FALLS CITY, Neb. (AP) — A Falls City man accused of fatally shooting a relative in August is facing a murder charge.

Deputy County Attorney Zach Blackman says a charge against Desiderio Hernandez has been upgraded to first-degree murder. He was previously charged with attempted first-degree murder.

34-year-old Hernandez is accused of shooting 31-year-old Joseph Debella Jr. on Aug. 5. Debella died days later at a Lincoln hospital. Authorities say the men were cousins.

Hernandez was arrested after a nearly seven-hour standoff at a home in Kansas. He faces other charges including use of a firearm to commit a felony.

A message left for an attorney representing Hernandez was not immediately returned Friday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has reversed the state Public Service Commission’s ruling in the case of two farm operations whose claims were denied when a Pierce grain elevator was shut down last year.

The high court said Friday that the commission wrongly denied the claims of Curt Raabe and James and Diane Herian, all of Pierce County.

It ordered Raabe be paid his $88,500 claim to cover a check issued to him days before the elevator closed. The court also ordered the Herians be compensated for nearly 28,000 bushels of corn they had stored at the failed elevator.

The Public Service Commission closed Pierce Elevator Inc. in March 2014, after a bank discontinued financing the operation. More than 200 farmers filed claims worth $9.7 million against the company.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police had identified two men found fatally shot in a gravel alley behind a north Omaha home.

According a news release from Omaha police, 58-year-old David Cooper and 42-year-old Kevin Pace were killed. Police say the men were shot around 7 p.m. Thursday, and officers responding to the scene found them in the alley a few minutes later. Medics were called to the scene, but attempts to resuscitate the pair were unsuccessful. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have not announced any arrests in the case.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman, her husband and some other relatives have found a gleam in a pile of garbage: the 2-karat diamond wedding ring that her husband had given her more than seven years ago.

Geralee Olson-Triplett says she accidentally had thrown away her ring Tuesday while tossing some trash into a can.

The couple contacted the owner of their garbage service, who told them all the trucks had dumped their trash at the landfill. But he called back an hour later to say that one of the trucks hadn’t arrived at the landfill by closing time so they could look through its load.

The next morning, the couple and relatives went through the trash and discovered the ring to Olson-Triplett’s relief.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Police are investigating after two men were fatally shot in a gravel alley behind a north Omaha home.

According to Omaha police spokesman Officer James Shade, the two men, whose identities have not been released, were shot around 7 p.m. Thursday.

Police say they do not have any suspects in custody.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman has been given nine months in jail for misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

Online court records say 41-year-old Lawanda Cook was sentenced Thursday in Douglas County Court. She’d pleaded no contest and was convicted on May 28.

Cook was charged after the Jan. 18 death of 55-year-old Joanne Smith. Police say Smith was struck by Cook’s car as Smith was unloading items from the trunk of her car. Smith’s legs were severed, and she died four days after the accident.

Police say Cook reported that she got distracted when her cellphone fell to the floor of her car.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A first-year student from Arizona is accused of sexually assaulting an 18-year-old student in a dorm at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

University officials say Christopher Petersen, of Scottsdale, Arizona, has been barred from campus following the Sept. 5 incident. His attorney, Bob Creager (KREE’-gur), declined to comment on Friday.

A court affidavit says Petersen and the woman went to the woman’s room and began kissing. The woman told investigators that Petersen continued kissing and groping her after she told him to stop. The affidavit says Petersen acknowledged during a subsequent interview with an officer that he’d made some “bad decisions.”

SPRINGFIELD, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska teenager has been accused of putting a chemical from a chemistry class into a water bottle and duping another student into drinking the tainted liquid, sickening him.

Authorities say the incident occurred Tuesday at Platteview High School in the rural Omaha suburb of Springfield. The Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office says the 16-year-old was booked on suspicion of attempted second-degree assault and released to his parents. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.

The Sheriff’s Office says the teen had dared the other 16-year-old boy to drink from the bottle, telling him it contained just old water that had been sitting in a truck. The other 16-year-old became ill and vomited within a minute of drinking the water. The chemical was believed to be copper sulfate.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 45-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl in Lincoln has been sentenced to 40 to 60 years in prison.

Fidel Romero was sentenced Thursday on a charge of first-degree sexual assault. He must serve about 26 years before he’s eligible for parole.

Romero is accused of sexually molesting the girl over several incidents when he lived in Lincoln. The girl told a counselor at her middle school that Romero began molesting her in 2010.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports (https://bit.ly/1OE5W9B ) Romero was arrested in New Mexico in 2014. He was later brought back to Lincoln, where he pleaded no contest to the charge last month.

A defense attorney says Romero was sexually abused when he was 8 years old, and it could have affected his behavior.