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Judges set hearing to announce inmate’s death case decision

Patrick Schroeder

TECUMSEH, Neb. (AP) — Three judges considering the death penalty for a Nebraska prisoner who killed his cellmate have set a hearing to announce their decision.

Johnson County District Court documents say the hearing regarding 40-year-old Patrick Schroeder is scheduled June 1.

Schroeder has freely admitted strangling 22-year-old Terry Berry in April 2017 in their cell at Tecumseh State Prison in southeast Nebraska. Schroeder told investigators that he killed Berry for being too talkative and said he had warned Berry several times that he needed to “shut up.”

Schroeder offered no rebuttal to prosecutors’ assertions that he should be sentenced to death. He’s said he believes in the death penalty.

Schroeder has been serving a life sentence for killing a 75-year-old Pawnee City farmer in 2006.

Correction: Mountain Lion Hunting story

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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — In a story May 24 about Nebraska officials considering reinstituting a mountain lion hunting season, The Associated Press reported that biologists say the number of adult and kitten mountain lions increased to 59 last year. They were referring to the number of mountain lions in the Pine Ridge region of northwestern Nebraska, not the entire state.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Nebraska to consider mountain lion hunting season in 2019

State officials are considering whether to resume a mountain lion hunting season in Nebraska, a move likely to generate intense debate

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — State officials are considering whether to resume a mountain lion hunting season in Nebraska next year, a move likely to generate intense debate.

The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has set a public hearing for the proposal on June 22 at Mid-Plains Community College in Ogallala.

The proposed season would let hunters harvest up to eight mountain lions in two designated areas of northwest Nebraska’s Pine Ridge region.

State biologists say the number of adult and kitten mountain lions increased to 59 last year in northwestern Nebraska’s Pine Ridge region, compared to as many as 33 during the last official hunting season in 2014. They say the population is now established enough to sustain hunting.

Sen. Ernie Chambers, of Omaha, has fought to eliminate mountain lion hunting in Nebraska the last few years.

Ex-Omaha Tribal Council member pleads guilty to funds misuse

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha Tribal Council member has pleaded guilty to misusing federal funds.

The Sioux City Journal reports that Rodney Morris pleaded guilty Thursday in Omaha’s U.S. District Court to one count of misapplication of health care benefit program funds. His sentencing is set for Aug. 31.

In exchange for his plea, other federal charges were dropped.

Morris was one of nine tribal officials charged in a case that accused the officials of misusing federal funds by awarding nearly $389,000 in bonuses to themselves. Officials say the bonuses were paid from Indian Health Service funds meant to provide health care to members of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, who reside on the Omaha Reservation in Macy in northeastern Nebraska and in western Iowa.

The other eight have pleaded not guilty. Their cases are pending.

Police say resident reported shooting intruder

WISNER, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a northeast Nebraska resident has reported that he shot an intruder.

Officers were sent to a house in Wisner around 6:50 a.m. Thursday on a report that someone was trying to break into the locked home. They found a wounded man lying on a floor inside and a resident armed with a handgun that had been fired.

The man was taken to an Omaha hospital. He’s expected to survive his wound.

Authorities haven’t released any names. The shooting is being investigated.

Man accused of killing neighbor ruled incompetent for trial

Rodolfo Castaneda-Morejon

MADISON, Neb. (AP) — A man accused of stabbing to death a neighbor in northeast Nebraska has been ruled incompetent for trial.

Madison County District Judge Mark Johnson issued the ruling Wednesday regarding 49-year-old Rodolfo Castaneda-Morejon. He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and use of a weapon in the slaying of 39-year-old Yosvanis Velazquez Gomez on Aug. 25 at a Norfolk apartment complex.

Johnson ordered that Castaneda-Morejon will be taken to the state psychiatric hospital in Lincoln for treatment aimed at restoration. A status hearing is set for Aug. 7.

Court records say Castaneda-Morejon told investigators he confronted Velazquez Gomez about an inappropriate text message sent to Castaneda-Morejon’s girlfriend, suspecting the two were having a secret relationship. The records also say Castaneda-Morejon acknowledged stabbing Velazquez Gomez several times.

