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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: ACLU supports moving CdA teen Eldon Samuel out of adult jail

From Wire Reports

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging a judge’s decision to hold a 15-year-old accused of killing his father and brother in the Kootenai County Jail with adult inmates.

The Idaho ACLU on Friday filed a brief in support of Public Defender John Adams’ petition seeking to return Eldon Gale Samuel III to the county’s Juvenile Detention Center, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported.

District Judge Benjamin Simpson on July 1 ordered Samuel transferred to the county jail to keep him away from other juveniles. Simpson ordered that Samuel be held in solitary confinement at the adult jail.

Samuel is charged as an adult with shooting 46-year-old Eldon Samuel Jr. and shooting and stabbing 13-year-old Jonathan Samuel in an emergency housing unit in Coeur d’Alene in March.

Woman charged in coffee shop killing

SEATTLE – A Tacoma woman accused of shooting a man in the head at a Kent Starbucks has been charged with first-degree attempted murder.

The Seattle Times reported Fermina Bartolini Bertos, 24, is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the King County Jail. She was charged Friday in Seattle.

Kent police said Bertos and the victim were walking into the Starbucks on Tuesday when she shot him in the head and ran off.

Charging documents say Bertos’ mother told police that her daughter called her crying after the shooting and claimed that she had shot the man because he had sexually assaulted her.

Bertos later turned herself in to Tacoma police. A handgun was found in her car.

I-90 work will affect Seattle commuters

BELLEVUE – The Washington Department of Transportation is asking commuters to make alternative plans for getting to work next week if they usually commute to Seattle on Interstate 90.

Three lanes of westbound I-90 will be closed beginning Friday at 9:30 p.m. between Bellevue and Mercer Island for road repair.

The lanes will be closed while crews replace two aging and deteriorating 92-foot-long bridge expansion joints on the freeway’s east channel bridge.

The lane closures also will affect many of Bellevue’s on-ramps to westbound I-90.

Transportation officials say about 85,000 drivers use westbound I-90 each day. Crews hope to complete their work and reopen the lanes on Friday at 5 a.m.