Kip Hill

Sharon Gerlach feared for her husband’s life in the moments before he fired on the couple’s fleeing SUV, killing driver Brendon Kaluza-Graham. “I thought he was holding a gun, pointing it at my husband,” Gerlach said, tears welling in the corners of her eyes.

Police detectives testified Monday that it would have been nearly impossible for Gail Gerlach to see a threatening gesture made inside his stolen vehicle, wrapping up the prosecution’s case in the manslaughter trial. Gerlach will argue that he saw Brendon Kaluza-Graham point in a threatening manner and that he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed the car thief in March 2013.

Police detectives testified Monday that it would have been nearly impossible for Gail Gerlach to see a threatening gesture made inside his stolen vehicle, wrapping up the prosecution’s case in the manslaughter trial.

Moments after Gail Gerlach fatally shot Brendon Kaluza-Graham, he called 911 to report his SUV had been stolen. As the dispatcher took his information, a breathless Gerlach interrupted her: “Honey, will you listen to me for a second? I took a shot at the guy.”

In August 1969, a lanky and bushy-haired Army Sgt. Leon Strigotte stooped to inspect makeshift booby traps laid by Viet Cong near Bong Son, a village near the coast in south-central Vietnam. An Army photographer captured the moment in black-and-white, the young soldier gazing intently at explosives not unlike the land mine that wounded him and killed two others following a day of intense fighting near the city of Hue less than 18 months before.

Judy Camp is no dog thief. But jurors said she went too far when she tried to give an Okanogan County sheriff’s deputy the slip as he investigated a stolen pet complaint.

The woman who said she rescued a blue heeler named "Tank" from an Okanogan County junkyard in December was found guilty of obstructing justice Thursday. She was cleared of pet theft and lying to an officer charges.

A 30-year-old man shot and killed by Spokane police outside a home in northwest Spokane on Wednesday night had a history of drug use and was barred from owning a gun because of his criminal history, according to records. Stephen C. Corkery was identified by the Spokane County medical examiner as the man shot multiple times following a standoff around 7 p.m. Wednesday. Corkery was armed with a gun when he walked out of a single-story structure and refused commands to disarm, according to police.

A $950 yard-sale deal for a nearly 50-year-old boat left a Spokane Valley man with thousands of dollars owed in fees – and anger over the role of zealous law students who helped build the case against him. Pat Lewis, a self-employed metal worker and part-time bus driver for the West Valley School District, said he initially was confused by letters he received from Gonzaga Law School students working for University Legal Assistance. In the end, he added, a judge didn’t decide the matter based on the condition of the boat – which was sold on his lawn “as is” – but rather on his failure to properly react to the blizzard of paperwork filed against him.

A woman who took a chained-up dog from deplorable and freezing conditions near Twisp last December will be on trial today in Okanogan County. Prosecutors accuse Judy Camp of pet theft, lying to police and obstructing justice.

The man who placed a bomb along the Martin Luther King Jr. Day march route in January 2011 will continue to serve his 32-year prison term after a federal judge Thursday threw out his sentencing appeal. Kevin Harpham, 39, appealed his stay at a maximum security prison in California almost immediately after his sentencing in December 2011. Harpham claimed that he had been coerced by his attorneys into pleading guilty to federal criminal counts of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and committing a hate crime.