Missing man found dead

A sheriff’s deputy found the body of a missing Spokane man in a forested area of Boundary County, Idaho just after midnight Sunday after a hunter spotted his vehicle.

Relatives say 88-year-old William James, who hadn’t been seen since Thursday, apparently drove into the woods and walked away from his car. James’ silver 1988 Buick LeSabre was parked on a Forest Service road about 25 miles north of Priest Lake.

Andy James, one of James’ three sons, said his father had twice before become confused behind the wheel and needed help finding his way home. Investigators haven’t determined the cause of death, but foul play is not suspected, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Spokane

Robbery suspect will stay in jail

A college student police believe robbed at least six pharmacies of OxyContin over the past few months will remain in jail on $400,000 bail, a judge ruled Monday.

Edward A. Saner’s parents asked the court to keep their son’s bail at $15,000 so they could take him home to Western Washington to attend drug rehab, but Spokane District Court Judge Sara Derr granted the prosecution’s bail increase request, citing Saner’s criminal history. That history includes a negligent driving charge that was reduced from a drunken driving charge.

Police arrested Saner, a 23-year-old student at Eastern Washington University, Friday night as he walked out of a south Spokane Rite Aid carrying a bottle of OxyContin pills. They’d watched him hand the pharmacy clerk a note while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and stocking cap.

Police and sheriff’s deputies had been watching the stores since Thursday after a detective determined the serial pharmacy robber would likely hit again Friday, based on the number of pills he’d stolen in his last robbery. “If I don’t talk about the stores, can I tell you about my addiction?” Saner asked police, according to court papers.

Ex-fireman charged with sexual assault

A former Spokane firefighter fired for an on-duty sexual encounter with a 16-year-old girl in February 2006 has been charged with sexually assaulting another teenage girl in 2007.

Details of the case against Daniel W. Ross weren’t available late Monday, but the incident may be related to the state’s revocation of an adult home license held by his wife.

Last summer, Colleen Ross lost her license to care for three elderly men in her home on High Drive after state investigators learned Daniel Ross was still living there and the Department of Social and Health Services concluded there was reason to believe he was involved in sexual improprieties with a teenage girl.

Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker decided not to charge Ross with the firehouse incident involving the other teenage girl, who said she was raped and photographed during the encounter in the city fire station in northwest Spokane.

The prosecutor said he made that decision, in part, because two police detectives ordered Ross to delete digital pictures he took of the 16-year-old. They said they believed such destruction of potential evidence was in the girl’s best interests.

Repeat criminal back in slammer

Notorious repeat criminal Eddie Ray Hall was back in jail after ramming an undercover police car while attempting to elude authorities Monday, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

Detectives spotted Hall, who was wanted on a warrant for escape from community custody, driving near 17th Avenue and Evergreen Road on Monday afternoon and attempted to pull him over. But Hall, who authorities estimate has cost the local justice system more than $1 million in incarceration, prosecution and defense fees, drove off in his 1993 Pontiac Bonneville, according to a news release.

Before police arrested him, he smashed into the vehicle of an undercover detective who was trying to block Hall’s escape as he drove across a front lawn. The detective wasn’t injured, but the unmarked police car was damaged, according to a news release.

Hall faces charges of reckless driving and third-degree driving on a suspended license. Investigators said they found evidence of drug possession in the vehicle and expect to add a methamphetamine possession charge.

Hall’s criminal history includes more than 40 arrests and 10 felony convictions.