Man dies during police chase

A 41-year-old man who was being chased by a Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy was killed Wednesday night when his car crashed into the back of a tractor-trailer rig, the Washington State Patrol reported.

Deputy Dana Newcomb pulled over a Dodge minivan for speeding on U.S. Highway 2 about three miles west of Davenport, said WSP Trooper Brad Hays. After Newcomb got out of his patrol car to approach the vehicle, the driver sped away.

The eastbound van continued on Highway 2 with Newcomb in pursuit. Speeds reached in excess of 80 mph, Hays said. The Dodge rear-ended the tractor-trailer about 8:10 p.m. about four miles east of Davenport, and the driver was killed instantly.

The truck driver was not hurt. There were no passengers in either vehicle.

WSP shut down the highway for several hours as it investigated the crash.

Alcohol was found in the van and may have been a factor in the crash, Hays said.

The name of the van’s driver, who had a Missouri license and family in Lincoln County, was not released Wednesday night.

Police: Man gave drugs to stepson

A Spokane man accused of providing methamphetamine to his 14-year-old stepson and smoking it with him more than two dozen times starting in the summer of 2004 was arrested last week.

Monte M. McCune, 36, faces charges of endangerment with a controlled substance and distributing a controlled substance to a child.

The stepson told an investigator that McCune provided the meth, which they smoked 25 to 30 times, according to court records. He also said that his stepfather sold him a bag of meth for $30 and two Oxycontin pills and two morphine pills for $50.

In an interview with a detective, McCune admitted smoking meth with his 14- and 16-year-old stepsons, records state. But he said he and the 14-year-old did the drugs together only seven or eight times over a three month period ending Dec. 11. McCune said he sold his stepson two Oxycontin pills for $20 each, but did not sell him morphine.

McCune told police that they smoked the meth at their residence at 1127 E. Empire Ave.

The 14-year-old’s urine tested positive for methamphetamine while he was at the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center in December.

McCune was booked Friday into Geiger Corrections Center, where he remained Wednesday evening.

Spokane schools host call-in show

Spokane Public Schools will host a one-hour live call-in show at 7 tonight featuring three board members and Superintendent Brian Benzel. The call-in number is 354-7711. The program, called “Educating Spokane,” is broadcast three times a year on KSPS channel 7.

Sex offender on trial for ‘79 slaying

Seattle

A sex offender serving life in prison for a series of assaults in the 1980s and ‘90s is now standing trial for the decades-old slaying of a 25-year-old waitress who was taking a stained-glass course with him.

Prosecutors say 50-year-old William Greene’s DNA was found on the body of Sylvia Durante, who was killed in December 1979.

Durante was the daughter of Sam and Joan Durante of Spokane.

Investigators believe Greene tied her up and raped her, as he did with three other women.

Prosecutors said they will rely largely on the testimony of those victims – all acquaintances of Greene’s who allowed him into their homes or went into his.

Deputy Prosecutor Roger Rogoff told King County Superior Court jurors in his opening statement Tuesday that Durante may have resisted Greene more relentlessly than the others, whom Greene let go, causing him to strangle her.

Greene’s DNA was found on Durante’s body, on her underwear and under her fingernails. Police preserved the evidence for more than two decades, but it wasn’t until recently that the state crime lab matched the genetic material to Greene.

Greene’s lawyer, Dennis Hough, said his own DNA experts would show another man’s DNA was also found on Durante’s body and in her underwear – more than enough for a jury to find reasonable doubt.

Greene has maintained his innocence. Earlier this month, Judge Julie Spector slapped down Hough’s argument that his client is not competent to stand trial because he suffers from multiple-personality disorder.

Greene unsuccessfully used an insanity defense in 2003, when he was convicted of indecent liberties and first-degree kidnapping of his female mental health counselor in 1994.

His murder trial is expected to last about three weeks.