Kansas AG Asks Court to Dismiss Redistricting Lawsuits
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is asking the Kansas Supreme Court to dismiss two lawsuits filed over new Republican-drawn congressional maps. Schmidt argued in a petition filed Friday that the controversy over redistricting should not be decided in state courts. He also said the legal challenges are without merit. The maps would cost the state’s only Democrat in Congress some territory in her Kansas City-area district. The lawsuits, filed Monday in Wyandotte County District Court, argue the new maps violate the state Constitution and the Legislature's redistricting guidelines. Schmidt’s office wants the state Supreme Court to bypass the district court and take up the matter itself.
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Escaped Hutchinson Inmate Captured
TOPEKA, Kan. (KPR) - An inmate who escaped from the Hutchinson Correctional Facility has been apprehended. The Kansas Department of Corrections reports that 29-year-old Gabriel Sanchez walked away from the minimum security facility Saturday, where he is serving a sentence for assault and battery of a law enforcement officer and eluding local law enforcement in Reno County. State corrections officials, local law enforcement, and the Kansas Highway Patrol collaborated in the search for and arrest of Sanchez. The escape is currently under investigation.
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Two Teens Shot, Killed in KCK Apartment
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Police are investigating after discovering two 14-year-olds shot to death inside an apartment in Kansas City, Kansas. Police say the discovery was made early Friday when officers were called to an apartment complex between Silver City Park and Argentine Middle School. Arriving officers found two boys inside an apartment who had been shot. Both teens died at the scene. Police identified them Friday as Samuel Guess and Antonio Johnson. Police say they have no suspects in the shooting and are asking the public for any tips leading to an arrest.
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Garden City Woman Sentenced for Helping Sex Offender Escape
LARNED, Kan. (AP) — A 45-year-old Garden City woman has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for helping a sex offender escape from Larned State Hospital. Liliana Guadalupe Houser pleaded no contest in January to three felonies related to the June 2021 escape of John Freeman Colt. He was captured in Utah in September 2021. Houser admitted to having unlawful sexual relations with a patient, trafficking in contraband in a care and treatment facility and obstructing Colt's apprehension. Before sentencing, Houser told the judge Colt had manipulated her at a time when her marriage was deteriorating and after the loss of her son.
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Woman, Dogs Killed in Shawnee County House Fire
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Fire officials say a woman and two dogs died in a house fire early Friday north of Topeka. Station WIBW-AM reports that Soldier Township fire crews were called around 1 a.m. Friday to the home about 8 miles north of Topeka. Battalion Chief Chad Lady says firefighters arrived to find the house collapsed and fully engulfed in flames. Lady said fire crews later found the bodies of the woman and two dogs inside. Authorities have not released the woman's name. An investigator from the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s Office was at the scene Friday to try to determine the cause of the fire.
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Kansas Fire Crews Discover Body in Trunk of Burning Car
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Firefighters northwest of Kansas City, Kansas, who were called to put out a vehicle fire earlier this week made a grisly discovery: a body in the car's trunk. Television station KSHB reports the discovery was made before dawn Monday when Kickapoo Township firefighters responded to a car fire in rural northern Leavenworth County. The Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office says in a news release that once the fire was extinguished, firefighters found the body in the car's trunk. Investigators have not released the victim's name. Detectives are investigating.