In brief: Car crashes into home during police chase
A Spokane Valley man crashed into a home early Friday as he tried to flee police after allegedly beating a woman.
Justin T. McDowell, 27, also faces DUI charges related to the early morning incident.
According to a Spokane Valley Police press release, Officer Dale Wells witnessed McDowell driving recklessly near Pines Road and Cataldo Avenue just after Wells heard a woman screaming.
McDowell allegedly ran a red light and a stop sign and sped at 70 mph before crashing into a home on the 600 block of North Glenn.
He had to be removed from the 2001 Hyundai and was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Meanwhile, the woman was found to have injuries consistent with having been beaten, police said.
McDowell has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to elude police, DUI, driving with a suspended license, possession of a dangerous weapon (a three-bladed throwing star) and domestic violence assault.
FORT LEWIS, Wash.
Soldier accused of stabbing death
Army authorities have charged a soldier with murder in the stabbing death of another soldier last week at this base south of Tacoma.
Pvt. Anthony Cruse, 19, of Licking, Mo., is accused of killing 22-year-old Pvt. Timothy W. Crislip of Elmhurst, Ill., June 15 outside a barracks.
Officials have suggested no motive for the stabbing. Cruse was arrested a few hours afterward and was formally charged with premeditated murder Wednesday.
Cruse joined the Army last November and arrived at Fort Lewis in March. He is assigned to the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, a new Stryker brigade being developed here.
Crislip joined the Army in 2003 and had previously been assigned to Fort Campbell in Kentucky and Fort Jackson, S.C., before coming to Fort Lewis last April. He was also assigned to the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
Crislip served a year in Iraq ending in April 2006 with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 44th Air Defense Battalion at Fort Campbell.
PASCO, Wash.
Fugitive returned for trial in killings
A fugitive who spent nearly 20 years in Mexico after five men were killed in a Pasco business is back in the Tri-Cities and has been booked into the Franklin County jail.
Vicente Ruiz, 42, was arrested in September. He faces multiple charges in the Oct. 13, 1987, slayings at Medina’s Body Shop.
“This is probably one of the most notorious cases in the history of Franklin County. People still recall the body shop homicides,” said Franklin County Prosecutor Steve Lowe.
Ruiz is charged with five counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.
Pedro Mendez-Reyna, Ruiz’s cousin, is serving a life sentence without parole for his role in the murders.
Killed were Misael Barajas, 21, Francisco V. Cortez, 21, Juan Antonio Lopez Garcia, 20, Eliceo Lamas, 20, and Rafael Magallon, 22. Aldo Montes-Lamas, the lone survivor, was shot in the stomach, but dove under a car and lived.
The reason for the slayings is not known, but could come out at trial.
Ruiz’s arrest took 19 years, in part because of Mexico’s extradition treaty that until a few years ago protected criminal defendants facing potential life sentences from being returned to the U.S.