

Video shows man striking child with belt at Lawrence store; he says it was discipline, state says it was abuse

A Douglas County judge will soon decide whether to order a man to stand trial for child abuse after a store's video camera captured him striking a young boy repeatedly with a belt. The state at Tuesday's preliminary hearing for the man portrayed the incident as a violent felony, while the man's appointed attorney sought to characterize it as parental discipline of a child with extremely difficult behavioral ...

Minnesota man killed at Lawrence City Hall was on his way to Mexico, suffered from schizophrenia, family says

A Minnesota man who was shot and killed earlier this month by a City of Lawrence employee suffered from schizophrenia and was traveling to see his grandmother in Mexico at the time of his death, according to his family, who are calling his death a heartbreaking tragedy and urging a greater understanding of people suffering from mental illness. Omar Dominguez Gavilan, of Buffalo, Minnesota, died Jan. 5 after he ...

Attorneys say some Kansas sex-crime laws are unconstitutional because they don't require criminal intent and don't define 'consent'

Attorneys with the Douglas County Public Defender’s Office are seeking a new trial for a man who was convicted of rape last fall. In their supporting motion, they are asking a judge to find that some of Kansas’ rape and sodomy statutes are unconstitutional because they allow for conviction without proof of criminal intent and also fail to define “consent.” The case involves 33-year-old defendant Miquel ...