Omaha Police and the family of a 15-year-old boy who was killed three years ago are asking the public for help to solve the cold case homicide.

Parents of Everett Williams, as well as the Omaha Police Department, held a press conference Thursday, hoping that someone with information about the case will come forward.

Williams body was found shot to death in north Omaha on February 8, 2010.  No arrests have been made in the tragic death, and police have no solid suspects at this time.

 

 

An Omaha man is facing murder charges in connection with a house fire that killed a man and injured his wife.

Omaha Police arrested Terrance Hale Thursday following the fire that broke out at the home of Raymond Vasholz and his wife, Elizabeth Vasholz.  Hale has been charged with multiple crimes including first-degree murder, first-degree arson and burglary.

Raymond Vasholz died hours after the fire at Creighton University Medical Center.  Elizabeth Vasholz is being treated for serious burn injuries at St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center in Lincoln.

Police say they received a report about an assault at the house around the same time they received the report of the structure fire.  Hale was arrested at the scene and taken in for questioning.  Hale was then charged and booked into the Douglas County Jail.  He is scheduled to appear in court on Friday.

 

Omaha Police have a new crime fighting tool in their arsenal, a deer.

Omaha Police attempted make a traffic stop on a speeding sports utility vehicle Thursday morning.  A short pursuit ensued, but was brought to an abrupt stop by a deer crossing the road.  The unidentified driver struck the deer, then crashed the vehicle.

According to local media, the driver was arrested and now faces several charges for various traffic violations.

There was no report given on the condition of the deer.

 

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Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer says she will vote against Chuck Hagel to be the next defense secretary.

Fisher wrote an op-ed published Thursday in the Omaha World-Herald. She casts Hagel’s views as out of the mainstream, a point she argued during his confirmation hearing last week. She also says Hagel gave, quote, “confusing and contradictory” testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Fischer’s opposition was widely expected, as Hagel endorsed her Democratic rival — former Sen. Bob Kerrey — in the November election. Hagel is a former two-term GOP senator from Nebraska.

Nebraska’s other Republican senator, Mike Johanns, has said he supports Hagel for the job.

A 30-year-old driver has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in Platte County.

The Columbus Telegram reports that Brian Browning, of Humphrey, made his plea Tuesday in Platte County District Court. Browning had made a deal with prosecutors, who lowered the charge.

Authorities say Browning admitted driving recklessly and speeding before the accident on July 21 last year. A passenger in Browning’s truck, 20-year-old Toni Krumland, of Columbus, died four days after the crash.

Browning faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced on March 15.

Stunned by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut, officers and school officials in Douglas County in Colorado felt they had to do something to reassure students.

Their solution: Have officers on patrol do their arrest reports and other paperwork in school parking lots, rather than pulling off the road or returning to the sheriff’s department.

The decision has had an immediate calming impact at a time when the nation is embroiled in the debate over gun control and gun violence.

Security officers have long been assigned to the Douglas County school district’s middle and high schools. But the district couldn’t assign an officer to each of its more than 50 elementary schools. The district offers Wi-Fi in elementary school parking lots so officers can do their paperwork there.

Lawmakers will consider a bill that would kick the governor, attorney general and other elected officials off Nebraska’s state employee health insurance plan.

The Executive Board will hear a bill by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist on Thursday that would ban constitutional officers and state lawmakers from using the state’s plan.

Nordquist says he introduced the bill to force state officials to face the same challenges as Nebraskans who are struggling to afford health care coverage.

All state lawmakers, the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state treasurer and state auditor would be affected if the bill passed.

A Lincoln man who used a cigarette to burn a 16-month-old girl has been given two to four years in prison.

Twenty-three-year-old LaDeryl Lathan had pleaded guilty to felony child abuse. The Lincoln Journal Star says Lathan was sentenced on Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Lathan was baby-sitting his girlfriend’s daughter on July 30. Lathan told the woman when she came home that the girl had picked up his cigarette, which contained an illegal synthetic drug, and burned herself on her face, lips, neck, a leg and an arm.

The mother took the little girl to a hospital on July 31. Authorities say doctors reported those injuries and chest bruising and wrist fractures to police.

Two men who had escaped from a Utah jail have been sentenced to prison in Nebraska.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that 31-year-old Dallas Derrick and 21-year-old Jason Braham had pleaded no contest and were convicted of theft. They were sentenced on Wednesday in Lancaster County District Court to 20 to 24 months in prison.

Derrick and Braham were arrested on Sept. 23 after the vehicle they were using stalled. A sheriff’s deputy later determined the car had been stolen from a Lincoln apartment complex and that the two men were being sought by Utah authorities.

The two are accused of stealing a sport utility vehicle in Vernal, Utah, after they fled the jail through a laundry room vent.