John Craig

The trial of a Spokane County man accused of severely battering a 15-month-old ended Thursday with a hung jury. Jurors indicated they were evenly split on whether to convict 22-year-old Eric T. Quesnell of attempted first-degree child assault and attempted second-degree child assault.

Tenure is the Holy Grail for college professors. It confers freedom to express unpopular ideas without fear of being fired. But academicians must express themselves respectfully, a Spokane County jury ruled Wednesday in an unprecedented lawsuit by a former Whitworth College professor who was dismissed for lack of "collegiality."

A 23-year-old Spokane Valley man has been ordered to serve a day in jail and to undergo a mental evaluation after repeatedly violating a court order springing from an animal-cruelty case involving 61 animals. District Court records show weekly, unannounced inspections found James W. McMullen frequently had more than the 10 pets allowed under a December 2004 plea bargain in which he admitted three counts of confining animals in an unsafe manner and one count of operating an illegal kennel.

A Whitman County Superior Court jury deliberated all day Monday, and convicted an Endicott, Wash., man of first-degree murder for shooting a man he considered a romantic rival. The jury also convicted Erik Hugo Zettergren, 37, of second-degree assault for pointing a gun at a woman, and of unlawful imprisonment for forcing her to help dispose of 32-year-old Jason Robinson's body. And jurors found that each of the crimes was committed with a firearm, which will add more than 10 years to Zettergren's prison term.

A man who admitted six years ago that he committed a second-degree murder has convinced a Spokane County jury he might not have done it after all. After a day of deliberation, jurors found Jack Galbraith "Pops" Kuhnle innocent Friday of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.

A Spokane denture clinic owner was convicted Wednesday of three counts of making false statements to collect Medicaid payments. But a Spokane County Superior Court jury acquitted Cheryl K. Edlin, 58, of four counts of first-degree theft and two counts of second-theft. Her husband, Claude A. Edlin, 61, faced the same charges and was acquitted on all counts.

Anthony James Williams beat a first-degree robbery charge Wednesday, but it did him no good. The jury that rejected the robbery charge convicted Williams, 32, of second-degree assault, and it might as well have convicted him of aggravated murder. The assault was Williams' final "strike" under Washington's "three-strikes" sentencing law.

Alcohol, trouble and Dennis Sprayberry have been fellow travelers for many of his 19 years. Last week was no exception when a 17-year-old girl joined him on the roof of a moving vehicle and was seriously injured when she fell off. The incident drew public attention not only because of the injuries Liz Roberts suffered – a life-threatening cerebral hemorrhage and extensive "road rash" – but because a passer-by who tried to help her was severely beaten by one or more of her companions. Making matters worse, Roberts' friends took two hours to get her to a hospital.

A jury handed down a split verdict Thursday afternoon that spared a 31-year-old man what his attorney said could have been "some incredible amount of time" in prison for a burglary in which his partner was shot dead. Simon Roi "Smoke" Brown was guilty of first-degree burglary and being a felon in possession of a firearm, but not of first-degree robbery and attempted first-degree robbery, according to a Spokane County Superior Court jury that had been deliberating since 11:15 a.m. Wednesday.

The 17-year-old boy arrested in Tuesday's attack on a man who was trying to help a seriously injured girl has an extensive and violent criminal history. The suspect, Spokane resident David Allan Ellis, agreed Wednesday to remain in the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of second-degree assault until formal charges are filed in the beating of the Good Samaritan, 42-year-old Robert M. Dean.

A former Eastern Washington University student who detonated two pipe bombs on campus last fall got a break when he was sentenced Tuesday. Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins accepted a plea-bargain recommendation to apply a first-offender sentencing option to 20-year-old Brent J. Johnson. That brought his sentencing range – which had been three to four years in prison – down to a maximum of three months in the county jail or the Geiger Corrections Center work-release program.

A state trooper, previously disciplined for storing pornography on his police computer, has resigned after allegations he abused his position to gain sexual favors from young women. Trooper Rob Young, 40, of Republic, Wash., turned in his badge July 14 before the Washington State Patrol could complete an internal affairs investigation that could have led to dismissal of the 13-year veteran officer.

Guilty, the judge said Friday: Richard A. Atkinson murdered his wife with a minivan, assaulted his children and did so in a way that justifies extra punishment. When the 33-year-old Spokane resident is sentenced, he faces a standard range of 303/4 to 41 years in prison for first-degree murder.

Richard A. Atkinson took the witness stand Thursday in his first-degree murder trial and testified without showing emotion that he engaged in a car chase with his estranged wife, ran her off the road and ran over her without intending to kill her – without even remembering much of it. Atkinson, 33, was temporarily insane when he crushed 29-year-old Andrea Atkinson's chest with his minivan on April 12 last year, according to one psychologist who testified Thursday. But another psychologist said Atkinson was sane, not temporarily unable to reason because of post traumatic stress disorder in combination with alcohol and methamphetamine.

A former Airway Heights Corrections Center corrections officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of third-degree child rape that began through an encounter in an Internet chat room. Richard Leon Welty, 35, will get almost three years in prison if a judge follows the recommendation of Deputy Prosecutor Ed Hay and defense attorney Chris Phelps. Welty will be sentenced on Sept. 20.

Ten-year-old Winona Atkinson walked into Judge Robert Austin's courtroom, looked at her father at the defendant's table, and burst into tears. "This may not be possible," Assistant Public Defender John Whaley whispered to the girl's father, 33-year-old Richard Atkinson, who is accused of murdering the woman his daughter called Mom.

A methamphetamine-addicted felon was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for prowling a car, using a pistol to threaten three Spokane County sheriff's deputies who caught him and, in an unrelated incident, causing a car crash that seriously injured a Rathdrum, Idaho, couple. Ronald D. Baker Jr., 32, asked for a minimum-standard 8 1/4 -year sentence, but Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins gave him the maximum. Tompkins said Baker had caused "staggering" harm.

Charges against an Okanogan County teenager were permanently dismissed Wednesday because a co-defendant in a Nov. 7 murder and robbery of a Tonasket-area teenager refused to testify. Testimony had just gotten under way in the trial of 18-year-old Devin Duran Palmanteer when the already-convicted murderer, Seymour Xavier Reuben Jr., also 18, refused to be sworn in as a witness against Palmanteer.

A Spokane County judge's decision last November to cancel a woman's divorce became a cause celebre for feminist and civil liberties groups around the country. But the judge was right, the Washington Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine, now retired, was upholding due-process rights, not violating Shawnna J. Hughes' constitutional right to divorce an abusive husband when he rescinded her divorce, according to the Spokane division of the appellate court.

A Spokane drug dealer and pimp faces four or five decades in prison for the murder of a man prosecutors described Tuesday as "a modern-day hero." Robert Tracy Spencer, 42, apparently didn't pull the trigger, but was held responsible for the Nov. 16 shooting death of James Alan Johnston, who twice prevented Spencer from beating a woman he had previously kidnapped. Spencer was trying to force Jonna Pacello, an independent prostitute and drug addict, into accepting him as her pimp.