Defense attorneys threw an interesting twist into what was supposed to be a routine pretrial hearing Tuesday for Andrew Orellana, a Sioux City man accused of shooting and killing a rival gang member back in 1997.

Prior to the hearing, Orellana’s attorneys filed a motion asking prosecutors to produce a variety of evidence.

Tops on the list was details of a phone call someone made to Sioux City police, reporting that a gun used in the murder was in a police officer’s mailbox.

Say what?

(more…)

The silence has broken.

Although there have been several filings over the summer in Timothy Sohler’s murder case, most were to postpone court dates or involved regular court procedures.

That’s a stark contrast to the Lawrence Douglas Harris murder case, during which I accumulated two huge stacks of court filings.

However, in the past few weeks attorneys for both sides in the Sohler case have shown a bit more about what we may see when he goes to trial on Oct. 20.

(more…)

Less than two weeks since 3-year-old Evelyn Verdugo Paniagua was killed, there’s already a folder stuffed with court documents from State of Nebraska v. Melecio Camacho-De Jesus sitting on my desk.

The first page, however, isn’t about Camacho-De Jesus – the man arrested for allegedly raping and killing the South Sioux City toddler.

It’s a pamphlet from Evelyn’s public memorial held last week in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

(more…)

The sword fight that killed an Indianapolis grandmother trying to intervene has claimed a second victim.

The Indianapolis Star says court documents claim Christopher Rondeau and his uncle drank beer, and the uncle allegedly drank other alcoholic beverages, before they began fighting with a Japanese-style sword and Samurai sword.

(more…)

Seattle police tracking a robber think they have their man…who is now waiting for his autopsy.

The new seattlepi.com, the online version of what used to be the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper, has the story.

The Seattle newspaper’s parent company slashed most of its staff and went to an online-only format this week.

(more…)

Police say an airplane pilot made a sad delivery recently after his passenger died during the flight.

Sioux City Police Sgt. Mike Post said officers were alerted about 1 p.m. Thursday that a private plane would be landing in Sioux City with a deceased passenger.

(more…)

When Ed and Lucinda Hulit came to the Sioux City Journal early last year for an interview, I had never seen two people so devastated.They cried as they sat at the table in one of our small conference rooms, at a loss to understand why their daughter had to die or how they were supposed to go on living.

It had only been a few months since Raina, 15, had been found shot to death.

Matthew Hettinger, 24, was accused of shooting her in his basement.

When we spoke again a few weeks ago in advance of Hettinger’s trial, the pain and grief hadn’t lessened. They hoped sending him to prison for life would help, but on Friday he took a plea deal that sends him to prison for up to 45 years.

(more…)

In July, 51 people died on Iowa roadways, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. That’s the highest number for July since 1999, and the second highest monthly total in the past seven years.

That number includes “five to six” northwest Iowans, said Scott Falb, research and driver safety analyst for the DOT’s Office of Driver’s Services.

His words of advice? Buckle up. It could save your life. In one week in July, only four of the people killed in the 14 non-motorcycle wrecks that week were wearing seatbelts, Falb said.

I’ve never been a fan of luring people into a “trap” and then punishing them for their behavior. The entire premise of NBC’s hit show, ‘To Catch a Predator’ … well, that’s really what it’s all about. The network has teamed up with anti-sexual predator group Perverted Justice to catch people in the act of trying to pick up 13- and 14-year-old children and splash their arrests all over TV.

But regardless of why and how I disagree with their tactics, it seems NBC has a much bigger problem on its hands. The sister of a man who shot himself when police came to his door with Dateline NBC crews from ‘To Catch A Predator’ is suing the network for taking over police duties and then failing to protect him.

I don’t think the network would be at fault if Louis Conradt had actually shown up at the location to meet the “child” he chatted with — but he stayed home. Conradt’s sister claims NBC employees ”steamrolled” police in his Dallas suburb into going to his house to arrest him when, really, what was his crime? THINKING about having sex with a child and chatting to someone online who was posing as a child? Last time I checked, thinking about illegal activities wasn’t illegal. I don’t condone what he was thinking about, obviously, but…what do you think about this?

Read the whole story here.

Law enforcement in Black Hawk County in eastern Iowa have carried out a similar sting operation over the past few years and have caught a few Siouxlanders in their net. Honestly, I don’t agree with their tactics, either, but at least their interest isn’t “perversely publicized” on national TV.

A 4-year-old girl who lived in South Sioux City until just recently is dead from possible child abuse, but the information being released on the case is sketchy and excruciatingly slow in coming.

An obituary for Alyana Elizabeth Moreno appeared in the Journal on Thursday, but when I spotted it on the fax Wednesday afternoon I could tell there was something fishy about her death right away. Four-year-olds just don’t “pass away unexpectedly.” The obit said she died three days before we received it, which was also a sign something was up.

My co-worker Travis Coleman and I made numerous phone calls over the past two days to family members, the Hamlin County Sheriff’s Office (the little girl was living in Estelline, S.D. with her father, Alberto Moreno-Gomez, at the time of her death), the Hamlin County Attorney, and others — but to no avail. We were directed by all sources that they had “no comment” and information concerning her death would only be coming from County Attorney Jeromy Pankrantz, but he repeatedly told us he would have no comment until court papers are filed on Monday because of the ongoing investigation. Then today I saw Hamlin County Sheriff Dan Mack decided to talk about the case to a local TV station, which he would not do for us. The sheriff’s office told me Friday he had left to attend his granddaughters’ graduation in North Dakota.

Here’s what we know: Alyana’s mom, Kassy Moreno, lives in South Sioux City, along with many other family members. Alyana moved with her father and stepmother to Estelline recently. Family members would only say her death was “not an accident.” There is a woman in custody who has been charged with child abuse, but she hasn’t been “formally” connected to the girl’s death.

We will bring you more information as it becomes available on Monday.