John Craig

A Spokane County criminal defendant who hadn't had a lot of luck with lawyers represented himself in court this week and won a victory that his former attorney called "amazing." David Lloyd Meckelson, 40, spared himself up to 10 years in prison when he persuaded a jury to acquit him of charges that he manufactured and delivered methamphetamine.

An appellate court ruled Tuesday that a trial judge improperly dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Spokane contractor Harley C. Douglass Inc. built a grossly defective home. The Spokane division of the state Court of Appeals said Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque should not have thrown out James Burbo's claim that Douglass' company violated the state Consumer Protection Act or an "implied warranty."

The trail that led authorities investigating the murder of a Western Washington couple to a Stevens County man was filled with gruesome discoveries and a list of leads provided by a confidential informant that sounded more like characters from a macabre fairy tale. Tony Ray Williams, 50, of Chewelah, will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder or aggravated murder as well as first-degree robbery in the deaths of a couple, Mason County Prosecutor Gary Burleson said this week.

The man who beat Melissa Wageman to death with a steel pipe nine years ago pleaded guilty again Friday and was sent back to prison to finish the 17-year sentence he got in March 1996. Danial Caleb Peters, 31, claimed when he was arrested in 1995 that his gay lover killed Wageman in a jealous rage. Peters later admitted killing Wageman himself and pleaded guilty to second-degree felony murder.

A court case that may be the first to put gay couples on the same footing as other unmarried couples in Spokane County has resulted in a lopsided property settlement. Retired Superior Court Judge Harold Clarke has ruled that Central Valley School District teacher Roseanne Day and Linda Kelsh, owner of the Candy 'N' Carmelcorn store at the NorthTown Mall, had a "meretricious," or marriage-like, relationship in the 11 years they lived together.

There may not have been a dry eye in Judge Tari Eitzen's courtroom Wednesday when she allowed prolific burglar Donald Gene Myhren to hold his 3-month-old daughter before going to prison. Still, Eitzen told the 23-year-old Myhren, "This is not one of those cases where I struggle with what I do. I think you are a terrible menace to this community."

A 38-year-old Spokane woman who abandoned three newborn babies, one of whom died, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree manslaughter and two counts of second-degree child abandonment. Stacey Lynn Jones faces a standard range of 21/2 to 31/2 years in prison when Spokane County Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza sentences her on March 11.

Ray Fink wasn't about to become a victim early Saturday morning when a man pushed open the door to his Coeur d'Alene home and pointed a .45-caliber pistol at his head. A disabled, 20-year veteran of the Navy and the Coast Guard, the 56-year-old Fink wrestled the gun away from his much younger assailant and drove him off with his own weapon.

A former Spokane street kid who helped beat a man to death for sport in 1998 got 3 3/4 years shaved off his prison sentence Friday because of a state Supreme Court decision. Nathanael Jacob Haux, now 22, was 16 when he and three other youths beat 44-year-old John M. Bock in an alley near Pacific Avenue and Browne Street in downtown Spokane.

A fugitive who ran a Spokane Police patrol car off the road and ran over a police motorcycle was convicted Tuesday of eluding and two counts of assault. Shappa Jay Baker, 27, was convicted of first-degree assault for ramming his Dodge Ram pickup into the driver-side door of Officer Robert Collins' police car during a high-speed chase through Spokane last June.

A Deer Park real estate agent faces 20 to 25 years in prison for raping an 11-year-old girl and forcing her to have sex with her 10-year-old brother and with a dog. David Bruce Campbell pleaded no contest Tuesday to four of nine charges he was facing in Stevens County Superior Court. In exchange, Prosecutor Jerry Wetle agreed to recommend a low-end 20-year minimum prison term.

A state Department of Transportation technician pleaded guilty Wednesday to vehicular assault in the death last February of an Airway Heights pizza deliveryman. Paul S. Estrada, 50, admitted in Spokane County Superior Court that he was driving drunk when he plowed head-on into Yevgeny "Eugene" Korotin's car while attempting to pass another car in heavy fog.

The last of three culprits in a violent home-invasion burglary at a Newman Lake home in October 2003 was sentenced Wednesday in Spokane County Superior Court. Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen sentenced Bryan William Hobert, 29, to almost two years in prison for his guilty plea in November to attempted first-degree burglary with a firearm.

The city of Spokane is free to "keep the pig out of the parlor" under an appeals court ruling Tuesday upholding the city's zoning ordinance for adult bookstores and other sex shops. City spokeswoman Marlene Feist said the ruling by the Washington Court of Appeals in Spokane was a signal for city officials to begin forcing three World Wide Video stores to move away from residential zones.

A Leavenworth, Wash., high school teacher was properly fired for misconduct with one of her students, according to a decision released this week by the Washington Court of Appeals in Spokane. Cascade High School art teacher Bonnie C. Powell denied allegations that she had a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student she regarded as a son, but court documents say she knew he consumed alcohol on a trip to Europe under her supervision.

A Spokane couple has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against an Idaho trucking company and truck driver for an Aug. 7 crash that killed their unborn daughter. Fatima Zukic was 35 weeks pregnant, about eight months, when her uterus was ruptured in a three-vehicle collision on U.S. Highway 191, about 27 miles south of Bozeman. Zukic's fetus, named Ajla, was killed.