Stories by Thomas Clouse for the Spokesman-Review

News > Spokane

Accused Freeman school shooter told detectives that everything went ‘exactly as intended’

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 27, 2017

The day before Freeman High School endured a shooting tragedy, the accused shooter flipped a coin into the air. Heads meant shoot students.

News > Spokane

Spokane man gets 25 years in federal prison for drug, gun convictions

UPDATED: Tue., Sept. 26, 2017

A Spokane felon was sentenced Tuesday to a quarter century in federal prison after he was convicted of a drug charge and illegal possession of a firearm.

News > Spokane

Detectives in Renfro murder trial describe finding gun stolen from slain officer

UPDATED: Tue., Sept. 26, 2017

Just under three hours after someone shot Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Greg Moore in the face and stole his gun in 2015, investigators found his stolen patrol car near Stateline, Idaho. Nearby, under a semitrailer, they sent in a police dog to apprehend the man who now faces the death penalty.

News > Spokane

Hillyard

Sun., Sept. 24, 2017

Spokane’s northeast border is home to a working-class neighborhood built during the golden era of railroads and marred by decades of economic struggle that followed.

News > Spokane

Former Spokane Sheriff’s deputy guilty of stealing money from Social Security, VA

UPDATED: Fri., Sept. 22, 2017

A jury on Friday convicted a former Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy and found him guilty of lying to fraudulently obtain assistance from two federal programs designed to provide funds for those who can’t work for themselves.

News > Spokane

Whistleblower helps secure $2 million settlement over contract rigging at Hanford

Fri., Sept. 22, 2017

A whistleblower has been paid $470,000 out of a $2 million settlement after successfully challenging what she and government prosecutors say was a shell company at the Hanford nuclear site.

News > Idaho

Jury selected in Coeur d’Alene to hear potential death penalty case of Jonathan Renfro

UPDATED: Wed., Sept. 20, 2017

A jury has been selected to hear the potential death penalty case against Jonathan D. Renfro for the 2015 shooting death of a Coeur d’Alene police officer.

News > Spokane

Federal prosecutors finish case against former sheriff’s deputy in $650,000 fraud trial

UPDATED: Tue., Sept. 19, 2017

After federal prosecutors rested their case Tuesday, the wife of a former Spokane County sheriff’s deputy testified that she was unaware that her husband was receiving about $5,000 a month in disability payments that the government claims he wasn’t entitled to receive.

News > Spokane

Accused Freeman school shooter Caleb Sharpe drew an “X” over some student pictures in yearbook

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 18, 2017

When Spokane County Sheriff’s detectives searched Caleb Sharpe’s home, they found he had marked out the faces of fellow classmates in the Freeman High School yearbook. “X = kill,” Detective Mike Drapeau wrote in court records.

News > Spokane

Freeman High School suspended, evaluated shooter after note was discovered

Sat., Sept. 16, 2017

A parent and a school official confirmed for the first time Friday that the Freeman School District knew Caleb Sharpe had handed notes to students threatening to do something stupid, and that the school responded by suspending him.

News > Spokane

Purse stolen from mother as she raced to find child in wake of Freeman school shooting

UPDATED: Fri., Sept. 15, 2017

A mother left her car on Highway 27 in Rockford to run to Freeman High School to find her children Wednesday after a fatal shooting was reported there. Someone then broke into her car, stole her purse and has racked up $36,000 in fraudulent purchases.

News > Spokane

Signs and warnings failed to prevent Freeman school shooting

Fri., Sept. 15, 2017

Caleb Sharpe began months ago making videos with guns and bragged to several friends when he figured out the combination to his father’s gun safe.

News > Spokane

Former Spokane County Sheriff’s jailer faces trial for allegedly defrauding $650,000 from government

UPDATED: Tue., Sept. 12, 2017

A former Spokane County Sheriff’s jailer appeared Tuesday before the jury that will decide whether he suffers from a medical condition that causes varying visual problems or if he lied about permanent blindness to defraud the federal government of disability payments totaling more than $650,000.

