WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — The Massachusetts man suspected of raping a 13-year-old girl, then going on a cross-country crime spree after cutting off his court-ordered monitoring device, has been held without bail.
Gregory Lewis pleaded not guilty Monday to 17 charges connected to the alleged rape and an alleged attack on his stepfather.
He was held pending a hearing scheduled for Nov. 10 to determine whether he’s a danger to society.
His court-appointed attorney had no comment.
Authorities say the 26-year-old Lewis, of Southbridge, spent six weeks on the run after snipping off the GPS monitoring device when he was arraigned in August on charges that included statutory rape of a child.
Authorities say he committed a string of crimes in multiple states before he was captured Oct. 28 in upstate New York.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska State Patrol says one person has died and four others have been hospitalized after a car struck a semitrailer.
Troopers say the crash happened Sunday evening on Interstate 80 near Grand Island after the car malfunctioned. Witnesses say a tire fell off of the vehicle.
The car crossed the median and struck the back of a semitrailer in the opposite lane. The truck’s back axel broke off and both vehicles rolled.
Troopers say one person from the car died. They haven’t released that person’s identity.
The other three people in the car and the semitrailer driver were taken to a Grand Island hospital.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of a man found shot inside a Topeka home.
Sheriff Herman Jones tells The Topeka Capital-Journal authorities were working to obtain a search warrant for the home on Sunday night. He says dispatchers received a 911 call on Sunday evening and deputies found the man dead with gunshot wounds.
Jones says authorities are treating the death as suspicious.
It’s unclear how many times he was shot. His identity hasn’t been released.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A spokesman for a terminally ill Oregon woman says she has taken lethal medication prescribed by a doctor and died.
Sean Crowley, spokesman from the group Compassion & Choices, said late Sunday that Brittany Maynard was surrounded by family Saturday when she took the medication. She was weeks shy of her 30th birthday.
Maynard had incurable brain cancer. She said she wasn’t suicidal but wanted to die on her own terms. She moved to Portland from California, a state that does not have aid-in-dying laws.
She became an advocate for Compassion & Choices, which seeks to expand the laws beyond a handful of states.
More than 750 people in Oregon have died using the law since 1998. The state does not track how many of them moved from another state.
Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act in 1994, but opponents persuaded a federal judge to issue an injunction temporarily blocking the law. Voters in November 1997 overwhelmingly reaffirmed the nation’s first aid-in-dying law and it’s been in place ever since.
According to state statistics compiled through Dec. 31, 2013:
— People who have used the law since late 1997: 752 (396 men, 356 women)
— People younger than 35 who have used the law: 6
— Median age of the deceased: 71
— Percentage of the deceased who were white: 97
— Percentage who had at least some college: 72
— Percentage of patients who informed relatives of their decision: 94
— Percentage of patients who died at a home: 95 percent
— Median minutes between ingestion of lethal drug and unconsciousness: 5
— Median minutes between ingestion and death: 25
— Number of terminally ill people who have moved to Oregon to die: unknown
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A 16-year-old is facing several charges after sailing his vehicle onto a sunken Omaha football field and crashing on the 18-yard-line.
Omaha Police Officer Kevin Wiese says the crash happened at Omaha South High School around 3 a.m. Sunday morning.
Police say the teen failed to stop at a T intersection next to the stadium, which is below street level. The vehicle flew over the bleachers and came to rest upside down on the field.
The teen was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries after the crash.
The teen is suspected of driving while intoxicated and reckless driving. Police say the driver also lacked proof of insurance and had an open alcohol container in the vehicle.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say the bodies of all four victims have been removed from a Wichita flight training facility that was hit by a small plane this week.
Fire Marshal Brad Crisp said the body of the pilot was removed Saturday from the roof of the building at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.
The bodies of the other three victims who were inside a flight simulator when the twin-engine plane hit Thursday were pulled from the rubble a day earlier.
Crisp says the removal of the pilot’s body was made more difficult because of the crumbling structure, which caught on fire after the crash.
National Transportation Safety Board officials say the cockpit voice recorder has been recovered but it’s unclear whether a flight data recorder survived.
CHICAGO (AP) — The tightrope is waiting for Nik Wallenda in Chicago.
The 35-year-old high-wire artist plans to perform two nail-biting walks that will be televised around the world Sunday.
The Discovery Channel will use a 10-second delay for the broadcast, allowing producers to cut away if Wallenda falls. He plans to perform the walks without a net or harness.
First, Wallenda will walk uphill at a 15-degree angle from the west Marina City tower to the top of a skyscraper on the other side of the Chicago River. Next, he’ll walk between the two Marina City towers wearing a blindfold.
Steven Dahlman lives in the east Marina City tower. He says his neighbors are a little worried, but excited to be “in the middle of a world event.”
MESA, Ariz. (AP) — An Arizona woman is searching for her wedding ring after she says she accidentally gave it away with Halloween candy.
Mesa resident Brooklin Yazzie says she mistakenly handed out the ring Friday during a mix-up.
Yazzie says she placed her wedding ring in a candy jar while helping her daughters carve pumpkins, and when the night became hectic she absentmindedly dumped the contents of the jar into the candy bag.
She says there were also plastic rings inside the candy bag.
Yazzie says she is hoping someone has the ring because it isn’t worth much money but has more value to her.
SCHUYLER, Neb. (AP) — Police in the small eastern Nebraska town of Schuyler interrupted a suicide attempt and found a stabbing victim inside a nearby apartment this weekend.
The Colfax County Attorney’s office said the incident was discovered around 2:15 a.m. Sunday in Schuyler.
Officers encountered a 41-year-old man trying to hang himself from a tree outside an apartment building. They intervened by cutting the rope, and paramedics took the man to the local hospital.
Then officers went inside an apartment and found a 34-year-old woman with multiple stab wounds in her throat. The woman was conscious but couldn’t communicate. She was also rushed to the hospital.
Both the man and woman were later flown to an Omaha hospital for treatment.
Prosecutors say the man will be charged with at least two felonies.
