Kidnapping

by The Associated Press WINFIELD, Kan. (AP) - A judge ruled today in favor of prosecutors in a dispute over DNA evidence gathered in the case against an Arkansas City man accused of killing a member of a college dance team. Cowley County District Judge Jim Pringle said the prosecution may use up all the D-N-A sample gathered in its case against Justin Thurber. Thurber is charged with capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy. The judge also ruled the defense could have access to photographs of evidence before D-N-A testing and computer printouts of each step in the testing process.

A sex offender who raped a woman in Kansas City, Kansas will spend the rest of his life in prison. Wesley Watson was sentenced as an aggravated sexual offender. A judge ordered Watson to serve concurrent life sentences with no chance for parole. He was also sentenced to serve a concurrent 61-month sentence for kidnapping. Investigators said Watson pretended to be a police officer and accused a woman of shoplifting. Watson admitted in court to forcing the woman into his car and attempting to have sex with her. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors dropped the charge of impersonating an officer.

Salina police arrest a 16-year-old boy on suspicion of kidnapping and indecent liberties. Salina police tell our news partners at The Salina Journal the crimes involved girls under the age of 16.  The girls were students at Salina Central High School.  Investigators say the incidents happened beginning in June. Police say one of the victims told a school police officer that she was solicited for sexual contact while at school. Investigators say they learned about other incidents that occurred by text messages and at a Salina park.

Police have arrested a man in connection with a fatal double-stabbing in Assaria Tuesday. Map - Assaria, KS Thirty-nine year-old Michael Andrew Paulson was taken into custody early Wednesday in Ottawa County. He's accused of stabbing his estranged wife, 38-year-old Valerie Paulson and another woman, 38-year-old Jessie Putman.  Paulson died from her injuries. Authorities say Putman underwent surgery and is now recovering at the hospital.

Wichita police are trying to sort through the details of an attempted kidnapping Friday night.  A 17-year-old is in custody.  At this time, he's being held on unrelated charges. A lot of different details were reported over the weekend.  Eyewitness News is clarifying some misinformation.  Here's the latest information from police.  Investigators say three girls reported being approached by a teenager in a truck near Edgemoor and Harry Friday night.  The girls were walking from Quik Trip when it happened.

He was convicted in one of Wichita's most infamous murders. Wednesday Eyewitness News learned Doil Lane will be going in front of a Texas parole board. Lane was one of two people convicted in the kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Nancy Shoemaker in 1990. But before Lane killed Nancy Shoemaker, he killed an eight year old girl in Texas. Since that murder happened first, Lane was put on death row in Texas. Three years ago, the Texas sentence was changed to life in prison after a judge found him to be mentally retarded.

Wichita police have arrested a third man in connection with the city's latest homicide.  Police say all three men face first degree murder charges in the shooting death of Ronald Wilson. Wilson was found shot to death in his apartment earlier this week.  Police found him after a man called 911 and led officers to the victim.  The man who called 911 is among those arrested. ------------------------- Original Story, July 10 Wichita police have arrested a 21-year-old man in connection with the shooting death of a 34-year-old man this week.

A man accused of robbing a Rice County bank, then firing at a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper will go to trial.  Jason Gleason was in court for a preliminary hearing Thursday.  In court, prosecutors showed the dash cam video of how the standoff ended.  You can see the suspect run out of a vehicle and then you hear dozens of gun shots.  There's also video of the troopers getting kids out of the suspect's car. Warning: The video does contain...

By Robert Marin and Megan Strader (NEWTON, Kan.) Two men have been charged after police say they tried to kidnap an 11-year-old girl in Newton. Twenty-year-old Mathew Regier and 27-year-old Kenneth Rodriguez are each charged with one count of illegal aggravated solicitation of a child and one count of attempted kidnapping. Lt. Eric Murphy with the Newton Police Department says the incident happened Tuesday evening in Newton. Murphy says two men in an SUV pulled up next to a girl playing outside and asked her to get in the vehicle.

After six months in custody 46 year-old Charles Dinneen was in a Saline County court Tuesday afternoon to face his final hearing. Police say back in March Dinneen led them on high speed pursuit that ended at a church in Salina. Dinneen was shot by one of the officers once inside the church. Before any ruling was made, Dinneen’s attorney tried to argue that his client was just getting over a recent relationship and said his actions were just a bad sequence of events.