The Lawrence school board on Monday unanimously approved the sale of the former East Heights Elementary School building to Flint Hills Holding Group LLC for $875,000. The Flint Hills group is led by developer Tony Krsnich, who is known for numerous income-affordable housing projects in Lawrence, particularly in eastern Lawrence. The group’s plan is to develop 40 to 55 single-family homes on the ...
Just days before a trial was to begin in a 7-year-old rape case, the defendant has asked a Douglas County judge for more time to prepare his defense. On Wednesday, Judge Amy Hanley — with considerable reluctance, it appeared — granted the request of defense attorney Joe Huerter, who is representing Reston K. Phillips, a man accused of raping a young woman while she slept on a couch at the home of a Lawrence ...
A Leavenworth man who admitted shooting another man during a 2019 drug deal in a McDonald’s parking lot has pleaded no contest to the lesser offense of attempted aggravated battery. Wednesday’s plea from Howard Collins Levite Jr., 32, in Douglas County District Court came 11 weeks after a jury acquitted Levite of attempted first-degree murder in the case. As the Journal-World reported, the jury hung on a ...
Updated at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, May 2 An Emporia man who was accused of raping a woman in 2022 at her Lawrence apartment was convicted on Wednesday in Douglas County District Court of the lesser offense of aggravated battery. As part of a plea deal with the state, the defendant, Romeo Devontay Martinez, entered a no contest plea to an amended complaint of one felony count of aggravated battery with a finding ...
In the wake of a new law broadening school choice, the Lawrence school district is hopeful that it can increase enrollment and gain state education dollars by receiving students from other districts, but it’s taking a self-described “conservative” approach to avoid overwhelming its schools. At a special meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence school board voted 5-0, with Anne Costello and Carole Cadue-Blackwood ...
A man who was originally charged in the overdose death of a young Lawrence woman entered a no contest plea Friday to the lesser crime of distributing a controlled substance. The plea deal that Mason Duane Robinson, 28, cut with the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office also guaranteed that multiple other felony cases against him would be dismissed altogether. Robinson was originally charged with ...