In brief: Police chief helps nab robbery suspect
A reported robbery in Coeur d’Alene got a response on Thursday night from the city’s highest-ranking police officer.
Police Chief Wayne Longo was one of the first to respond to the scene of a robbery at Boulevard Food Mart at 1801 Northwest Blvd. at 6:40 p.m.
A clerk called 911, saying a transient stole beer and pulled a knife on the clerk. The suspect, later identified as 40-year-old Jon W. Hohnsbehn, left on foot along the Centennial Trail near Riverstone, police said in a news release.
A bystander who witnessed the robbery followed Hohnsbehn until he could flag down police.
Police ordered Hohnsbehn to drop the beer, but he instead swigged it while police ordered him to comply, the release said.
He was detained by responding officers, including Longo, and was booked into jail on charges of robbery and aggravated assault.
The good Samaritan, identified as 42-year-old veteran David Travieso, will be honored for his bravery at an upcoming City Council meeting.
Second man guilty in 2007 murder
A man has been sentenced in a murder for which another man is awaiting a new trial after having his own murder conviction thrown out.
Julio J. Davila, 47, was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison after being found guilty in July in Spokane County Superior Court of second-degree murder in the 2007 bludgeoning death of 74-year-old adult entertainment store owner John G. “Jack” Allen.
Another man, Jeramie R. Davis, 41, was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2008 for the same crime and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but a judge has ordered a new trial for him. DNA evidence found on the murder weapon was retested, and Davila came back as a match.
Davis, who is being held in Spokane County Jail, denied involvement in Allen’s death but admitted to stealing items from the East Sprague store.
Prosecutors maintain the two worked together, but Spokane police detectives have not found any link between the two men.
A judge postponed Davila’s sentencing in August after defense attorneys learned that DNA tests identifying their client as the killer had been conducted by a crime lab technician who later was fired for incompetence.
Robbery, carjacking bring prison term
A Spokane County Superior Court judge sentenced a man to more than 12 years in prison in a Spokane Valley case that involved a carjacking and kidnapping of an elderly couple.
Blaine A. Cornwell, 24, was sentenced this week to 149 months after he pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, five counts of second-degree robbery, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree kidnapping.
Authorities accused Cornwell in April of pulling a knife on a security guard after he was seen trying to steal items from Wal-Mart on East Broadway Avenue. He then jumped into a car occupied by an elderly couple and fled, letting them out two miles away.
Cornwell was also charged in connection with a robbery at a Shopko store in north Spokane on Jan. 30 in which he shoplifted merchandise and brandished a knife to escape security personnel.