In brief: Man dies after cave walls fall
HUNTINGTON, Ore. – An Eastern Oregon man died Saturday when the walls of a mining cave collapsed on him.
Senior Trooper Tracy Howard of the Oregon State Police said 42-year-old Jose Aguiar Jr. was digging inside a small cave along the Burnt River in Baker County when the rock and dirt wall gave way.
Two men and a boy with Aguiar were not hurt.
Howard said Aguiar was about 20 feet from the cave’s entrance and the men spent several minutes digging him out.
Unable to call 911 from the site, they placed him in a van and drove 30 miles to Holy Rosary Medical Center in Ontario, Ore. He was pronounced dead in the emergency room.
Boy, 12, charged
in fire fatal to two
ARLINGTON, Wash. – Snohomish County prosecutors have charged a 12-year-old boy suspected of starting a 2008 fire that killed two boys in a foster home near Arlington.
The boy was charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree manslaughter Friday in the juvenile division of Snohomish County Superior Court.
The boy told detectives he was playing with a lighter in his bedroom and accidentally set fire to bedsheets he was using for a fort.
The fire killed 10-year-old Tyler Emory and 11-year-old Kyler Williams.
Deputy prosecutor John Stansell said investigators don’t believe the boy intended to start the fire. He said the boy was charged in way that would allow him to enter a deferred prosecution.
Male wolf missing
from Oregon pair
LA GRANDE, Ore. – The state Department of Fish and Wildlife says the alpha male is missing from Oregon’s only confirmed breeding pair of wolves.
Russ Morgan, the ODFW’s wolf coordinator, said the animal has been missing for about three weeks.
The wolf was outfitted in February with a GPS collar. Morgan said it’s not uncommon for a radio collar to fail, but another possibility is that the wolf is dead.
The Oregon Wolf Plan says four breeding pairs must be established in Eastern Oregon before the animal can be delisted as an endangered species.
Stepmom to take second polygraph
PORTLAND – The stepmother of missing Oregon boy Kyron Horman was scheduled to take a second polygraph test Saturday.
That’s according Jaymie Finster, a longtime friend of Terri Moulton Horman.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office declined to confirm the friend’s claim and won’t say who has or has not been given a lie-detector test.
Finster told the Oregonian newspaper that Terri Horman is “tired and frustrated” with the intensity of questioning she’s been getting.
The Portland boy vanished June 4. The stepmother has figured prominently in the investigation because authorities say she was the last known person to see him alive.
Investigators, however, have not called Terri Horman a suspect or a person-of-interest.
Shellfish harvest forced to close
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. – Washington state health officials have closed Fidalgo Bay to recreational shellfish harvesting because of potentially deadly levels of paralytic shellfish poison, or red tide.
The Skagit Valley Herald said the beach was closed Friday and will remain closed until sampling indicates toxin levels have declined.
Recreational harvest closures also are in effect in Whatcom and San Juan counties.
Man gets 20 years for assaulting teen
SEATTLE – A Lake Forest Park man accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl after his teenage son brought the girl to their home has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
KOMO-TV reported the father, Victor Casarez Sr., said at his hearing Friday in King County Superior Court that he deserved the death penalty for what he did.
The son, Victor Casarez Jr., got a six-month jail sentence.
The suburban Shoreline girl contacted police to say she was drugged, sexually assaulted and photographed on July 21 after she went to the house with the 18-year-old son, whom she knew from school.
Prosecutors alleged the girl was given a drugged glass of juice and awoke hours later to find herself in bed with the older man.
Plan to kill chief nets prison term
CALDWELL, Idaho – A 24-year-old Caldwell man who pleaded guilty to planning to kill Homedale, Idaho’s police chief has been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
John Wayne Richmond Jr. was arrested in December after officials said he traded drugs for a gun in an exchange arranged by undercover officers.
Prosecutors argued that he intended to use the weapon to shoot Homedale Police Chief Jeff Eidemiller.
A court on Friday ordered him to serve at least five years before he would be eligible for parole, which could last for another five years.
Bankruptcy fraud charges filed
Vicki Jean Fehrs, 55, who has since moved from Mullan, Idaho, was indicted on four counts of bankruptcy fraud. Fehrs allegedly transferred a house she owned in Mullan to her teenage son to protect it, while discharging more than $500,000 in unsecured debt. The grand jury also concluded that Fehrs concealed $47,995 from the house’s sale.