A third teenage boy was arrested Thursday on suspicion of setting the fire last week that destroyed the Sacajawea Middle School library. He and two who were arrested Wednesday are Lewis and Clark High School sophomores who attended Sacajawea last year.
Sheriff's deputies arrested on Tuesday the second of two suspects in the killing of a man whose charred body was found Aug. 14 in what appeared to be a campfire near Newman Lake. Court documents suggest the crime had its roots in drugs, money and, possibly, revenge. Craig Alan Schiering, 42, was shot in the head allegedly as he drove his killers to a secluded location where he planned to buy a half-pound of methamphetamine from one of them.
A homeowner who said he wanted to keep his neighborhood safe pleaded guilty Thursday to intimidating four children with a pistol because two of them twisted a neighbor's newspaper delivery box. Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz said some of the children, ages 12 to 15 at the time, were so scared they wet themselves when 39-year-old Danny Joe Roske forced them onto their stomachs June 4 with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol.
A felon who allegedly stripped naked on a Spokane street and assaulted two young girls in front of a police officer was in the county jail Wednesday night – where authorities have had trouble keeping him. Rodney Eugene Cormier, 32, has been in and out of jail since his arrest Aug. 15 on suspicion of assaulting a 13-year-old girl and her 12-year-old sister as they walked along Crestline Street near Everett Avenue.
A 38-year-old Spokane woman is suspected of criminally mistreating her disabled mother, whose living conditions were described as among the worst ever seen by the paramedics who treated her. Two paramedics found 67-year-old Mary C. Tolliver covered with feces and urine in a home that was "cluttered with garbage, filth and human and animal feces," according to court documents.
A Spokane man is scheduled to plead guilty next month to charges that he forced four young teenagers onto their stomachs at gunpoint because he thought they were vandalizing a neighbor's property. Two of the teenagers turned out to be children of a Spokane police lieutenant.
A Spokane hospital worker who shot her husband to death Thursday in southern Stevens County had joined him in a recent flurry of litigation against a former member of Sacred Heart Medical Center's board of directors. Robin Marie Jenkins, a 35-year-old lab assistant at the medical center, claimed in court documents that hospital board member George Albert Bombel, 66, coerced her into a motel room and raped her in December 2005 and then subsequently stalked her.
A domestic dispute ended in an apparent homicide Thursday at a rural home in southern Stevens County, about six miles northwest of Deer Park. Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer said Christopher Crayton Jenkins, 50, died shortly after noon of an apparent gunshot wound to the chest.
Cody L. McDaniel might be called the Hard Working Burglar if he's convicted. McDaniel, 31, faces arraignment today on 16 charges in a case in which he allegedly told a sheriff's deputy that he made his living as a thief, and that it's more work than the deputy imagined.
Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle filed charges Monday against three suspects in the Aug. 6 armed robbery of a Kettle Falls gasoline station and convenience store. The suspects, all charged as adults, are Eric Hufferd-Ouellette, 17; Jordan Kerr, 18; and Geronimo Chavez, 24.
Group home administrator Pam Brault was incensed when she read in her newspaper that the woman accused of setting fire to the Oak Hill Home for the mentally ill had a history of arson convictions. Brault should have read that first in a report prepared by Eastern State Hospital.
Grant County felon Ralph Blakely improved the lives of scores of criminals – but not his own – when he won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision two years ago. The 70-year-old convict must continue serving a 35-year prison sentence, the Spokane branch of the Washington Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. A three-judge panel rejected all of Blakely's complaints about his trial.
The woman accused of threatening people with a butcher knife and setting fire Monday to a South Hill group home for the mentally ill has a history of arson convictions. Peggye Anne Brown, 48, has twice pleaded guilty to second-degree arson for setting fires at Eastern State Hospital in Medical Lake. In both cases, she had been charged with first-degree arson.
The state Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a judge's ruling that Spokane police Officer Karl Thompson lacked grounds to detain a teenage gang member who allegedly was carrying a stolen pistol. Reversing Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly, the appellate court said Thompson needed only a "reasonable, articulable suspicion," not "actual knowledge of a crime" to stop and search Aaron A. Maxwell in July 2005.
A 33-year-old man was arrested Sunday afternoon on two counts of luring a child when a police officer allegedly saw him hugging an 8-year-old girl at a north Spokane park. Arne R. Loge was in the county jail Monday night in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Police and volunteers planned to resume a search of Spokane County bridges today in hopes of finding the remains of missing Spokane resident James F. Ehrgott. Detective Sgt. Joe Peterson confirmed Friday that triple-murder suspect John Wayne Thomson, 46, told investigators he killed the 73-year-old Ehrgott and left the recently retired Spokane Arena usher's body under a bridge after an encounter at High Bridge Park.
The state Department of Social and Health Services is looking at why it placed a 20-month-old boy with a relative who had a criminal history and is now accused of killing him. Spokeswoman Kathy Spears said the agency is reviewing the measures it took to make sure Devon L. Miller would be safe, and a formal investigation involving outside experts could follow.
A first-degree assault charge was upgraded to second-degree murder Monday against a Spokane foster father suspected of beating a 20-month-old boy who died Sunday. Avery E. Sam, 37, remained in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
Authorities say the man suspected of killing a missing Spokane resident and a Western Washington woman appears to have added a third victim in Southern California. John Wayne Thomson's alleged third victim is a California man who had been driving from Las Vegas.
A sex offender who claims to have a split personality is back in the Pend Oreille County Jail less than a month after completing a sentence for slashing and stabbing two pets. Adam Michael Richardson, 27, is charged with two counts of probation violation and, according to his probation officer, is an arson suspect.
Spokane homeowner Damien White roasted Avista Utilities for a power line fire Tuesday that burned his fence and landscaping even though the company was warned Sunday night that electric lines were arcing. At least one line fell about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, igniting a bush as well as White's fence at 919 S. Pittsburg St. while he was at work.
Court documents say 23-year-old Ryan M. Snow told police he poured his grandfather a soft drink Saturday, then slashed his throat with a folding knife. James R. Bittick, 65, was dead on the backyard patio of his home at 2711 N. Atlantic St. when police arrived.
The man suspected of killing missing Spokane resident James F. Ehrgott had Ehrgott's car while selling stolen goods at a private camp site in Western Washington, according to court documents. No one knew the 73-year-old Ehrgott was missing until a Lewis County sheriff's deputy found his car July 12 while investigating a rash of thefts.
A Pend Oreille County jury Friday authorized above-standard punishment for an armed assailant who paralyzed a man by severing his spinal cord with a knife. The jury took about four hours and 40 minutes Thursday and Friday to convict 40-year-old Troy Dean Stubbs of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon – a 9-inch long folding knife with a 4-inch blade.
Spokane police named a suspect Thursday in the apparent homicide of a missing Spokane man – a suspect who also is wanted by Longview, Wash., police in a similar disappearance there. Officers all along the West Coast are looking for former Spokane resident John Wayne Thomson, 46, a three-time convicted rapist who is believed to have been in possession of missing Spokane resident James F. Ehrgott's car.
