Gang member gets 8 years for murder
A 33-year-old Spokane gangster was sentenced Wednesday to almost eight years in prison for killing a rival gang member in June 2002.
In an appearance before Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen, Willie Ramone “Bone” McClain admitted killing Vincent E. “Nook” Roberts at Roberts’ apartment at 2407 S. Grand Blvd.
McClain had been charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and witness tampering, but was allowed to plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
Court documents indicate the killing was retaliation for an earlier fight at Club Kamikaze, in which two members of McClain’s 8 Trey gang suffered gunshot wounds.
McClain was accused of robbing Roberts, a member of the Insane Crips gang, of drugs and money in addition to shooting him in the chest. After his arrest, McClain allegedly asked a witness to change her testimony.
McClain also faces about 25 years in a federal prison for drug convictions in U.S. District Court.
Students face burglary charges
Five Ferris High School students were arrested Wednesday after they allegedly broke into a home and trashed it, Spokane Police said.
The house at 3127 E. 36th Ave. was furnished but had not been occupied since the man living there died, said police spokesman Dick Cottam in a press release.
A neighbor set up a video camera on the house after a family friend noticed it had been tampered with, Cottam said. The tape was given to police on Wednesday, showing people leaving the home.
Four 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old were arrested after they were identified in the tape by Ferris security officers. They were each face a count of first-degree burglary.
Man sentenced in murder-for-hire plot
A Grant County man who persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to let him out of prison after kidnapping his wife is headed back to prison for trying to hire a hit man to kill her.
The same judge who sentenced Howard Ralph Blakely for the second-degree kidnapping in October 1998 gave him 25 years on Tuesday for two counts of soliciting first-degree murder.
The victims were to have been his now-former wife, Yolanda, and his daughter, Lorene L. Blakely.
Lorene Blakely helped police catch her father when he kidnapped Yolanda Blakely at knifepoint in Othello, Wash., and drove her to Gallatin County, Mont., in a box in the back of his pickup.
While serving his sentence for the kidnapping, Blakely tried to hire a fellow inmate at the Airway Heights Corrections Center to kill his ex-wife and daughter. The inmate cooperated in a sting investigation.
The murder-solicitation charges were filed a week before the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated Blakely’s 71/2-year sentence last June in a decision that stripped judges of their power to impose above-standard sentences in 17 states.
The ruling would have set the 68-year-old Blakely free, but the new charges kept him behind bars until his new conviction earlier this month.
The Grant County prosecutor called for a maximum standard sentence of 431/3 years, but Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline accepted the defense recommendation of 25 years. Sperline imposed $20,000 in fines.
Yolanda Blakely told the FBI that her kidnapping was motivated by Blakely’s demand that she drop a divorce claim to assets that included $1.2 million from the sale of property, $460,000 in a stocks-and-bonds account, and some real estate.
Liberty Lake closer to meeting state rules
Liberty Lake is inching toward meeting state requirements for its comprehensive plan and progressing with an annexation.
During a recent hearing, the Growth Management Hearings Board for Eastern Washington ruled that the city met five of seven points that were addressed in a lawsuit filed by Spokane Valley over a year ago.
The lawsuit alleged that Liberty Lake’s comprehensive plan, which provides a long-term blueprint for community growth, failed to meet state requirements.
Liberty Lake appealed Spokane Valley’s comprehensive plan and the board ruled that both contained flaws.
In the latest go-around, the board cleared the city on meeting the State Environmental Act and other requirements but directed Liberty Lake to extend out another year the capital facilities portion of the plan, which details how the city will provide services.
One year of the plan lapsed while the city backtracked to get approval for population figures that it relied on for planning.
The city also needs to provide the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development with a copy of the capital facilities plan 60 days prior to its approval.
Doug Smith, director of planning and community development, said the city has 90 days to meet the remaining requirements.
“We’re down to the final wire here,” he said.
Prosecutor gets probation for drunken driving
Okanogan An Okanogan County deputy prosecutor returned to work Wednesday after receiving deferred prosecution on a drunken driving charge.
Steve Bozarth, chief criminal deputy, received five years of monitored probation Tuesday and was ordered to get alcohol treatment.
Bozarth, 32, was arrested in Omak on March 5 for investigation of driving under the influence. He entered an innocent plea March 7.
Prosecutor Karl Sloan said Bozarth will be moved to a position that pays about $7,400 less than the $61,000-a-year salary he made before the arrest.
Under the deferred prosecution, the case will be dismissed if Bozarth completes treatment at an Okanogan counseling center, pays probation and court costs, and has no criminal convictions in five years.
To avoid a possible conflict, the case was prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Office.
David Hellyer, an attorney and former Chelan municipal court judge, presided over Tuesday’s hearing after Okanogan County judges recused themselves.
Employees in the prosecutor’s office said Bozarth declined to comment.
Woman charged with giving fake flu shots
Bellingham During a nationwide flu-shot shortage, $30 for a shot seemed like a good deal to many Whatcom County residents.
But the shots apparently didn’t contain flu vaccine, and the Canadian woman who set up the clinics at three local grocery stores in November wasn’t authorized to give them, prosecutors say. On Tuesday, they charged Nancy Jean Olson, a nurse who worked in Bellingham, with seven counts of practicing medicine without a license.
According to papers filed in Whatcom County Superior Court, Olson gave the shots to 130 people in Lynden, some of whom became suspicious when they didn’t experience side effects typically associated with flu shots. Grocery store managers then tried to locate the nurse but found she had given a false company name, charging papers said.
After surveillance video aired on television news, one of Olson’s co-workers called to identify her to police. Another co-worker, who worked at one of the clinics with Olson because she thought it was legitimate, came forward to provide 47 pre-loaded, unused syringes that Olson had given her.
There was enough residue in 17 of the syringes for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Forensic Chemistry Center in Cincinnati to perform tests. The material in the syringes was not flu vaccine; investigators do not know what it was, Lynden Police Detective Lee Beld said Wednesday.
According to charging papers, Olson initially told investigators she ordered the doses from Aventis Pasteur – something the company denied. She then told them she bought the vaccine from “Ed” at a Bellingham-area pharmacy, but that “Ed” had just died and thus could not corroborate her story.