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Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Man arrested in Waco homicide
A Waco man wanted in the April shooting death of another man on a Waco street was arrested early this morning.
Devyn Lakose, 20, was arrested by Killeen police just after 5 a.m. in the killing of Billy Ray Cochran, 44, said Waco police spokesman Steve Anderson.
Police say Lakose repeatedly shot Cochran about 4 a.m., April 23 and left him lying in the middle of the road in the 1100 block of Sherman Street.
Medical crews tried to resuscitate Cochran, but he died moments after they arrived, police said.
The arrest came after officers were called to a Killeen hotel this morning about possible drug dealing, Anderson said. When officers arrived, three people ran but were soon caught, Anderson said. Lakose was identified as one of the three, Anderson said.
Lakose also was wanted in a December 2007 aggravated assault and on a March 2007 deadly conduct charge.
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Search called off for missing Robinson man
Robinson police have called off the search for a Robinson man missing since Memorial Day.
Russell Petter was last seen May 26 when he visited his father in Seguin, Texas, police said. Investigators have stopped looking for Petter after recently learning he left the Waco area willingly, said Robinson police Lt. Tracy O’Connor.
Last week, police had found Petter’s 1999 Ford F-350 pickup next to a barn, behind a house in the 4600 block of Spring Valley Road between Hewitt and Lorena, O’Connor said.
A cursory search of the property yielded no signs of Petter, O’Connor said.
Petter is wanted locally for a failure to appear warrant after he missed a May 7 hearing for a driving while intoxicated charge for which he was indicted, O’Connor said. He forfeited a bond by missing that hearing, officials said.
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Person killed in collision
Troopers are working a four-vehicle wreck, in which at least one person was killed near Bremond.
Few details were available this afternoon, since investigators were still working the wreck, but a Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman said three tractor-trailers and a pickup truck were involved in the crash.
The wreck happened before noon on State Highway 6, the spokeswoman said.
Check back with the Tribune-Herald for more updates.
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New photos show extent of fire damage to Texas governor’s mansion
Here are the latest photos of damage to the Texas governor’s mansion following a fire over the weekend. And here are some additional shots from Sunday.
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Trial update: Defendant always primary suspect
The director of police and fire services for Lacy-Lakeview said the defendant on trial in the May 2003 stabbing death of a Texas State Technical College student had been the department’s primary suspect throughout its investigation.
Dennis Stapleton testified this morning in the trial of Damon Lavelle Asberry, 32, in Waco’s 54th State District Court that ever since Bryan Aaron Daugherty was first found bleeding to death at the East Crest Apartments, Asberry was the focus of the Lacy-Lakeview department’s investigation.
Stapleton said investigators retraced Daugherty’s steps through his cell phone recovered at the scene. Calls indicated the two had been together most of that day.
About a week after the murder, Stapleton said he happened upon Asberry at the Lacy-Lakeview police station and they struck up a conversation in the parking lot. During that talk, Asberry told the chief that he and Daugherty had spent most of the day together in Groesbeck smoking dope and getting drunk, but that when Asberry dropped Daugherty off at his apartment at 3 a.m. on the day of his death he was otherwise fine, Stapleton said.
Daugherty later banged on a friend’s door at 5 a.m. covered in blood from stab wounds.
For earlier trial testimony, click here.
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More Starburst golf shots online
We’ve got more Starburst Junior Classic golf tournament photos up from today’s morning action. Be sure to check them out on our Starburst page.
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Tori Spelling has baby girl
To be fair, if we posted yesterday that Jessica Alba had a baby girl, we should do the same for former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star Tori Spelling.
She and husband Dean McDermott welcomed their second child — 6-pound, 8-ounce Stella Doreen McDermott — at a Los Angeles hospital Monday, her publicist, Meghan Prophet, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
It’s the second child for the 35-year-old actress and the third for McDermott, who has a son from a previous marriage.
The couple, who wed in May 2006 and star in the Oxygen reality series “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood,” have a 1-year-old son, Liam Aaron. The third season of their reality show premieres June 17.
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More stores, restaurants yank tomatoes
Federal officials hunted for the source of a 17-state salmonella outbreak linked to three types of raw tomatoes, while the list of supermarkets and restaurants yanking those varieties from shelves and menus grew, the Associated Press reports.
McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Burger King, Kroger, Outback Steakhouse, Winn-Dixie and Taco Bell were among the companies that voluntarily withdrew red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes unless they were grown in certain states and countries.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that since mid-April, 167 people infected with salmonella with the same “genetic fingerprint” have been identified. At least 23 people have been hospitalized.
Earlier today, we noted this item about a Houston man’s death in which tainted tomatoes was considered a contributing factor.