Western Nebraska High School Student who attempted to assault teacher gets probation

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A student who attempted to sexually assault a teacher in western Nebraska has been given a year and 225 days on probation.

The Scottsbluff Star-Herald reports the teenager has been ordered to complete treatment at a therapeutic group home.

The boy admitted to a charge of attempted sexual assault after prosecutors dropped two related charges. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.

The boy was arrested Nov. 20, a few blocks from Gering High School in Gering. Court records say the boy used a pocketknife to menace the teacher before her class began, telling her to take off her clothes. She shoved him and ran to another classroom. The boy chased her and groped her and then ran from the school. The teacher was not injured.

Officials: 2 injured in chemical explosion in UNL lab

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Two students have been injured in a chemical explosion in a University of Nebraska-Lincoln laboratory.

Authorities say a container holding nitric acid and other chemicals burst inside the lab in Theodore Jorgensen Hall, which houses the school’s physics and astronomy department. The container explosion injured two male students, ages 19 and 22.

Officials say one student suffered facial injuries and the other suffered inhalation burns. Neither student is believed to have suffered life-threatening injuries.

Firefighters say the hall was evacuated, but that the danger was contained to the lab.

No other injuries were reported.

Disputed Keystone Pipeline project focus of court hearing

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Attorneys for the Trump administration were due in a Montana courtroom Thursday to defend the disputed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline against environmental groups that want to derail the project.

The 1,179-mile (1,800-kilometer) line proposed by TransCanada Corporation was rejected in 2015 by former President Barack Obama because of its potential to exacerbate climate change.

President Donald Trump revived the project soon after taking office last year, citing its potential to create jobs and advance energy independence.

Environmentalists and Native Americans who sued to stop the line have asked U.S. District Judge Brian Morris to overturn its approval by the State Department. They and others, including landowners, are worried about spills that could foul groundwater and the line’s impacts to their property rights.

But U.S. government attorneys assert that Trump’s change in course from Obama’s focus on climate change reflects a legitimate shift in policy, not an arbitrary rejection of previous studies of the project.

“While the importance of climate change was considered, the interests of energy security and economic development outweighed those concerns,” the attorneys recently wrote.

Morris previously rejected a bid by the administration to dismiss the suit on the grounds that Trump had constitutional authority over the pipeline as a matter of national security.

Keystone XL would cost an estimated $8 billion. It would begin in Alberta and transport up to 830,000 barrels a day of crude through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with lines to carry oil to Gulf Coast refineries.

Federal approval is required because the route crosses an international border.

TransCanada, based in Calgary, said in court submissions that the line would operate safely and help reduce U.S. reliance on crude from the Middle East and other regions.

The project is facing a separate legal challenge in Nebraska, where landowners have filed a lawsuit challenging the Nebraska Public Service Commission’s decision to approve a route through the state.

Grand jury finds no wrongdoing in death of Nebraska inmate

Lucious Turner

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A grand jury has found no wrongdoing in the August death of an inmate who collapsed while playing basketball.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that the grand jury report says 35-year-old Lucius Turner died last year at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln as a result of an abnormal heartbeat due to heart disease.

A criminal investigator with the Nebraska State Patrol testified that Turner had just made a jump shot, high-fived another inmate, and then collapsed as he went to sit down.

Staff called 911, began CPR and used a defibrillator before medics took over. Turner was later pronounced dead.

Turner was serving a sentence of 40-55 years for robberies in Gage and Lancaster counties.

State law requires a grand jury investigation whenever someone dies in custody.

Ex-Omaha youth pastor in teen sex case sent to prison

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A former Omaha youth pastor accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl has been sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a reduced charge.

The Omaha World-Herald reports that 35-year-old Klint Bitter was sentenced Wednesday in Sarpy County District Court for a count of attempted first-degree sexual assault.

Authorities say Bitter found the girl in an online classified ad for an 18-year-old girl and had sex with her in 2017. Bitter has said he had asked the girl whether she was underage.

Officials say Bitter was youth pastor at Christ Community Church in Omaha but was fired after he was charged.

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