Wichita Eagle: News

Police arrest ‘person of interest’ in 13th and Broadway shooting

Tim Potter — Tue, 21 May 2013 13:00 CDT

After a brief chase and pursuit that shut down part of a Wichita neighborhood for about an hour, police on Tuesday morning arrested a man described as a “person of interest” in a recent shooting.

Investigators following up on a Thursday shooting at 13th and Broadway – that caused several schools to lock down – spotted the “person of interest” in the open. A brief car chase occurred around 9 a.m. in the 1500 or 1600 block of North Topeka, Wichita police Sgt. Chris McAuliffe said.

The man ran into a home near 14th and Topeka, McAuliffe said. Before officers entered the home at about 9:40 a.m., a resident came out voluntarily. About 10 minutes later, the “person of interest” was led out, in handcuffs. Officers found him hiding in the attic. No one was injured, McAuliffe said.

Jury selection begins in Brett Seacat’s murder trial in Kingman

Amy Renee Leiker — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:50 CDT

Jury selection resumes Tuesday morning in the first-degree murder trial of Brett Seacat, a former law enforcement officer and police instructor accused of killing his wife and setting fire to the couple’s Kingman home more than two years ago.

Thirty-one people – more than half needed to begin the trial – were added to a pool of prospective jurors Monday during the first two rounds of selection.

Final juror selection and opening statements may start Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning if enough people are qualified for the jury pool by midweek, said Kingman County District Court Judge Larry Solomon, who is presiding over the case. Fifty are needed for the jury pool; 12 jurors and three alternates will be chosen from that pool.

Woman pleads guilty to taking urine from 11-year-old girl

Hurst Laviana — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:37 CDT

A 24-year-old woman pleaded guilty Monday to two felony charges for forcing an 11-year-old Haysville girl into a gas station bathroom and ordering her to urinate into a cup so the woman could use the urine to pass a court-ordered drug test.

Crystal Hopper, who listed a Wellington address after her arrest, pleaded guilty to interference with parental custody and aggravated endangering a child. She had been scheduled to stand trail this week in Sedgwick County District Court on kidnapping and robbery charges.

Prosecutors said the crimes arose from a Haysville Municipal Court case. In court papers, prosecutors said that:

Man convicted of second-degree murder in 2011 shooting

Hurst Laviana — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:56 CDT

A Wichita man was convicted Monday of second-degree murder in a case where some of the prosecution’s strongest testimony came from a man who committed suicide less than six weeks before the trial began.

Travis Knighten, 20, was convicted in the shooting death of Mario Brown, 22, at an after-hours party in a parking lot at the southwest corner of 13th and Hillside on May 7, 2011. He also was convicted of aggravated battery for shooting and wounding a second man.

The jury began its deliberations late Friday afternoon and delivered its verdict shortly before noon Monday.

Kansas Star Casino’s arena books Tim McGraw, plans other acts

Fred Mann — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:48 CDT

The Kansas Star Casino’s new arena has booked several events over the next couple of months to begin finding its way as multipurpose regional venue, arena officials said Monday.

Country superstar Tim McGraw has been announced to perform at its grand opening on July 7. Arena officials plan to announce another act Wednesday to open the arena a week earlier, on June 29.

That’s just the start, they said.

Save Southeast group: Don’t move high school, expand it

Suzanne Perez Tobias — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:16 CDT

The leader of Save Southeast, a group of residents opposed to closing or relocating Wichita’s Southeast High School, said Monday that the group endorses a $23 million option to expand the school at its current site.

“It meets the stated objective of the school board, it displaces the fewest number of people and … it’s the most economical of all the proposals we’re looking at,” said Don Landis, spokesman for Save Southeast.

“We think that in 2013, in today’s economy, that just makes the most sense.”

Wagle: Extending sales tax an “unprecedented opportunity’

BRENT D. WISTROM — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:11 CDT

The standoff between the Republican-controlled House and Senate continued Monday as lawmakers sought a way to follow up last year’s big income-tax cuts with more cuts while also finding new revenue to sustain essential state services.

Lawmakers accomplished almost nothing as Republican leaders reinforced their positions and Gov. Sam Brownback promoted his vision for Kansas at a think tank meeting in Chicago.

Senate President Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, called the six-tenths of a cent sales tax due to expire in July an “unprecedented opportunity” in a letter distributed to Kansas House Republican lawmakers.

Owner Bill Warren says he’s glad everyone at Moore theater made it safely through tornado

Carrie Rengers — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50 CDT

Early Monday evening, an emotional Bill Warren recounted what it was like to experience – from a distance – the tornado that struck Moore, Okla., where he owns a theater.

First came concern at forecasts predicting tornadoes, then fear as a massive twister bore down on the city, followed by relief that staff members and customers were OK, then back to concern for everyone around the city who wasn’t as lucky.

Warren said his biggest emotion was fear “as far as worrying about the people on the inside, the souls.”

McPherson County man sentenced to 260 years in prison for producing child porn

RICK PLUMLEE — Mon, 20 May 2013 15:26 CDT

A McPherson County man was sentenced Monday to 260 years in federal prison for using a 9-year-old child to produce child pornography.

Philip Andra Grigsby, 50, of Marquette pleaded guilty to eight counts of sexual exploitation of a child, one count of possession of child pornography and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

Grigsby initially was charged in a criminal complaint filed in July in U.S. District Court in Wichita. The complaint stated the investigation began in Australia earlier in 2012 when an Australian man was arrested by police in that country. Evidence in that case showed the man had received child pornography over the Internet from other men, including Grigsby in Kansas.

Two more staff members needed, elections chief tells Sedgwick County commissioners

Deb Gruver — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:51 CDT

Two additional employees would help the Sedgwick County election office run more efficiently, its leader told commissioners Monday.