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Clint Eastwood vs. Spike Lee
The interest level in this feud between the two directors seems to be peaking when in the world of the Internet it should be “so five minutes ago.” If you haven’t heard, Lee took issue with Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” movie with comments last month at the Cannes Film Festival for not showing any black soldiers at Iwo Jima and it’s escalated since.
Here’s a quick recap.
But it continued as seen here.
It’s a story getting international coverage, but it would be nice if it quieted down.
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Senate blocks plan to tax oil profits
Senate Republicans have blocked a proposal to tax oil industry windfall profits.
With gasoline prices topping $4 a gallon, Senate Democrats wanted the government to grab some of the billions of dollars in profits being taken in by the major oil companies.
Senators voted on whether to consider a windfall profits tax against the five largest U.S. oil companies and rescind $17 billion in tax breaks the companies expect to enjoy over the next decade.
“The oil companies need to know that there is a limit on how much profit they can take in this economy,” said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, warning that if energy prices are not reined in “we’re going to find ourselves in a deep recession.”
But the Democrats had to try to overcome staunch Republican opposition to any new taxes on the oil industry. The five largest U.S. oil companies earned $36 billion during the first three months of the year.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., needed 60 votes today to proceed with the oil tax legislation in the face of a threatened GOP filibuster.
— The Associated Press
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Summer Splash Day this afternoon
The annual Summer Splash Day that gets you in for free at Waco Water Park just by presenting a Waco-McLennan County Library card is from noon to 4 p.m. today.
A photo caption in today’s Trib mistakenly had 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The water park doesn’t open until noon.
Park hours are noon to 7 p.m. Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, and 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday. The water park is at 900 Lake Shore Drive.
For information, call 750-7900 or visit www.waco-texas.com.
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Murder trial begins in 54th District Court
The murder trial of a 32-year-old accused in the May 2003 stabbing death of a Texas State Technical College student began this morning in Waco’s 54th State District Court.
Damon Lavelle Asberry, a former student from Groesbeck who worked in the TSTC financial aid office, is on trial in the death of Bryan Aaron Daugherty, a 19-year-old Round Rock native. Asberry was arrested in September 2007 by members of the Texas Rangers cold case unit after he was charged in a sealed indictment.
Prosecutor Edward Vallejo gave an opening statement to open the trial. Asberry is represented by Corsicana attorney Steve Keathley.
The first witness to testify was Cyrus Cunningham, a naval petty officer who said he was friends with the victim and defendant in May 2003 at TSTC.
Cunningham testified that at 5 a.m. on May 22, 2003, Daugherty knocked on the door of Cunningham’s apartment across from TSTC, saying, “I need help, Dog! I’m not doing so good.”
Cunningham said he opened his door to find Daugherty, his shorts and pants covered in blood. He got Daugherty into a lawnchair and called 9-1-1, he said. Cunningham said he asked Daugherty questions, but couldn’t get coherent answers.
Cunningham said he was studying computer maintenance technology at TSTC, but after that incident he dropped out of the college and joined the Navy to become a medic because he didn’t know what to do for his friend.
Also taking the stand was Jason Lemmon, a Hewitt police officer who was working for Lacy-Lakeview at the time and responded to the scene. Lemmon said upon his arrival, Daugherty looked pale while sitting in the chair and was unable to communicate with him.
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County can’t enact ban on aerial fireworks
The McLennan County Commissioners Court had looked into a ban on aerial fireworks in unincorporated areas of the county this morning, but couldn’t enact one because the drought index is not yet high enough to do so under state law.
Lynne Lockwood with the county judge’s office said the Keetch‐Byram Drought Index used by the Texas Forest Service in determining drought conditions must be 575 for the commissioners to place a ban. It currently is at 417.
She said the county must reach the required index by Saturday for any fireworks ban to be in place for the 4th of July, but the commissioners will not have another meeting by then.
“Our hands are tied, we can’t do anything,” County Judge Jim Lewis said. “I hope everybody uses extreme caution.”
Lockwood said if the Texas Forest Service declares the county a drought area, the commissioners could pass a burn ban.
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Woman gets 30 years in thefts of Waco seniors
A Waco woman was sentenced to 30 years this morning in the robberies of older women in northwest Waco.
Tiffany Lee Santee, 27, pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated robbery and was sentenced to serve 30 years concurrently by 54th State District Court Judge Matt Johnson.
In the plea bargain with prosecutors, Santee also pleaded guilty to six counts of forgery at two years apiece. Those also will be served concurrently with the 30-year sentence.
A McLennan County grand jury had indicted Tiffany Lee Santee in February.
Santee was arrested in October after police reportedly connected her to robberies of an 81-year-old Lake Oaks Drive resident and an 82-year-old woman on Evergreen Drive, and in the theft of a 96-year-old woman’s purse on Columbia Street.
Santee was charged in an Oct. 4 incident in which police say she asked the 81-year-old woman to use her telephone. The woman declined, and Santee reportedly hit her in the head with a wine bottle and took her purse, police said.
