GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — An investigation of the Hall County Jail has begun following a letter sent to the Hall County Board of Supervisors by a retired jail employee voicing concerns about the jail’s operation and management.

Hall County Attorney Jack Zitterkopf said attorneys from a Lincoln law firm arrived in Grand Island this week to conduct interviews of jail staff and administrators.

Zitterkopf declined to say whether any jail officials have been put on leave during the investigation.

Zitterkopf confirmed the county’s receipt of a letter by a retired jail sergeant outlining the concerns, but has declined to release the letter, saying it’s part of an investigation and protected personnel file.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police have identified a man found shot to death behind the wheel of a car on a northeast Omaha street.

Police said Thursday that 63-year-old Virgil Beard was killed in the shooting reported around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in northeast Omaha. Responding officers found a car with its windows shot out and Beard dead inside the vehicle.

Police canvassed the neighborhood looking for suspects and witnesses to the shooting.

Police did not announce any arrests in the shooting Thursday morning.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) — A 31-year-old Texas man accused of raping a teenage girl in a Nebraska motel has pleaded no contest to a count of sex trafficking of a minor in a deal with prosecutors.

Erick Mills faces up to 50 years in prison when he’s sentenced on Aug. 4.

Court documents say Mills was working in Columbus when he met a 16-year-old Omaha girl and later agreed to pick her up in the city on Jan. 23.

Prosecutors say Mills and the teen ended up at a Columbus hotel with two other men, where Mills forced the girl to sniff cocaine. Authorities say he later raped her multiple times over several hours after the other men refused to pay him to have sex with the girl.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man accused of hitting his mother and stealing guns from her home has been sentenced to six to nine years in prison.

37-year-old Jacob F. Brehm was sentenced Wednesday. He had pleaded guilty to attempted possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Prosecutors say Brehm’s mother told police she tried to keep her son away from the guns when he came to get them because she knew he wasn’t allowed to have them due to a prior conviction. According to police, Brehm said he wanted to sell one of the guns.

Brehm was arrested after a standoff with a SWAT team trying to serve a search warrant. Police say they recovered an AK-47 and a Glock 26 handgun from his home.

PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say two people have died in a rollover accident near Beaver Lake in Cass County.

According to authorities, 22-year-old Jeremiah Ferguson of Omaha and 21-year-old Kelsey Leclaire of Council Bluffs, Iowa, died Tuesday.

Authorities say a 2006 Volkswagen GTI Hatchback went through a stop sign at a Highway 75 intersection and struck an embankment. According to the Cass County Sheriff’s Department, the vehicle went over a fence before it landed upside down in a bean field.

Cass County Sheriff William Brueggemann said a local lawn care service noticed tracks and debris and found the vehicle, which was not visible from the highway.

Brueggemann said speed was likely a factor in the crash.