WEST POINT, Neb. (AP) – A mistrial has been declared in a northeast Nebraska murder case.

Cuming County jurors had heard nine days of testimony regarding the second-degree murder and other charges against Derek Olson before the mistrial was declared Tuesday. Prosecutors say Olson and his father, Jody Olson, killed 64-year-old Ernest Warnock on March 10, 2017, at Warnock’s home in Rosalie.

The judge said the mistrial was warranted because a former Nebraska State Patrol investigator mentioned a lie detector test taken by Jody Olson. The judge says Jody Olson’s testimony is key, so it’s important that jurors not be swayed by the fact that a witness took and may have passed a test.

Jody Olson pleaded guilty to a charge of second-degree murder and agreed to testify against his son as part of a plea deal.

Derek Olson’s second trial is scheduled to begin May 6.

COLUMBUS, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a high school student died when his pickup truck crashed just east of Columbus.

The accident occurred around 2 a.m. Tuesday on a gravel road about a mile east of Columbus city limits. The Platte County Sheriff’s Department says Juan Cordero was headed east when his pickup ran off the roadway into a roadside ditch and rolled, coming to rest on its top.

Authorities say Cordero was a senior at Lakeview Junior-Senior High School in Columbus, where principal Steve Borer described him as a “super nice kid.”

The crash is being investigated.

 

Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol (NSP) have arrested two people and seized nearly 400 pounds of marijuana during multiple traffic stops on Monday, March 25.

At approximately 11:45 a.m., a trooper observed an eastbound Nissan Rogue driving on the shoulder of Interstate 80 near Lincoln at mile marker 393. During the traffic stop, an NSP K9 detected the presence of a controlled substance coming from inside the vehicle. A search of the vehicle revealed 180 pounds of marijuana.

The driver, Richard Huckaba, 50, of Ruston, Louisiana, was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and no drug tax stamp. Huckaba was lodged in Lancaster County Jail.

At approximately 2:00 p.m., another trooper performed a traffic stop on a Chevrolet Silverado after observing the vehicle fail to signal on the exit ramp of I-80 at mile marker 366 near Utica. During the traffic stop, another NSP K9 detected the odor of a controlled substance coming from inside the vehicle. Troopers searched the vehicle and located approximately 219 pounds of marijuana in the covered bed of the pickup.

The driver, Rebecca Jayne, 60, of Selma, Oregon was arrested for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and no drug tax stamp. Jayne was lodged in Seward County Jail.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — As hundreds of untested rape kits remain in storage at the Lincoln Police Department, officials are considering broadening the scope of the department’s kit-testing policy to require all DNA evidence to be tested.

The department has more than 350 untested rape kits that have been collected since 2004, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

Nearly all the untested kits are from cases in which the victim knew the alleged offender, said Chief Jeff Bliemeister. The DNA evidence could confirm if there was sexual contact, but wouldn’t confirm if it was nonconsensual, he said.

“There are no untested kits in our property unit that hold investigative value specific to the allegations” of the cases reported, Bliemeister said in February.

Rape kits are required to be tested in cases where the victim doesn’t know the alleged offender, according to department policy. Police are now considering changing that policy.

“We are evaluating best practices from the National Institutes of Justice, meeting with community stakeholders and making a determination if all biological evidence should be sent to the lab, even when the facts and circumstances of the investigation we are working don’t require the analysis,” Bliemeister said last week.

Investigators aren’t considering workload or costs when weighing whether to test kits, Bliemeister said. Police sometimes pay more to have kits tested in other labs to avoid a backlog, he said.

Testing all sexual assault kits can help identify serial rapists, according to End the Backlog, a federal initiative by the Joyful Heart Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for all kits to be tested.

Victims whose rape kits aren’t tested can feel like their sexual assault hasn’t been taken seriously, said Michelle Miller, the sexual violence program coordinator for the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence.

The police department works to document all reports of sexual assault, allows anonymous reporting and works with victim’s advocates, Bliemeister said.

HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a motorcyclist was killed in a collision with a sport utility vehicle in south-central Nebraska.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says 18-year-old Kevin Johnson died Friday evening at a U.S. Highway 281 intersection about 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of Hastings. The Hastings Tribune reports that Johnson had halted at a stop sign but failed to yield to the southbound SUV when trying to cross the highway. He lived in Fairfield.

The sheriff’s office reports no injuries were suffered by the SUV driver, 26-year-old Kaitlin Anderson, of Blue Hill.

The collision is being investigated.