She also was charged in an incident involving the theft of a 96-year-old woman’s purse after reportedly helping the woman carry groceries to a neighbor’s house. Police say she asked to use the woman’s telephone and asked for a drink, leaving with the woman’s purse when she went into the kitchen.
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New restaurant robbed; suspects sought
The owner of Se Cocina, the newest downtown restaurant, was robbed at gunpoint late Monday night, Waco police say, and the suspects are at large.
Police say just before midnight Monday “two or three” men robbed the man outside of his restaurant at 608 Austin Ave, according to Waco police officer Steve Anderson.
One shot was fired during the robbery, Anderson said. As the suspects ran off, some of the money police say they stole dropped to the ground.
More details should be coming later today.
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Funeral held for panda killed in China quake
Maybe I’m a sucker for this story because I saw “Kung Fu Panda” with my kids this weekend, or maybe it’s just that pandas are big and cuddly, but I was drawn to this article from China about a funeral held for a panda killed in the China earthquake. Here’s the beginning of the story:
Nearly a month after China’s devastating earthquake, the Wolong Nature Reserve held a funeral Tuesday for a panda that was crushed in the temblor.
The world famous panda center was badly damaged by the May 12 quake but officials initially thought all 64 pandas had survived. They later discovered that two were missing.
Nine-year-old Mao Mao, the mother of five at the breeding center, was found Monday, her body crushed by a wall of her enclosure when the river behind it swelled with landslide debris.
Panda keepers and other workers today placed her remains in a small wooden crate and wheeled her quietly to a patch of ground outside the breeding center where a freshly dug hole waited.
For the whole story, click here.
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Bush pushes allies for tougher stance on Iran
President Bush today said the United States and Europe must rally to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, calling the threat an incredible danger to world peace.
Speaking in Slovenia at his final European Union-U.S. summit, Bush said of Iranian leaders, “They can either face isolation, or they can have better relations with all of us. … Now’s the time for all of us to work together to stop them.”
Bush said the U.S. and its European allies should work together to make that abundantly clear to Iran.
— The Associated Press
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Police interrogate Japan stabbing suspect
The suspect in a knifing rampage that left seven dead in Tokyo was handed over to prosecutors today.
Tomohiro Kato, a 25-year-old factory worker, was transferred from police custody to a holding cell at the Tokyo prosecutors office, where he was expected to undergo further questioning into Sunday’s attack. Police say he slammed a rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians before jumping out and stabbing several people with a five-inch knife.
A police spokesman said Kato has generally been cooperative, though unapologetic, during questioning and has at times broken down in tears. The spokesman requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing and refused to give further details.
Three people were killed by the impact of the truck and four others died of stab wounds, police said. Another 10 were injured. Kato, his face and clothes spattered with blood, was arrested on the spot. It was the worst killing spree in Tokyo in recent memory.
— The Associated Press
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Flash floods swamp Wisconsin town again
The tiny southwestern Wisconsin village of Gay Mills was still trying to recover from a devastating flood 10 months ago, but a new deluge inundated the town of 625.
The swollen Kickapoo River engulfed nearly the entire town Monday morning, forcing about 150 people to evacuate. By evening, the village was a grid of canals with cars submerged up to their windows and parking lots looking like lakes, just as it was in August.
The flooding was caused by violent, drenching weekend thunderstorms that displaced thousands of Indiana residents and were blamed for 15 deaths in the Midwest and elsewhere.
— The Associated Press
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First death linked to salmonella in tomatoes
A cancer patient who health officials have confirmed was sickened by salmonella before dying may be the first death associated with a multistate food poisoning outbreak from raw tomatoes.
The death of a 67-year-old lymphoma patient last week has been officially attributed to his cancer, but Houston health department spokeswoman Kathy Barton said the salmonella saintpaul strain was a contributing factor.
City health officials confirming that Raul Rivera had the bacterial infection was reported Tuesday by the Houston Chronicle.
Barbara Rivera said her husband was hospitalized after eating pico de gallo, a tomato-based condiment, at a Mexican restaurant in late May while celebrating good news about his cancer treatment.
Raul Rivera began suffering nausea and diarrhea two days later, she said. He died Wednesday.
Four other family members who also ate the pico de gallo became ill, Barbara Rivera said, but didn’t require hospitalization.
— The Associated Press
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A mostly cloudy day?
I know plenty of people who don’t trust weather forecasts, and if you looked outside right now — where there’s not a cloud in the sky — you’d scratch your head too about a prediction of mostly cloudy skies.
But maybe things will change. The forecast calls for isolated showers and thunderstorms this morning and early afternoon. It’s only a 20 percent of rain.
We’ll be in the mid-90s with a south wind around 10 mph.
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