NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) – The trial of a man accused of shooting and wounding a woman a Norfolk has been delayed.
34-year-old Carlos Arevalo-Martinez appeared in Madison County District Court and waived his right to a speedy trial. His attorney, Doug Stratton, says he just received police reports last week and they’ll need time to go over the reports with an interpreter.
Arevalo-Martinez’s trial on charges of first-degree assault and use of a fire to commit a felony is now set for July 9.
He’s accused of shooting 33-year-old Edna Gutierrez on Feb. 14.
He was taken into custody after a standoff with police in Stanton on Feb. 16.
Arevalo-Martinez remains in jail on $1 million bond.

 

 

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The state has asked the Nebraska Supreme Court to dismiss the latest appeal from condemned killer Michael Ryan.
Attorney General Jon Bruning says Monday that the court should reject the appeal because there’s no doubt about Ryan’s guilt and the “meritless appeals only serve to delay justice.”
Ryan was sentenced to death for cult-related killings in 1985 in the southeast Nebraska town of Rulo.
The court in February put Ryan’s execution on hold while he pursued a lower court challenge to how Nebraska obtained one of three drugs that would be used to execute him.
The state is resisting an order to turn over to federal authorities the state supply of the drug, sodium thiopental.

 

GERING, Neb. (AP) – A 25-year-old Gering man who admitted exchanging nude photos with a teenage girl has been given probation.
Online court records say Michael Hof pleaded no contest to possession of child pornography after prosecutors dropped two other felony charges.
Hof was sentenced on Friday to five years of intensive supervised probation Hof was arrested and charged in September after a 14-year-old
girl’s mother told Gering Police that her daughter had sent nude photos to Hof.
In court on Friday, Hof’s attorney, Tyler Petit, said Hof admitted exchanging nude cellphone photos with the girl. Petit said his client “just a young man who made a dumb mistake.”
But Judge Leo Dobrovolny chastised Hof, telling him that he was “supposed to be the adult in this situation.”

 

NEBRASKA CITY, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska City residents will be planting trees and celebrating at the home of the national tree-planting Arbor Day holiday.

Arbor Day is Friday in Nebraska and many states around the country. Nebraska City will extend its celebration into the next Saturday and Sunday. People are encouraged to plant and care for trees on the holiday.

The occasion originated in Nebraska City in 1872, founded by Nebraska City native and U.S. Agriculture Secretary J. Sterling Morton.

Nebraska City will celebrate the holiday with tree giveaways, a parade, craft show, chili cook-off and commemorative tree plantings.

Most state and local government offices and services are closed Friday to observe the holiday.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska will not immediately turn over to federal authorities its supply of a drug used during lethal injections.
Instead, the Nebraska Attorney General’s office is calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to appeal a federal judge’s recent ruling that the drug, sodium thiopental, was wrongly allowed into the U.S. That judge also ordered the FDA to notify any state with foreign-manufactured thiopental that its use is prohibited and that it must be turned over to the FDA.
Earlier this month, the FDA sent a letter to Nebraska authorities requesting the state’s supply of sodium thiopental.
The Nebraska Attorney General’s office sent a response Friday to the FDA saying “we are unaware of any evidence or reasons why” the state should turn over its supply of the drug.

 

TERRYTOWN, Neb. (AP) – A 42-year-old Nebraska Panhandle man has been convicted of two charges and acquitted of two others in a stabbing.
A jury returned its verdicts on Thursday evening for Victor Mata Jr. The Terrytown man had been accused of stabbing two men after a confrontation at a party November last year.
Mata was convicted of assault and a weapons charge. He was acquitted another assault and another weapons charge.
Prosecutors had said the two men forcibly removed Mata from the party, so Mata went to his nearby home, got a knife and returned to the party to attack the two men. Mata had said he was defending himself.
A sentencing date hasn’t been set.

 

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say a tip led to a pot growing operation in a vacant home in Papillion in eastern Nebraska.
Sarpy County deputies found dozens of marijuana plants, grow lights, chemicals and a ventilation system.
The homeowner let deputies search the house Wednesday night.
Authorities say no one lives in the home, but a former resident came back every day.
No arrests have been reported.