LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A man serving life in prison for a 2003 kidnapping has lost his appeal before the Nebraska Supreme Court.

The court on Friday rejected the appeal by Rosario Betancourt-Garcia, who was convicted in Madison County of kidnapping, conspiracy and use of a firearm.

Court records say Betancourt-Garcia was identified by his victim as one of two men who kidnapped and terrorized him. The other man, Jose Luis Trevino, was convicted in 2005 and sent to prison.

Officials say Betancourt-Garcia was mistakenly deported to Mexico shortly after the crimes occurred. He returned to the United States and lived in Texas until he was arrested in 2013.

The court vacated part of his sentence on the conspiracy conviction but ordered a judge to resentence him to life in prison on that count.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A woman has been sent to prison for helping her boyfriend dump his mother’s body.

25-year-old Gabriela Guevara was sentenced Friday to six to 14 years in prison. She pleaded no contest in August to being an accessory.

Guevara’s one-time boyfriend, Roberto Martinez-Marinero, is serving a life sentence for two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, 45-year-old Jesus Ismenia Marinero, and his 4-year-old half brother, Josue Ramirez-Marinero.

After killing his mother, Martinez-Marinero took her two youngest children in an attempt to eliminate witnesses. He dumped his then-11-month-old half brother in a La Vista trash bin. The child was found later, bruised but otherwise uninjured.

He threw the 4-year-old boy off a bridge to his death.

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 23-year-old Lincoln man has pleaded no contest to manslaughter for a motorcycle crash that killed his girlfriend more than two years ago.

Tyler Wilson entered the plea Thursday. A no contest pleas is one in which the defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to convict.

Wilson was driving his motorcycle with his 21-year-old girlfriend, Jessie McCain, on the back of the bike in July 2014. Prosecutors say he was traveling at more than 80 mph on a street where the speed limit was 40 mph when he hit a Jeep, killing McCain.

Wilson faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced in February.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 34-year-old Lincoln has been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison for trying to kidnap a 3-year-old girl from a grocery store last year.

Bentiu Wal was sentenced Thursday to 20 to 30 years. Police say store surveillance video showed he grabbed the girl from behind near the exit of the store and tried to leave with her. The child’s mother intervened and hit Wal until he let go of the girl and left the store.

Wal’s attorney said he was intoxicated at the time and doesn’t remember the incident.

Wal will get credit for a little more than a year he spent in jail awaiting trial.

PELLA, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say two of the three people killed when a pickup truck crashed into an Iowa Wal-Mart store were employees, while the third was shopping.

Law enforcement officials said Friday that those killed in the Thursday morning crash were 31-year-old Carrie Zugg, of Leighton, and 29-year-old Lindsey Rietveld, of Bussey, both employees of the Pella store, and 76-year-old Ruth Jean DeJong, of Pella, a shopper. DeJong’s husband, 77-year-old Robert DeJong, was injured in the crash and remained hospitalized.

The only other injured person was the driver of the truck, 66-year-old Dennis Mockenhaupt, of Knoxville, Iowa. Investigators say Mockenhaupt plowed at a high rate of speed through a glass front entrance. Officials declined to say Friday what caused the crash, but had earlier said it was believed to be an accident.

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — Beatrice school officials are considering drug tests for students who participate in extracurricular activities.

School officials presented their research on the matter to the Beatrice Public Schools board on Monday. The board will revisit the issue at future meetings, deciding whether to move forward with a new policy.

Beatrice High School Assistant Principal Bob Sexton says he began to discuss the policy with the school’s resource officer after a few incidents at the school. Sexton says the policy could apply to athletes but also students in band and other activities. About 70 percent of the student population is involved with extracurricular activities.

Sexton and School Resource Officer Zac Lauenstein say 40 high schools in Nebraska use random drug testing.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island-based debt collection company has agreed to pay a $198,000 settlement in a class-action lawsuit that accused the company of violating federal law.

The settlement ends a legal fight Laura Powers and Nichole and Jason Palmer brought against Credit Management Services in 2011.

Federal courts have previously ruled that debt collectors can’t collect attorney’s fees or interest from people without first receiving judgment from a court in a debt case. Court documents say Credit Management Services tried to do so when the company sought payment for medical bills.

Under the settlement, 11,552 claimants will receive a proportional share of the $198,000 payout. Credit Management Services didn’t admit liability.

SEWARD, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a fugitive lieutenant in an infamous Mexican drug cartel has been arrested in eastern Nebraska.

The Seward County sheriff’s office says 39-year-old Jesus Ramon Buena-Peregina had been on the run from U.S. authorities for four years. He was arrested Wednesday during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 near Seward, about 70 miles southwest of Omaha.

Buena-Peregina, a lieutenant in the Sinaloa drug cartel, had been wanted on felony drug charges. Authorities say he returned to the country after being deported to Mexico and was trafficking cocaine.

Deputies say they found a fake passport and IDs on Buena-Peregrina. They took him and his driver, 27-year-old Vanessa E. Lopez-Pena, into custody, then notified federal authorities.

Online court records don’t list attorneys to speak on behalf of Buena-Peregina or Lopez-Pena.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered Douglas County’s insurance carrier to pay $5 million — plus legal costs — to two men wrongfully jailed for months in the 2006 killing of a Murdock couple because the county’s former crime lab chief planted evidence against them.

Nick Sampson and Matthew Livers (LEYE’-vurz) will split the amount.

They were arrested after Livers falsely confessed to murdering his aunt and uncle, Wayne and Sharmon Stock, at their farmhouse. He recanted the next day.

The judgment is the maximum the St. Paul Travelers Cos.’s insurance policy would pay for former CSI chief David Kofoed’s (KOH-fohd’s) conduct. Kofoed was convicted of planting blood evidence in a car to bolster the case against Livers and Sampson, who were later exonerated.

O’NEILL, Neb. (AP) — A January sentencing has been scheduled for a 38-year-old man O’Neill man who killed his wife.

Online court records say Eduardo Barajas Quintero pleaded no contest Monday in Holt County District Court to a charge of second-degree murder. His sentencing is set for Jan. 30.

Prosecutors say he fatally stabbed 37-year-old Guadalupe Verdin Quintero on Feb. 20. A Nebraska State Patrol investigator said in an arrest warrant affidavit that Eduardo Quintero told him that he stabbed his wife because he suspected she was having an affair with another man. Quintero said he used a different knife to cut his own wrists.

Investigators counted 34 stab wounds on the body of Guadalupe Quintero.