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Headlines for Tuesday, April 16, 2019

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Kansas Boy's Parents Charged with Murder

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Prosecutors have filed murder charges against a Wichita couple whose 3-year-old had been dead for days when his body was found in a crib in their mobile home.  The parents of Zaiden Javonovich made their first court appearances Tuesday. His 22-year-old mother, Brandi Kai Marchant, and 28-year-old father, Patrick Janovich, both face five charges.  The Wichita Eagle reports that the charges include first-degree murder with underlying felonies of neglect and abuse, two counts of abuse of a child and aggravated endangerment of a child.  Police last week responding to a domestic disturbance between the parents found the parents walking outside their Wichita home before checking on the children inside where the found the older boy's body. A 4-month-old boy who was taken from their home Thursday in critical condition is improving.

(earlier report)

Wichita Police: Welfare Agency Had Abuse Reports on Couple Whose 3-Year-Old Son Died

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Child welfare authorities had received abuse reports about a Wichita couple whose 3-year-old son was found dead in a crib at their mobile home and a baby was found in critical condition, according to police.  Captain Brent Allred provided no details Monday on the Kansas Department for Children and Families' involvement with the family of Zaiden Javonovich, whom investigators believe had been dead for days before his body was found. The welfare agency, which has been under fire after other child deaths, declined to comment while it's investigating the case.  Although welfare officials had received reports, police officers hadn't received such reports before finding the child's body Thursday while responding to a domestic disturbance at the home. Police encountered Zaiden's parents — 28-year-old Patrick Javonovich and 22-year-old Brandi Marchant — as they walked back to the home.  Inside, officers found Zaiden's body wrapped in a blanket in a crib. Allred said Zaiden suffered "obvious injuries," but he didn't elaborate.  Officers also found an injured 4-month-old boy, who was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Allred said the baby is improving.  "It's shocking to see adults treat their kids in the way these two were treated," Allred said. "It's, I say, pathetic, because that's what it is."  The parents are jailed on $200,000 bonds on suspicion of first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated child endangerment. Police said the criminal case was presented to the district attorney's office Monday afternoon.  A spokesman for the prosecutor didn't immediately return a phone message Tuesday about whether Javonovich or Marchant had attorneys who could comment on their behalf.  The home, where the family had lived for a couple months, had food and no signs of drug use, police said. Allred said Marchant has two other children but doesn't have custody of them. Javonovich has one other child who sometimes visits on weekends.  The Wichita area has seen several child abuse homicides. The victims include 3-year-old Evan Brewer, whose body was found encased in concrete, and 5-year-old Lucas Hernandez, whose body was found under a rural bridge months after he went missing.  The agency had extensive involvement with both children before their deaths. While campaigning last year, Democratic Governor Laura Kelly repeatedly described problems in the child welfare system as among the most pressing the state faces. Lawmakers now are considering increasing funding to add more child welfare workers.

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Wyandotte County Deputy Charged with Sex Abuse of Minor

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) _ A 52-year-old Wyandotte County Sheriff's deputy has been charged with sexual crimes involving a victim under the age of 14.  District Attorney Mark Dupree says Deputy Michael Mastel is charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count each of rape and aggravated criminal sodomy.  The investigation began last year when the child came forward.  Prosecutors say Mastel knew the child but not through his work as a deputy.  Sheriff Donald Ash said Mastel is on leave without pay.  Mastel has worked at the sheriff's office since 2010.  The sodomy is alleged to have occurred in 2011 or 2012. The rape and the sexual exploitation allegedly occurred between March and June of 2018.  It wasn't immediately clear if Mastel has an attorney.

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Former Wichita Officer Pleads Guilty in Gambling Case

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A former Wichita police officer has admitted that he knew about illegal private poker games in the city for years but didn't report them to authorities.  Fifty-one-year-old Michael Zajkowski pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to concealing a felony.  Prosecutors said a co-defendant asked Zajkowski to find out if an undercover officer attended one of the poker games in February 2014. Zajkwoski then reported what he found out to the co-defendant.  Zajkowski will be sentenced August 2. Attorney have agreed to recommend a year on federal probation.  KFDI reports the co-defendant, 50-year-old Brock Wedman of St. Marys, also pleaded guilty this week and is scheduled for sentencing August 1.  The two men are among several arrested in an FBI investigation of illegal gambling in Wichita.

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Man Gets Life in Prison for Shooting near Washburn University

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A 22-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison in a deadly shooting near Washburn University.  The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Zachary Buck-Schrag likely won't be eligible for parole until he is at least 71 under the sentence imposed yesterday (MON).  He was convicted in February of first-degree murder and several other counts in the January 2018 killing of 37-year-old Travis Larsen. The shooting briefly prompted the university to issue an alert asking students to shelter in place.  Buck-Schrag argued the shooting was self-defense. He contended that Larsen and another man threatened him and a friend by flashing an ammunition clip and making unfriendly remarks. Larsen was found suffering from a fatal gunshot wound to the head in a vehicle that had left the roadway.

