Kip Hill

An 11-year-old boy sat in a Stevens County courtroom Thursday, plying a rubber band between his hands as lawyers tangled over admitting a handgun and knife as evidence the gradeschooler conspired to rape and murder a female classmate in February "because she was annoying."

A deal for drugs, electronics and sex turned deadly in Hillyard late Tuesday night. Police say Brandon Compogno died of a gunshot wound at 2418 E. Empire Ave. after he discovered another man outside with his girlfriend and told him to run or get shot.

A child molester faces life in prison after a Spokane jury convicted him Tuesday of touching a 5-year-old girl at a NorthTown Mall arcade. Richard Payne, 56, showed little emotion as individual jurors announced three guilty verdicts in Judge Kathleen O’Connor’s courtroom. Payne molested the girl on two separate occasions at Bumpers arcade in June 2012. The jury also convicted him of exposing himself to the youngster.

Two minutes of surveillance footage taken at a NorthTown Mall arcade last year will likely decide if a Spokane child molester, back in court for allegedly fondling and exposing himself to a 5-year-old girl, will spend the rest of his life in prison. Prosecutors said Richard Payne, 56, can clearly be seen twice touching the girl inappropriately near a coin-operated ride in the mall’s “Bumpers” arcade. But defense attorney David Hearrean told jurors that explanation was speculative at best, and suggested at one point his client’s behavior, including shifting his pants and shirt, could be explained by an enlarged prostate.

A Colville police officer was charged Friday with seven criminal counts, including four felonies, stemming from a string of alleged on-duty sexual encounters with women dating to 2011. Rex Newport, 45, has been formally accused of first-degree burglary and unlawful imprisonment, custodial sexual misconduct and making false or misleading statements to a public servant, according to documents filed in Stevens County Superior Court on Friday afternoon. Newport’s alleged behavior came to the attention of authorities after a woman claimed she’d been sexually assaulted by the 15-year veteran of the Colville police force at her apartment in March.

Rex Newport faces seven charges in connection with a series of alleged sexual encounters with intoxicated women dating back to 2011. Newport remains on administrative leave from the Colville Police Department.

Emergency funds will provide for the funding of the low-income nutrition assistance program in Washington and Idaho through the end of October, should the federal government shutdown continue.

The Inland Northwest’s congressional delegation remained split on who to blame for the federal government shutdown, set to enter its third day today. Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, of Spokane, and Raul Labrador, of Eagle, Idaho, are accusing the Democratic-controlled Senate of ignoring their demands to delay implementation of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. Senate Democrats, including Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, say House Republicans are holding the nation hostage over an ideological dispute that’s already been settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Last year, former U.S. Marine Jeff Jensen found peace of mind in just 15 minutes. “I know I’m good, should something happen,” Jensen said this week. “I know where my fishing tackles are going, and my African violets.”

Federal agents said they discovered a cache of modified weapons inside the barricaded home of a Spokane man believed to have authored a frightening manifesto declaring himself the embodiment of God’s wrath. The man, identified in court documents as Brent Russ, 33, was being investigated by the FBI for allegedly stalking a tribal police officer and was taken into custody Thursday without incident.

The Spokane man who shot a car thief outside his home in March will take the witness stand next week to argue statements he made to police directly following the incident should be suppressed from his upcoming manslaughter trial. Through his defense attorneys, Gail Gerlach, 57, has requested a hearing in Spokane County Superior Court to argue that words and statements attributed to him in court records were incorrectly paraphrased by officers. Gerlach, who claims he fired in self-defense because he thought the thief was armed, also contends he was inadequately informed of his Miranda rights before speaking with investigators.

The Spokane man whose lawn was littered with more than $200,000 in stolen property following a string of burglaries last summer will spend the next 51 months behind bars, a judge ruled Wednesday. Troy Lee Baumgardner, 38, pleaded guilty to burglary and theft charges stemming from at least three break-ins at Spokane-area businesses between May and August 2012. Baumgardner was arrested in September 2012 at a north Spokane apartment, where Spokane County sheriff’s deputies found stereo equipment, clothing and electronics taken in the burglaries that investigators carted out and sorted on the lawn outside the building.

The U.S. Park Service is refusing to identify the rangers involved in a campground shooting near Kettle Falls earlier this month. The Washington State Patrol, which is assisting the investigation into the shooting that wounded a man on a houseboat, also is refusing to identify the rangers.

Check out today's top stories in The Spokesman-Review.

Two violent attacks this summer have galvanized Seattle and Portland efforts to crack down on the perception of downtown lawlessness. On Sept. 13, Troy Wolff, a 46-year-old English professor at a Seattle community college, was stabbed to death in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square as he walked home from a soccer match.

Washington State Patrol detectives seized two guns from a houseboat where a National Park Service ranger shot and wounded a 43-year-old Kettle Falls man and used a stun gun and pepper spray on the boat’s owner Saturday night. More details are emerging about the violent struggle aboard the houseboat moored at the Kettle River Campground that included a ranger getting shoved off a gangplank and the shooting of Casey Hartinger as his family says his 9-year-old son was nearby.

Two guns were found aboard the houseboat where investigators say one National Park Service ranger fired and struck an occupant in the chest Saturday night. The boat's owner has been charged in federal court, but the person shot and wounded has not been arrested.