Election Commissioner Tabitha Lehman made a plea for two more staff members next year at a cost of slightly more than $102,000, including benefits.

“That is just to help us function properly so we’re not having to work 100 hours in a week during election season and avoid any mistakes we might make because we’re tired,” Lehman said.

Weather service: 3 tornadoes touched down in Sedgwick County, 4 others in Cowley, Sumner

RICK PLUMLEE — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50 CDT

If you thought there was a lot of commotion Sunday for only one tornado, you’re right.

Preliminary information Monday showed seven, possibly eight, different tornadoes touched down in a three-county area, said Chance Hayes, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wichita.

Three of those dipped to the ground Sunday afternoon in Sedgwick County – two near Viola, southwest of Wichita, and a third near MacArthur and Ridge, south and southwest of Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.

Severe weather hits Wichita, Sedgwick County; tornado spotted near ICT airport

Beccy Tanner — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50 CDT

A fast-moving storm produced heavy rain, hail and at least one tornado in the Wichita area on Sunday, damaging homes, knocking out power and disrupting graduation ceremonies.

There were more than 10,500 customers without power in the Wichita area as of 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Westar Energy spokesman Nick Bundy said. A majority of those were expected to have power by 10:30 p.m., but all of the outages probably won’t be fixed until late Monday night, he added. About 600 residents in Butler County and 1,600 in Greenwood County also were without power.

A large portion of the outages were in southwest Wichita, where 37 power poles were down in the area of 135th Street West and 55th Street South, Bundy said.

Mid-Continent Airport mistakenly told passengers tornado shelter was full

Tue, 21 May 2013 16:50 CDT

A mistake in disaster protocol resulted in passengers being turned away from Mid-Continent Airport’s storm shelter as a tornado approached Sunday, airport officials said Monday.

The terminal basement, which is divided into separate spaces during a tornado for security reasons, could have been opened up to more passengers. Instead, passengers were informed the basement was full, said Brad Christopher, the assistant director of airports.

Between 500 and 600 passengers were trying to take cover, he said. Airport officials did not know how many passengers made it into the basement.

Wichita water advisory panel to make final recommendations to City Council

Bill Wilson — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:34 CDT

The city’s advisory committee on how to cope with a projected water shortage will meet to finalize its recommendations to the Wichita City Council on Wednesday.

It will meet at 9:30 a.m. in City Hall’s 10th-floor large conference room.

The group’s recommendations are tentatively set to go to the council on June 4, along with the city’s internal water conservation measures, said Ben Nelson, strategic services manager for the city’s public works department, in an e-mail.

A fire, a body, a murder trial in Kingman after more than two years

Tim Potter The Wichita Eagle — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:50 CDT

On Monday, two years and 20 days after Vashti Forrest Seacat’s body was found in the charred remains of her Kingman home, attorneys will start picking jurors who will be asked to decide between two arguments already raised in court:

That the 34-year-old woman’s husband, Brett Seacat, a law enforcement trainer and former Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy, shot and killed her and set fire to their home, or that she started the blaze and then shot herself.

Felicia Ryder, who organized a candlelight vigil to remember Vashti Seacat soon after the tragedy, said that Brett Seacat’s first-degree murder trial will offer closure for the town. The case has been weighing on people, and the big old house where it all happened – now vacant and boarded up – is part of that weight, Ryder said.

See county budget hearings online

Mon, 20 May 2013 06:18 CDT

Each Monday, The Eagle highlights a government record that is available to the public. Open records help people keep government in check and help them better understand how government affects their lives.

For a complete list of You Oughta Know columns, go to www.kansas.com/oughta.

The record: Video recordings of Sedgwick County’s departmental budget hearings.

Kansas girl Gwendolyn Brooks broke ground as black poet

Beccy Tanner The Wichita Eagle — Mon, 20 May 2013 06:17 CDT

“Say to them, say to the down-keepers, the sun-slappers, the self-soilers, the harmony hushers, ‘Even if you are not ready for day, It can not always be night.’ You will be right. For that is the hard home-run.

“Live not for battles won. Live not for the end-of-the-song. Live in the along.”

– Gwendolyn Brooks, Selected Poems

Sedgwick County granted waiver to reduce staffing ratios at juvenile detention center

Deb Gruver — Sun, 19 May 2013 13:12 CDT

The state has given Sedgwick County permission to reduce staffing ratios at its juvenile detention center, which could save the county money and eliminate some mandatory overtime for employees.

The waiver from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment is good through April 2, 2014.

KDHE’s regulations require one staff member per seven juveniles during the day and one staff member per 11 residents at night. The waiver will allow the county to have one staff member per eight residents during the day and one staff member per 14 juveniles during sleeping hours.

Kansas chief justice says senator’s proposal on judicial selection is political coercion

Brad Cooper — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:36 CDT

Kansas lawmakers began the year by turning away the chief justice of the state Supreme Court from his traditional speech to the Legislature.

As the legislative session nears an end, that justice is charging a leading senator with political coercion. Meanwhile, efforts are picking up steam to force appellate judges into retirement and to build separate civil and criminal appeals courts.

“Tensions are high between the court system and the Legislature,” said state Sen. Jeff King, R-Independence and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Wichita school board sets final special meeting to hear discussion on Southeast options

Suzanne Perez Tobias — Sun, 19 May 2013 21:50 CDT

Should the Wichita school board expand and improve Southeast High School, build a new school in the far southeast quadrant of the district or both? Tuesday evening will mark another chance to share your input.

A communitywide meeting will be held at Southeast High, Lincoln and Edgemoor, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. At that meeting, residents will hear an update on bond construction as it relates to Southeast and then break into small discussion groups to share thoughts and opinions, officials said.

Child care will be provided, and Spanish and Vietnamese translators will be available.