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KU Adds Internet Upgrade to Avoid Another Massive Outage

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - The University of Kansas has taken steps to prevent a crippling internet outage similar to the one that occurred in 2016.  KU spokeswoman Mary Walsh says the school recently installed a third fiber cable to campus. That will allow the university to have access to the internet if one of the other lines fails.  In 2016, a construction crew accidentally cut both of the university's fiber internet cables. That cut internet services to the University of Kansas in Lawrence and Overland Park -- as well as  websites hosting online classes.  It also affected state testing for thousands of K-12 students in more than a dozen states.  The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the two cables cut in 2016 were NEXT to each other. This new, third cable is located on a different part of the Lawrence campus... just in case. : -)

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Kansas Tells High Court that Bipartisan Support is Reason to Approve School Funding Law

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Lawyers for Kansas argued that the state Supreme Court should sign off on a new public school funding law partly because it was enacted with broad, bipartisan support.  Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office filed legal arguments Monday defending the new law. It increases education funding by roughly $90 million a year.  The law contained Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's plan for complying with a high court ruling last year that Kansas wasn't spending enough money on its schools. The court said a 2018 law boosting funding wasn't sufficient because it didn't account for inflation.  Attorneys for four school districts suing the state have said the new law doesn't provide enough funding after the 2019-20 school year.  The state's lawyers said the support for the law suggests the school districts are wrong.

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New Kansas Law Boosts Voter Protections for Mail-in Ballots

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has signed a bill that requires election officials to notify voters before their mail-in ballots are thrown out because of signature problems.  An Associated Press analysis of rejected ballots in the 2018 primary in the state's most populous county found that 153 mail-in ballots were not counted because of signatures that didn't match county voting records.  Then-Secretary of State Kris Kobach defeated then-Governor Jeff Colyer for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in that race by only 343 votes. The close Republican primary highlighted differences in how Kansas counties handled mail-in ballots.  The legislation Kelly signed Monday gives voters an additional week or longer to provide a signature.

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Kansas Governor Signs Bill to Move Kansas Toward Hemp Production

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas will be taking steps toward allowing farmers to grow hemp for industrial use under a measure Governor Laura Kelly signed into law Monday.  The new law taking effect later this month replaces a state program only for researching hemp and its potential uses with a program for commercial production. Lawmakers authorized the research program last year after federal farm legislation allowed commercial hemp production.  The new law requires the Kansas Department of Agriculture to submit a plan to the federal government for regulating commercial hemp production. The department is required to confer with the governor's and attorney general's offices before submitting the plan.  Kelly said in a statement that the new law will help the state's agricultural economy by giving farmers another crop to grow.

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Man Convicted of 5 Murders in Kansas City in 2014

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man has been found guilty of killing five people in September 2014 in Kansas City, Missouri.  The Kansas City Star reports that jurors on Monday convicted 38-year-old Brandon Howell of five counts of first-degree murder and seven other felonies.  The jury deliberated for less than two hours.  Prosecutors said Howell beat 80-year-old George Taylor and his wife, 86-year-old Anna Taylor, while trying to steal their vehicle. They died a week later.  The Taylors' neighbor, 69-year-old Susan Choucroun, was shot in her driveway. Two others — 88-year-old Lorene Hurst and Hurst's son, 63-year-old Darrel Hurst — were killed as they returned from a store.  Howell was arrested that night walking along a freeway carrying a shotgun in his pants.  Howell previously was acquitted of killing two teens from Kansas.

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2 Critically Injured in Wichita House Fire, Officials Say

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say two people have been critically injured in a Wichita house fire.  Sedgwick County dispatchers say the fire was reported around 4:40 this (TUE) morning. The Wichita Fire Department said in a tweet that emergency crews are treating multiple patients and that two of them are critical.  The blaze is under control. No information has been released about what caused the fire or where it started.

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2 Men Charged in 11-Year-Old Kansas City, Kansas, Killing

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Two men have been charged in an 11-year-old home invasion killing in Kansas City, Kansas.  Prosecutors announced Monday that 29-year-old Corey Mason, of Kansas City, Kansas, has been charged with first-degree murder and 35-year-old Daniel Kidwell, of Kansas City, Missouri, with first-degree murder in the death of Jeff Rogers. The 25-year-old victim called 911 after the April 2008 home invasion.  The Kansas City Star reports that he was suffering from gunshot and knife wounds when officers arrived and died later at a hospital. Police said at the time that four or five men had broken into his home and beat, shot and stabbed him.  The filing of charges comes shortly after officials asked for tips in the cold case.

