Man pleads guilty to stabbing
A 19-year-old Spokane man pleaded guilty Monday to stabbing another man nine or 10 times during a downtown fight last October.
Holt William Hosier accepted a plea bargain that reduced a first-degree assault charge to second-degree assault. He faces a standard range of 13 to 17 months in prison when he is sentenced April 4, but Deputy Prosecutor Andrea Jakkola agreed to recommend 13 months.
Hosier and a friend, Josh Vandouris, were drunk and walking in the 300 block of West Sprague when they got into a name-calling match with two men on the other side of the street, according to court documents that Hosier said were accurate.
The victim, Robert J. Crawshaw, said he and his cousin, Fredrico Diaz, were bombarded with racial slurs as they approached Crawshaw’s apartment. Crawshaw went across the street to confront Hosier and Vandouris, and wound up in a fight with Hosier.
Crawshaw said he didn’t realize he had been stabbed until he collapsed in the lobby of his apartment building. Police said doctors found nine or 10 stab wounds, including one that lacerated Crawshaw’s liver.
Part of Kaiser plant evacuated due to spill
A spill of molten metal at Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Co.’s Trentwood Plant caused partial evacuation of the plant twice Monday as crews from Valley Fire spent much of the day monitoring the spill.
The first crews arrived at about 9:40 a.m., said Battalion Chief Warren “Coop” Kennett. “There was a mechanical failure in a melter,” Kennett said. “The bottom of the heating pot ruptured, which allowed molten aluminum into the pit.”
It’s estimated that between 40,000 and 80,000 pounds of aluminum flowed into the pit below the melter. There was residual water and oil in the pit and fire crews were worried about a steam explosion, Kennett said. Workers in the immediate area were evacuated.
There was no fire and fire crews watched and waited until the metal cooled enough to form a crust on top before leaving. However, crews were called back to the plant at 1:30 p.m.
The extended high temperatures in the area caused some insulation in an adjacent machine to catch fire, he said. The fire was small, but firefighters were careful about how much water they used in order to avoid a steam explosion caused by the still-hot metal, said Kennett. The area was evacuated for the second time while crews worked.
A Kaiser official did not return a call seeking comment.
Grandson suspected in car theft, burglary
Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a 29-year-old Spokane man on Sunday after they discovered him drinking beer in the car his grandfather previously had reported stolen.
Deputy Brandon Armstrong was patrolling west of the Spokane city limits when he noticed a 1998 Ford Contour parked in the middle of D Street off Thorpe Road, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said in a press release.
When Armstrong approached, 29-year-old Benjamin P. Grant, 2015 W. Tenth, was drinking a can of Busch beer. Armstrong ran the car’s plates and learned that the car had been reported stolen by Grant’s grandfather.
Armstrong also learned that Grant had been named as the suspect in a burglary of his grandfather’s home. In that case, the grandfather reported the loss of three guns and several savings bonds, Reagan said.
When Armstrong searched the Ford, he found an aluminum briefcase containing 100 savings bonds with a face value of $200 each and a pawn slip for a pistol. All of the items previously were reported stolen by the grandfather, Reagan said.
Armstrong later booked Grant on the felony charges of first-degree burglary, theft of a firearm, first-degree theft and second-degree taking a motor vehicle without the owner’s permission, Reagan said.
17-year-old killed in Highway 12 crash
A 17-year-old woman from Weippe, Idaho, was killed Sunday when her car crashed into a trailer on U.S. Highway 12, the Idaho State Police reported.
Nicolette M.M. Litchfield was driving a Toyota Corolla eastbound on the highway about 36 miles from the Idaho-Washington border. Litchfield crossed the centerline at 4:47 p.m. and hit a westbound trailer loaded with two ATV four-wheelers, according to ISP.
The impact damaged the entire driver’s side of her Toyota.
Litchfield’s passenger, Samantha J. Bolon, 18, of Pierce, Idaho, was injured and taken to Clearwater Valley Hospital in Orofino, the ISP reported.
The driver of the pickup pulling the trailer, Kenneth S. Roughton of Peck, Idaho, was uninjured, as were his wife and 3-year-old son, who were also in the pickup, according to ISP.
History of BNSF depot presented at Gonzaga
“Oil and Water Don’t Mix,” a presentation on the history of BNSF Railway’s train refueling depot, will be presented Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Gonzaga Law School’s Barbieri Moot Courtroom, 721 N. Cincinnati St.
The free event is hosted by Stan Miller, an independent consultant and retired Spokane County Water Resources program manager, as well as Rachael Paschal Osborn, an attorney and adjunct faculty member at the law school.
The presentation will focus on the depot, where numerous fuel leaks have been reported in the last four months, and its impacts on the SpokaneValley/Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer. Audience discussion will follow.
Hearing tonight on Canfield proposal
The Coeur d’Alene City Council will have a public hearing tonight on a proposal to build 40 homes on the lower reaches of Canfield Mountain.
The Planning Commission voted in January to recommend approval of Copper Ridge LLC, which would include nearly 24 acres of open space on the steepest section of the hillside.
The city had previously rejected two other proposals for the housing development on 49 acres at the end of Shadduck Lane. In January, the Planning Commission said the developers had resolved most of the concerns with the project that ranged from private, narrow streets to having the development gated. Neither of those items are included in the latest version.
Copper Ridge LLC is requesting a zone change on the lower portion of the land to allow for 40 homes. The 24 acres of open space, which is mostly steep hillside, would retain its current zoning that allows only one home per acre.
The city council will take up the zone change and an appeal for the subdivision.
The 6 p.m. meeting is at City Hall, 710 E. Mullan Ave. For more information, call (208) 769-2300.