CdA man in serious condition after crash

A Coeur d’Alene man was listed in serious condition in a Spokane hospital Saturday after his car rolled over in the Interstate 90 median and ejected him.

Jeffrey A. Kelley-Southern, 23, was upgraded from critical to serious condition after the 1992 Honda Prelude he was driving ran off the freeway in Post Falls, struck the median embankment, rolled and came to rest on its top about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, according to the Idaho State Police.

His passenger, Frederick M. Mika, 24, of Spokane, was taken to Kootenai Medical Center with injuries, but he wasn’t there Saturday evening, according to the hospital.

At least six passers-by stopped and worked together to keep Kelley-Southern alive until paramedics could arrive, said Jason Stone, a Coeur d’Alene resident and four-year emergency room technician at Sacred Heart Medical Center. Stone was coming home from a 13-hour shift at the hospital when a man waved him down, he said.

Stone found the car upside-down, with smoke rising from it, and Kelley-Southern lying in the dirt near the roadway, barely breathing because blood was choking his airway, Stone said.

“I didn’t think he was going to make it,” Stone said. “You couldn’t even really tell what kind of car it was. I don’t even really know how anybody else survived out of that car.”

Stone handed gloves to five people, who helped direct traffic around the crash site, move car debris away from Kelley-Southern, hold the injured man still and reassure him until paramedics could arrive and transport him to Kootenai Medical Center, he said.

Kelley-Southern wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and alcohol was a factor in the crash, according to ISP.

Spokane

Fire burns barn; five horses dead

Fire erupted in a metal barn holding 20 tons of hay north of Spokane on Saturday afternoon, killing four horses inside and severely burning another horse, forcing its owner to euthanize the animal, a fire official said.

Witnesses reported seeing flames in a barn at The Cozy Corral horse ranch, 5405 E. Peone Road, about 12:40 p.m., Spokane County Fire District 9 Deputy Chief Doug Bleeker said. By the time fire crews arrived, the barn was completely involved, he said.

Fire investigators noted an electrical fence near the side of the barn, but witnesses told them they saw fire coming from hay in the middle of the structure, Bleeker said. “It was more consistent with spontaneous combustion from hay,” he said.

Fire crews fought several smaller fires that spread to the ground near the initial blaze. They used saws to cut down still-standing metal posts, and after flames destroyed the structure, they pumped water on the remains, which had been flattened by a bulldozer.

Crews bulldozed a dirt circle around the site to prevent fire from spreading if the hay reignited after crews left.

“We don’t need a brush fire running away from a structure fire,” Bleeker said.

House party turns violent; one held

At least two people shot guns, a woman hit another with her car and several females got into a fight during a house party in Spokane on Saturday afternoon, according to the Spokane Police Department.

Monteya O. Smith, of Spokane, was arrested on charges of second-degree assault and felony hit and run after police responded to a report of a fight at a Zip Trip store at East Euclid Avenue and North Market Street and found her there, according to a police press release. She matched the description of one of the suspects who fled the shooting scene, and her red Chevrolet Corsica fit the description of the involved vehicle, police said.

The shooting occurred a short time earlier, about 3:30 a.m., at a residence on East Boone Avenue. Officers said they received conflicting stories from witnesses but confirmed from shell casings inside and outside the house that at least two people had been shooting guns. Before the shots were fired, several females got into a fight, and one of them entered a car and hit a 28-year-old woman, sending her to the hospital with minor leg injuries, police said.

Coeur d’Alene

Witnesses sought in I-90 incident

Idaho State Police are seeking witnesses to a road-rage incident in Coeur d’Alene on Friday night.

Police stopped one man driving a black 1986 Porsche and another man driving a white 2004 Toyota Solara about 9 p.m. The men had been eastbound on Interstate 90 before taking exit 12 and heading south toward West Ironwood Drive, according to the ISP.

At least one of the men was cited for reckless driving.

ISP is asking witnesses to call (208) 772-8585.

Newport, Wash.

Murder charge has been dismissed

A murder charge has been dismissed against a Pend Oreille County man accused of helping to kill his former girlfriend’s husband.

Deputy Prosecutor Mike Carbone said Friday that the charge against 70-year-old John Kingsley Pate may be refiled later. Mary Rosalee Gray, 60, is still scheduled for trial Nov. 13 in the shooting death of her husband, 70-year-old Robert Allen Gray, last May.

Mary Gray and John Pate both were charged with first-degree murder and, as an alternative, second-degree murder.

Carbone said detectives are still at work, but the evidence so far is stronger against Mary Gray than Pate. Pate refused to waive his rights to a speedy trial, and Carbone said he wasn’t ready to proceed.

Pate has insisted he didn’t know about the alleged murder until Mary Gray asked him to help bury the body near Newport with a backhoe, Carbone said. He said Pate will be charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance if he is not again charged with murder.