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Kansas and Oklahoma - "Tornado-Free" So Far in 2019

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KPR) — So far this year, no tornadoes have been reported in Kansas or in Oklahoma.  But this tornado-free streak may not last much longer.  The first chance for tornadoes in Kansas and Oklahoma occurs tomorrow (WED), as an area of low pressure is expected to develop across the High Plains.  On average, Oklahoma has about 17 tornadoes in the first four months of any given year, so to have none so far this year is unusual.  According to the Weather Channel, both Kansas and Oklahoma were also tornado-free from January through April of last year.  A quiet start to the year does not mean you can let your guard down.  Tornado activity typically increases in May, and on average May and June see the most U.S. tornadoes, followed by April.  The National Weather Service in Topeka says the risk of tornadoes is low Wednesday in eastern Kansas but can't be ruled out.

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Kansas Teenager Dies After Out-of-Control Driver Hits Her

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A suburban Kansas City teenager who was struck by an out-of-control car as she was walking home from school has died from her injuries.  The Kansas City Star reports that 14-year-old Alexandra Rumple died Sunday. Overland Park, Kansas, police say she was struck Friday afternoon about a block away from Oxford Middle School, where she was an eighth-grader. Police say the driver also hit a traffic signal pole and a wooden fence.  Police haven't released the driver's name. It isn't yet known what caused the car to leave the road.  Hundreds gathered Sunday at a vigil to remember Alex as an athletic, art-loving, straight-A student. Students talked about how she wanted everyone to feel included. Her principal encouraged her classmates to wear flannel Monday because it was Alex's favorite material.

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Sex Predator Patient Gets 16 Years for Sexual Battery

LARNED, Kan. (AP) - A 65-year-old man has been sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for trying to kiss a Kansas psychiatric hospital staff member on the lips while he was a patient in the facility's sexual predator treatment program.  The Great Bend Tribune reports that Russell McFarland was sentenced Monday for aggravated sexual battery. Testimony during his trial indicated that in Mary 2018, he followed a 19-year-old female staff member at Larned State Hospital into a staff-only area of the hospital, forced her into a corner and tried to kiss her. Another patient intervened and the staff member was able to get free.  Court-appointed counsel Charles Pike argued for a shorter sentence, saying the degree of harm was less than normally seen for this type of conviction.

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Russian Embassy Demands Release of Woman in Kidnapping Case

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The Russian Embassy is demanding the release of a citizen convicted of taking her children from the U.S. to Russia amid a divorce.  Thirty-eight-year-old Bogdana Alexandrovna Osipova was convicted last month of one count of international parental kidnapping and two counts of attempting to extort money. She is referred to by her married name of Mobley in court documents.  The Russian Embassy said Friday in a tweet that Osipova should be returned to her children and described the behavior of U.S. authorities as "lawless." Prosecutors said she left Wichita, Kansas, in April 2014 with one child from her first marriage and another child from a second marriage to Brian Mobley. She gave birth to a third child soon after returning to Russia.  The children are thought to still be in Russia.

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Judge Clears Way for Lawsuit by Muslim Engineer in Kansas

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A judge has rejected a move by Spirit Boeing Employees Association seeking to dismiss the lawsuit filed by a Muslim aerospace engineer alleging discrimination stemming from a party at a Kansas lake.  U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson ruled Tuesday that there remains a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Munir Zanial's rights were violated on the basis of race, religion or national origin.  The Malaysian national of Indian ancestry rented a pavilion at the group's lake in 2017 to celebrate Malaysian Independence Day. The lawsuit alleges the association suspended his rental privileges and reported him to authorities.  It alleged an American flag had been desecrated by Islamic State group symbols. But the flag was actually a Malaysian flag and the guests included people of Malaysian Indian ancestry, some wearing hijabs.

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Report: Corn Planting in Kansas Going Slower than Normal

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Soggy fields may be slowing the planting of corn this season in Kansas.  The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that about 6% of the corn seed has been put in so far in Kansas.  That is somewhat in line with the 5% planted at this time last year, but it is well behind the 14% that is average for the state.  Meanwhile, a wet spring has replenished soil moisture levels with 97% of the state now reporting adequate to surplus topsoil moisture.  The agency says the Kansas winter wheat crop is mostly faring well with 59% in good to excellent condition. About 31% is rated as fair, while 10% is in poor to very poor shape.

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Wichita State Planning Celebration of Life to Honor Bardo

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State University is planning a public event to celebrate the life of its late president, John Bardo.  The event will take place from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on May 9 in the university's Shirley Beggs Ballroom of the Rhatigan Student Center.  The school says the program will include speakers and video presentations about Bardo's impact on Wichita State.  The hour-long program is part of a series of events honoring Bardo's life May 6 through 10.  Bardo, who was president since 2012, died March 12 after battling a chronic lung condition.

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