OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Bellevue man has pleaded no contest to manslaughter and a weapons count in the south Omaha shooting death of his friend.
32-year-old Matthew Arnold entered the plea Tuesday in a deal with prosecutors.
Police say an argument and name-calling led to the December shooting of 32-year-old Matthew Johnson.
Arnold will face up to 70 years in prison when he’s sentenced in November.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Nebraska woman who was critically injured after a deer crashed through her car’s windshield remains on life support to allow for the donation of her organs.
Sara Steiner, 35, was taken to Creighton University Medical Center-Bergan Mercy after the Friday crash, The Omaha World-Herald reported .
Kara Cordell of Nebraska Organ Recovery declined to comment on Sara Steiner’s case specifically, but said it can take several days after an accident before a donor’s organs can be recovered. Organs are sometimes injured in an accident, but can heal while a donor remains on a ventilator, she said.
The organ donation is just one example of Steiner’s generosity, said Tammy Trahan, her mother.
Trahan said her daughter is also known for being outgoing and having a bubbly personality.
“She just had zest,” her mother said.
The accident occurred Friday morning while Steiner was on her way to work, officials said. Another vehicle initially struck the deer, which sent the animal airborne and into Steiner’s car, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. The deer hit Steiner in the head and then exited through the vehicle’s rear window.
Sara Steiner had married Joseph Steiner in November. She was almost five months pregnant with a baby boy, who has died, Trahan said. She also has a five-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, according to her family.
Her mother-in-law, Julie Steiner, called her a “ray of sunshine.”
“She’s just got a wide open smile,” Julie Steiner said. “So much love to spread.”
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man with a robbery record has been imprisoned for an Omaha bank heist.
Federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Robert Sanford, of Omaha, was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in Omaha for robbing the bank on Dec. 26 last year. Sanford was given 12½ years behind bars and was ordered to pay more than $4,300 in restitution.
Prosecutors say Sanford didn’t have a gun when he menaced a teller at the Bank of the West branch in southeast Omaha. He had two prior robbery convictions and was sentenced as a career offender.
BELLEVUE, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has announced a settlement that will see the owner of a Bellevue apartment complex pay more than $76,500 in damages for illegally charging military service members for broken leases.
The Justice Department says Twin Creek Apartments must also pay a civil penalty of $20,000 for violating federal law by imposing lease termination charges against 65 service members. The charges ranged from $72 to $1,498 per service member.
The law prohibits landlords from charging service members an extra fee when they move due to military orders.
The settlement also prohibits Twin Creek from engaging in future violations.
HARTINGTON, Neb. (AP) – A South Dakota man accused of drinking alcohol before the fatal crash of an all-terrain vehicle has made a plea deal with Nebraska prosecutors.
Cedar County District Court records say 26-year-old Derrik Nelson pleaded no contest Monday to vehicular homicide and false reporting. Prosecutors dropped manslaughter and other charges in exchange. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 10.
The records say Nelson was driving the ATV after drinking for several hours before the June 2017 crash near Fordyce that killed his passenger, Jessi Anderson, a South Dakota State University student.
Prosecutors also dropped an accessory charge filed against Nelson’s father, J. Douglas Nelson. Prosecutors had accused him of dismantling the ATV to hide evidence. He’d said he was merely repairing damage he’d noticed.
The two men live in Yankton, South Dakota.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a man was taken to a hospital he was rescued from the roof of a burning building in Lincoln.
The apartment building blaze was reported around 1:40 p.m. Saturday. Investigator Damon Robbins says the fire started when a man began lighting fireworks after a “psychological emergency.”
The man escaped from the third floor onto the roof. After his rescue, he was taken to a hospital for precautionary reasons.
The building was declared a total loss.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has overturned nine guilty verdicts but has let five others stand against an Omaha tax preparer who prepared and filed false returns.
U.S. District Court records show Sharon Williams-Combs was sentenced Friday to five years of probation and ordered to pay restitution of nearly $12,200.
The records say that in April an Omaha jury convicted her of 14 counts. Prosecutors say she under-reported client incomes or falsified the sources of their incomes.
After the verdicts, Judge Robert Rossiter Jr. took up her motion for acquittal on 12 counts. She conceded there was enough evidence to convict on two counts.
Rossiter ruled in May that the government hadn’t met its burden of proof for nine of the counts and let stand her convictions on five counts.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha Fire Department wants the city to charge a $400 fee for helping pick up people who have fallen off a bed or chair onto the floor, even when they haven’t been hurt.
The Omaha World-Herald reports that the department said it happens up to 350 times a year: An assisted living facility or a nursing home calls 911, asking the department to help a resident who has fallen onto the floor. It is not a medical emergency call. Just a call for assistance.
Each call costs the city at least $1,000 and leads to longer response times for higher priority calls, the department said.
“The hope is by charging this fee, it will dissuade calls for service for nonemergency matters,” Fire Chief Dan Olsen said in a letter to the City Council, which is scheduled to take a final vote Tuesday on the request.
The fee would apply only if first responders were to determine there were no medical problems involved. The department’s proposal is based largely on a Lincoln practice in which the Lincoln department charges $349 for such nonemergency “lift assists.”
Assisted living facilities are not required to have a nurse on staff 24 hours a day, said Julie Sebastian, CEO of New Cassel Retirement Center.
“Sometimes, when we call the Fire Department, it’s because we aren’t sure that someone is safe to get up,” Sebastian told the Omaha council at a meeting last month. “If they try to get up from having fallen, they might further hurt themselves. We need medical professionals on-site to help determine that.”
She also said a fee could lead to discrimination against larger people if providers fear that they will face fees for getting help when the people fall because they require more help getting up than staffers can easily provide.
“That could result in providers potentially declining admission because of the worry of a fall,” Sebastian said.
Assistant Fire Chief Kathy Bossmann said firefighters would still be happy to respond.
“We just want to recoup a portion of the cost,” she said.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Lincoln authorities have released the name of a woman who died after either falling or jumping from a pickup truck.
Police identified the 25-year-old woman as Amanda Terrell. She lived in Lincoln.
A police report says the pickup ran over Terrell after she left it around 6 p.m. Wednesday, north of the Nebraska Innovation Campus in north Lincoln. She died later Wednesday night at a hospital.
The pickup driver was cited on suspicion of driving under the influence. Court records don’t show that he’s been formally charged.
WEST POINT, Neb. (AP) — New trial dates have been given two men accused of killing a man in his northeast Nebraska home.
Cuming County District Court records say 49-year-old Jody Olson will go on trial Jan. 14. Twenty-nine-year-old Derek Olson’s trial is set to begin March 11.
Both Olsons have pleaded not guilty to murder, arson and other charges stemming from the death of 64-year-old Ernest Warnock. His body was found March 11 in the burned rubble of his Rosalie home. He’d been fatally stabbed.
One of two women charged in the case has pleaded guilty to being an accessory. The records say 42-year-old Becky Weitzenkamp is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 4.
The other woman charged as an accessory, 32-year-old Jenna Merrill, is set to begin trial Nov. 13.
