Region in brief: Man guilty in methadone death
A Moses Lake man faces at least four years in prison after being convicted of controlled substance-related homicide.
A jury deliberated for about an hour Thursday before finding Corey Christman, 30, guilty in the death of Ryan Leonard Mulder, 19, the Grant County Sheriff’s Office reported Tuesday.
Mulder, of Moses Lake, died Sept. 10, 2008, three days after he took nine methadone pills given to him by Christman. Mulder took the pills at a party within a span of less than two hours.
Christman faces 51 months to 68 months in prison. He’s the first person in Grant County to be charged and tried for “controlled substance homicide.”
The Grant County Sheriff’s Office has investigated at least five methadone overdose deaths in the past two years, Undersheriff John Turley said.
Meghann M. Cuniff
Rally protests war, proposed surge
About 75 people turned out for a peace rally Tuesday in protest of the war in Iraq and the proposed surge of troops into Afghanistan.
Protesters gathered on all corners of the intersection of Hamilton Street and Trent Avenue about 5 p.m., waving signs that read “No War” and “8 years is too long.” The rally was organized by the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane.
“The hope is very fervently that we … will withdraw our troops,” said Nancy Nelson, a PJALS organizer.
President Barack Obama is considering Pentagon requests to send tens of thousands additional troops into Afghanistan.
In addition to PJALS members, students from Gonzaga University’s Justice Club also attended the rally, holding a mini-rally on campus prior to the event.
“I think a lot of people have kind of forgotten we are at war,” said Kari Sulenes, 21.
Sara Leaming
6-year-old killed in rollover crash
A 6-year-old girl from Grant County died Monday in a rollover auto accident that occurred when her mother, the driver, reached for a cell phone, sheriff’s deputies said.
Carla Avila-Juarez died at the accident scene at 6:22 p.m. Monday on Dodson Road South about eight miles north of Royal City. She was not properly restrained in a child seat and was partly ejected, according to Undersheriff John Turley.
Alma Rosa Avila-Juarez, 25, was headed north in a 1994 Nissan Maxima when the vehicle drifted to the west side of Dodson Road and onto the shoulder. The driver overcorrected but lost control of the car, which went down a steep embankment and rolled onto its top.
Passing motorists, including an off-duty sheriff’s deputy and his wife, tried to help the victims, including two younger children who were properly restrained. Avila-Juarez and her two sons, ages 2 and 3, were taken to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake with non-life-threatening injuries.
Staff reports