LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the new lighter sentence of a 45-year-old man who was 14 when he killed his 12-year-old sister in 1987.

Sydney Thieszen had been sentenced to life in prison without parole for bludgeoning and shooting his adopted 12-year-old sister in their Henderson-area home.

Prosecutors said Thieszen killed his sister because he was afraid she would tell police he was running away from home.

Last year, a judge resentenced Thieszen to 70 years to life, based on a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision that declared mandatory life-without-parole sentences unconstitutional for juvenile offenders.

Thieszen appealed the new sentence, arguing it amounted to a de facto life sentence.

But on Friday, the state’s high court ruled that Thieszen’s new sentence was not excessive under the law.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Two books about witchcraft and one about Jack the Ripper have been returned to the University of Nebraska at Omaha library — 40 years overdue.

They came recently in a package without a return address but with a note: “Please forgive my laziness and reluctance to not only properly check them out — but for keeping them so long.” The note was signed only, “A former student.”

Joyce Neujahr is the library’s director of patron services and she says it’s not unusual for books to be returned months or even several years late. But she also says four decades late is one of the longest periods ever for the university library’s collection.

She told the Omaha World-Herald , “If the books could tell the story, it would be really interesting.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The driver of a semitrailer that crashed into Interstate 80 traffic last year, killing a woman and seriously injuring several others, has been sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Seventy-year-old Robert Richmond, of Omaha, was sentenced Thursday after pleading no contest to misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide. Police say he failed to notice traffic had slowed on the interstate, slamming into the back of a car carrying several Creighton University students on their way to see a rare total solar eclipse.

A backseat passenger, 19-year-old Joan Ocampo-Yambing, of Rosemount, Minnesota, was killed. Five others were seriously injured in the four-vehicle pileup.

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) — A Grand Island woman has been given probation for letting six children stand on the running boards of her sport utility vehicle while it was moving.

Two of the children were hospitalized after Stephanie Wedige stopped her SUV on Nov. 11, 2016, in a church parking lot. Wedige had pleaded no contest to six counts of negligent child abuse and one of willful reckless driving.

She was sentenced Thursday in Hall County District Court to 48 months of probation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha woman has reported that her pet boa constrictor was among the items stolen from her apartment.

23-year-old Chantel Beazer told police that a television, a gaming system and other items were gone when she returned to her home Tuesday after an absence of several days. Also missing: her Colombian boa constrictor measuring 7 feet (2 meters) long.

Investigators say they couldn’t find any sign that someone broke into the apartment.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha man has been sentenced to 70 to 72 years in prison for the shooting death last year of another man over fake drugs.

30-year-old Adrian Ixta was sentenced Friday in Douglas County District Court for the July 7 death of 40-year-old Billy Walker.

Police say Ixta pistol-whipped and shot Walker twice after Walker discovered that $11,000 of methamphetamine he intended to buy was fake.

Ixta pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder and a weapons count. In exchange, a separate jury-tampering charge against him was dropped. In that case, prosecutors say Ixta, his jail cellmate and a friend attempted to contact a juror in Ixta’s cellmate’s murder case.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Nebraska Supreme Court routinely weighs in on custody cases — but not very often on battles over who gets the dog.

On Friday, the state’s high court upheld a decision to grant custody of a French bulldog named “Princess Pot Roast” to an Omaha man locked out of a home he had shared with his boyfriend for five years.

A judge last year ruled the dog, nicknamed “Pavlov,” was a gift from Jason Pratte to Peter Zelenka before the couple broke up in 2015. Pratte said he never intended the dog as a gift, but the judge based his finding in part on testimony from the breeder who sold the dog. Pratte appealed.

The high court said Zelenka had met his burden of proving Pavlov was a gift from Pratte.

Zelenka said Friday he’s ready to have the 7-year-old dog back after not seeing her for three years.

“It’s unfortunate that it had to be pushed this far,” Zelenka said. “But he just refused anything and everything. He wouldn’t compromise at all. I finally had to get a lawyer involved.”

Zelenka said he hopes to have custody of Pavlov by next week.

Pratte did not immediately return a phone message left Friday seeking comment.

SOUTH SIOUX CITY, Neb. (AP) — At least two people were injured in an explosion Tuesday that blew a gaping hole in a northeast Nebraska grain elevator and forced authorities to evacuate nearby homes.

The explosion was reported just before 1 p.m. at Anderson Farms in South Sioux City. Three people were in the plant, and one person with burns was taken to an area hospital. Another was injured but did not go to the hospital.

South Sioux City Police Chief Ed Mahon said authorities evacuated nearby homes out of concern the elevator might collapse. Mahon said authorities have accounted for all employees at the site.

A dispatcher for the department said police plan to share more information in a press release.

Neighbor Brayden Logan said he heard a loud boom from inside his home about four blocks away.

“We heard a huge crash and it shook our whole house, and then a couple of minutes after that we heard all the sirens,” he told the Sioux City Journal .
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion.

Judd Jager, the owner of Industrial Diversified Inc., was standing outside his business two blocks south of the elevator and witnessed two large blasts and a fireball.

“The first explosion came out of the top piece” of the elevator, Jager said. “The second came about a couple seconds later. That was big. That’s what took the walls out.”

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a Nebraska teenager who died in a western Iowa lake.

The Iowa Natural Resources Department identified the boy in a news release Tuesday night as 16-year-old Edgar Gregorio Loarca Garcia, who lived in Omaha.

Witnesses saw the boy disappear around 1:15 p.m. Monday beneath the water at Lake Manawa beach in Council Bluffs. He was last seen on an inner tube near the ropes that mark the end of the swimming area. His body was found about two hours later.

The apparent drowning is being investigated.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man shot by Douglas County sheriff’s deputy has been arrested after leaving a hospital.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says the man drove a stolen car early Sunday morning toward the deputy, who had approached the car at Lake Cunningham Park.

The deputy drew his handgun and fired, striking the driver and injuring a juvenile female and another 18-year-old man.

The driver was booked into jail Tuesday on suspicion of assault on an officer and other crimes. Court records don’t show the 18-year-old has been formally charged.

The other man, 18-year-old Shane Hunt, of Omaha, is charged with theft. The records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him.
The girl was treated and then released to her parents. She isn’t being charged.