There were two jury trials in District Court this past week. Each trial lasted just one day from jury selection to the deliverance of a verdict. In the first, Mr. John Wilkinson, a supervisor for Ferrell Gas, was convicted of Assault in the Fourth Degree. The evidence was that on August 26, 2010, an employee […]

A few weeks ago, I had a visit from some folks who have some land in Stevens County. The land had been an old home site many years ago, complete with an outhouse and hand dug well. The folks started with a roof for their travel trailer and then they added a concrete floor, and […]

Mr. William Willard was driving north towards Newport October 3, 2010. He had been drinking. In a moment of inattention, he drifted into the southbound lane. He would have hit the southbound pickup pulling a car trailer, except for the alert driver of that truck. That driver, traveling with his wife and daughter swerved into […]

Last week I wrote about a trial that was in progress; the trial of Leonard Boston on Delivery of Heroin charges. At the start of the trial, Mr. Boston was charged with 4 counts of Delivery of Heroin and one count of Possession of Heroin with Intent to Deliver and one count of Use of […]

Late in the evening of July 25, 2010, three Washington State Troopers were working an accident investigation scene in the south part of Stevens County. The Troopers were from Spokane County because Troopers from Stevens County were working in the northern part of the county. As they were working the scene, an auto, driven by […]

Sometime during the night of May 4th or in the early morning of May 5th, a home in the Suncrest area was broken into while the elderly couple who lived there were sleeping. The burglars took several things from the home including jewelry and debit/credit cards. Later on May the 5th, several purchases were made […]

This past week was relatively quiet in the court system. One unusual thing is that we were involved with the Extradition process with 3 different defendants. Two of them did the usual thing and waived the entire process and returned to where they were wanted. The third, had earlier resisted voluntary return and this past […]

Last week there was a jury trial in District Court. The defendant, Mr. Bruce Tenut was charged with one count of Reckless Endangerment. The charge arose out of an incident that occurred in April of this year, when Mr. Tenut was shooting a very large handgun on his property. The weapon discharged when pointed at […]

CHRISTIAN VERN WILLIAMS was convicted of Residential Burglary and First Degree Trafficking in Stolen Property after a jury trial ended Wednesday, October 13. The burglary occurred April 12, 2010. He had previously lived in the residence with some folks who had let him stay there. On April 12, he went to that residence at about […]

On Thursday afternoon, after a trial that lasted all day, Michael Hazelmyer of Springdale, was found guilty of Felony Harassment-Threats to Kill. He was acquitted of an additional charge of Trespassing. The state was represented by deputy Prosecutor Matt Enzler and Mr. Hazelmyer was represented by Jim Irwin. Just before the trial, Mr. Hazelmyer waived […]