In brief: Man sentenced to prison for thefts
A 23-year-old Spokane man once considered one of the city’s top 10 repeat offenders was sentenced Wednesday to eight years in prison.
Allen S. Easley was in and out of jail several times last spring for property crimes and a freeway chase with police in which he reached speeds of 100 mph.
Now he’ll have a spot at a state prison after Spokane County Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza approved a plea deal that sentenced him to 100 months.
Easley pleaded guilty to nine felonies, including four counts of second-degree burglary, two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, and single counts of forgery, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and first-degree trafficking in stolen property, said Deputy Prosecutor Eugene Cruz.
Easley was arrested after a freeway chase in May but posted bail, then was arrested again a couple weeks later while trying to sell stolen property at a Hillyard pawn shop.
Threat prompts school evacuation
In a ploy to get out of class early, a Riverside High School student scribbled a bomb threat on a bathroom wall Monday, causing an evacuation of the school.
The school was evacuated, but no explosives were found.
On Tuesday, rumors began circulating the school that a certain 17-year-old male student was the culprit.
The school and sheriff’s deputy George Yingst questioned the student, who denied any involvement. When told the area around the bathroom was under video surveillance, he admitted to writing the threat to prompt an early dismissal.
He told Yingst he enlisted the help of another student to “discover” and report the threat to administrators.
The student is getting more than the early dismissal he was hoping for; the school suspended him immediately and the case has been forwarded to the Juvenile Department of Spokane Superior Court to determine if the teen will be charged with felony charge of making a bomb threat at a school.
Police chase ends in arrest on I-90
A snow berm helped stop a Montana fugitive fleeing police in Spokane Valley on Tuesday night, officials said Wednesday.
Shannon David McCoy, 35, refused to stop his Ford Escort when police spotted him outside the Linger Longer Apartments in the 1800 block of North Hutchinson Road about 10:30 p.m. He sped through stop signs before driving around a police car at Vista Road and Baldwin Avenue and hitting a snow berm, Spokane Valley police said.
The impact launched McCoy’s Escort into the air. Police said McCoy jumped from the car after it stopped and climbed a 6-foot fence and a concrete barrier onto Interstate 90.
Police on the freeway arrested him within seconds, according to a news release. Officers had been watching the Linger Longer since learning that McCoy had left Hayden, Idaho, for the apartments.
McCoy was wanted on a felony warrant in Montana after he failed to show up for an appointment with his probation officer on Nov. 17, according to the Montana Department of Corrections. McCoy is on probation after being convicted of deceptive practices in April 2009, a DOC spokesman said.
Man posts bail after DUI charge
A suspected drunken driver whose blood-alcohol content registered at .354 left jail Tuesday night after posting $7,500 bail.
Donald J. Lafavor, 66, is prohibited from driving or consuming alcohol under an order from Superior Court Judge Michael Price. Lafavor was southbound in a northbound lane on Argonne Road just north of Trent Avenue when a Washington State Patrol trooper spotted him about 1:22 a.m. on Sunday, according to court documents.
Trooper Darren Britton approached Lafavor in a parking lot. After registering a blood-alcohol content four times the legal limit for driving, Lafavor “… tried to convince me the cold medicine was why his blood-alcohol level was so high,” Britton wrote in a report.
Lafavor is scheduled for trial in January on second-degree assault charges for a confrontation with two Spokane County sheriff’s deputies last fall.
Lafavor survived several gunshot wounds after deputies said he’d pointed a gun out the door at his East Broadway Avenue apartment after they knocked but didn’t identify themselves as law enforcement.
Undercover officers net suspect
A recent vehicle prowl police patrol near Gonzaga University led to the arrest of a 32-year-old Spokane man.
Spokane police Cpl. Kevin Keller was in street clothes and an unmarked car near East Cataldo Avenue and North Columbus Street on Friday when he spotted a man later identified as Timothy L. Gunning, 32, looking in the passenger windows of parked cars, police announced Wednesday.
Officers Kyle Heuett and Shawn Pegram, also undercover, stopped him on Hamilton Street near the university and found him with two stolen credit cards.
Police arrested him and found other credit cards as well as personal checks and a Social Security card they suspect is stolen.
“Officers also located a quantity of shattered vehicle glass and a single Honda key in Gunning’s backpack,” police wrote. “Those items were seized as evidence.”
Gunning, who has previous felony convictions for drugs and stolen property, is at Geiger Corrections Center on $2,500 bond.