Month: January 2016

KCK man charged with carjacking

Nathaniel N. Germany Jr., 26, Kansas City, Kan., was charged in U.S. District Court with one count of carjacking, one count of brandishing a firearm during the carjacking, and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction.

The crimes are alleged to have occurred Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, 2015, in Wyandotte County, Kan.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the carjacking charge, not less than seven years and a fine up to $250,000 on the brandishing charge, and a maximum penalty of 10 years on the remaining count.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead is prosecuting.

Man who shot at KCK police charged in federal court

A man who shot at police in Kansas City, Kan., was indicted Wednesday on federal charges, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said.

A grand jury returned an indictment charging Ashawntus S. McCambry, 27, Kansas City, Kan., with one count of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm following a felony conviction.

McCambry initially was charged in a criminal complaint alleging the crimes occurred Dec. 22, 2015, when officers from the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department served a search warrant at McCambry’s residence in the 800 block of Quindaro Boulevard.

When police tried to enter, McCambry fired three rounds in their direction. After surrendering to officers, he said he didn’t know they were police and he thought he was being robbed.

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a fine up to $1 million on the crack cocaine charge; a maximum penalty of five years and a fine up to $250,000 on the marijuana charge; not less than 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the charge of unlawful possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and a maximum penalty of 10 years and a fine up to $250,000 on the remaining charge.

The Kansas City, Kan., Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated. Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead is prosecuting.

U.S. Supreme Court rules on death sentences of three Kansas defendants

The U.S. Supreme Court today sided with Kansas and ruled that the death sentences imposed on two capital murder defendants in Wichita and one in Great Bend did not violate the U. S. Constitution.

In an 8-1 ruling, the high court rejected the Kansas Supreme Court’s conclusion that the federal Constitution barred the death sentences recommended by juries in Kansas v. Jonathan Carr, Kansas v. Reginald Carr and Kansas v. Sidney Gleason.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, whose office handled the state’s appeal, said, “Justice was served today in the United States Supreme Court.”

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett, whose office prosecuted the Carr cases in the trial court and worked with the attorney general’s office on the appeal, said, “We are very pleased for the victims and their families.”

On July 18, 2014, the Kansas Supreme Court overturned the death sentence in Kansas v. Gleason and on July 25, 2014, did the same in both Carr cases, citing federal constitutional error. Schmidt appealed those decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the nation’s highest court agreed to review the Kansas decisions and to address two questions presented under the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On Oct. 7, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in the state’s appeal. Schmidt argued one question on behalf of the state, and Kansas Solicitor General Steve McAllister argued the other.

Today’s ruling settles the federal constitutional issues that were identified by the Kansas Supreme Court, the attorney general’s office stated. The cases were returned to the Kansas Supreme Court for further proceedings.

A copy of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision is available at http://1.usa.gov/1OwAs6D.