High winds expected through tomorrow
Winds gusting as fast as speed limits on some rural highways are expected to hit the Inland Northwest tonight and Friday.
The National Weather Service has issued a high wind watch for the system coming into the area from the southwest. Steady southwest winds up to 45 mph with gusts up to 55 mph are in the forecast. The breezy weather is expected to continue through Friday afternoon, then ease throughout the evening.
Snow accumulations of up to 2 inches above 2,500 feet are also in the forecast.
Despite the high winds, NWS meteorological expert Milt Maas said there’s little concern about trees blowing down.
The snow has not contributed much to ground saturation, Maas said, and the area has received less than an inch of rain.
Trees grow to protect themselves from an area’s prevailing winds, which are south to southwest in the Inland Northwest, Maas said.
– Jody Lawrence-Turner
Spokane
Felon sentenced for possessing firearms
Kenneth Dale Gooch, whose extensive history of felony convictions dates to the 1970s, was sentenced Wednesday to almost 20 years in prison after being designated an “armed career criminal.”
Gooch, 51, was arrested in March 2004 when police and sheriff’s deputies found him asleep in the basement of a house in northeast Spokane where they were serving a drug search warrant.
The officers said Gooch looked directly at them, then reached his hand under the pillows as he was being ordered to roll onto his stomach.
Officers drew their handguns and were close to firing at Gooch when he withdrew his hands from under a pillow and was arrested, authorities said.
In the bed, officers found three loaded handguns, including a .25- caliber semiautomatic pistol loaded with hollow-point ammunition and two .22 caliber revolvers, authorities said.
Because he was a felon possessing firearms with at least three prior convictions for crimes of violence, Gooch qualified for federal prosecution under the Armed Career Criminal law, which carries a minimum, mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison.
Gooch was convicted on March 26 by a U.S. District Court jury and sentenced Wednesday to 235 months in prison by Senior Judge Frem Nielsen.
– Bill Morlin
Pedestrian still in critical condition
A man hit by a car in north Spokane on Tuesday night remains in critical condition.
Juan J. Ruiz, 65, of Ford, Wash., is being treated for multiple injuries at Deaconess Medical Center, said Spokane police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee.
Ruiz was walking westbound in a crosswalk at Nevada Street and Garland Avenue shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday when he was struck by a southbound car, Lee said. The driver of the car, 19-year-old Angelique M. Gorrie of Spokane, was not hurt.
Spokane police are still investigating, Lee said. Police have not determined whether Gorrie will be charged.
– Staff reports