News > Pacific NW

Chelan County deletes “All Lives Splatter” post from emergency management Facebook page

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 11, 2017

A Chelan County emergency employee learned the hard way on the 16th anniversay of 9/11 about when a Facebook “Share” becomes over-share.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Jury selection begins for accused cop killer Jonathan Renfro

UPDATED: Mon., Sept. 11, 2017

They were firefighters, stay-at-home moms and young adults trying to start a career. All of them were among one of the biggest pools of jurors to be summoned in Kootenai County history to hear the first-degree murder trial of accused cop killer Jonathan Renfro.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Trial for accused cop killer Jonathan Renfro opens in Coeur d’Alene

Mon., Sept. 11, 2017

It was the kind of crime that a community remembers forever: Following reports of burglaries, a 16-year veteran Coeur d’Alene Police officer enters an area of the Lake City after midnight. The officer encounters an armed man and is shot in the head.

News > Spokane

Surgeon challenges law enforcement over controversial autopsies

Sun., Sept. 10, 2017

Dr. Suzan Entwistle is a trained surgeon whose injured hand ended her career. She now works to give voice to the dead.

News > Spokane

Accused cop killer Jonathan Renfro pleads to lesser charges before murder trial begins

UPDATED: Fri., Sept. 8, 2017

Just days before his death-penalty case was set to begin, Jonathan D. Renfro pleaded guilty to a couple lesser charges stemming from the night that a Coeur d’Alene Police officer was killed in 2015.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Former advertising executive pleads not guilty to causing fatal Lake Coeur d’Alene boat crash

UPDATED: Fri., Sept. 1, 2017

Spokane advertising executive Dennis Magner pleaded not guilty Friday after an Idaho grand jury filed charges against him for the deaths of three people killed in a boat collision last summer on Lake Coeur d’Alene.

News > Spokane

FBI rules Montana woman found shot dead in trunk in Spokane was an elaborate suicide

UPDATED: Thu., Aug. 31, 2017

The FBI announced Thursday that its year-long investigation into the reported kidnapping of a Montana woman, who was later found shot to death in the trunk of a car located in Spokane, was actually a suicide.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Settlement proposed for Spokane doctors’ $191 million bankruptcy

UPDATED: Wed., Aug. 30, 2017

A pair of Spokane doctors may be able to settle their $191 million bankruptcy by paying as little as $130,000 to be split among more than 8,000 creditors.

News > Crime/Public Safety

FBI issues reward for Double Hat Bandit for bank heists in five states and Spokane

UPDATED: Wed., Aug. 30, 2017

The FBI is willing to fork over $10,000 for information that leads to the conviction of the so-called “Double Hat Bandit,” who is believed to have committed 13 bank robberies in grocery stores located five states, including three in Spokane.

News > Spokane

Judge refuses request to move Ennis rape trial over coverage

UPDATED: Tue., Aug. 29, 2017

Despite a request from both the defense attorney and a deputy prosecutor, a Spokane County judge denied a motion Tuesday to move the upcoming rape trial of Spokane Police Officer Gordon Ennis because of media coverage of the case.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Brenda Thurman’s quest to fix marriage ended in her death

Sun., Aug. 27, 2017

After hearing the shot, Brenda Thurman’s daughter ran into her kitchen on Jan. 18, 2016, to find her adoptive father standing over her mother. “What did you do?” Dwayne Thurman, a reserve Lincoln County deputy and gun enthusiast, said he was cleaning the gun and “It went off.”

News > Spokane

Man who killed Seattle teacher 23 years ago now accused in death of Spokane Valley girlfriend

UPDATED: Thu., Aug. 24, 2017

A man convicted of gunning down a Seattle middle school teacher in 1994 was arrested Tuesday in King County on a warrant charging him with killing a Spokane Valley woman.

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