Woman involved in South Hutchinson standoff enters pleas
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The woman arrested back on July 23 of last year in South Hutchinson in an apparent attempted armed robbery situation was in court Tuesday where she entered pleas to all the charges against her.
Tina Brown entered guilty pleas to attempted aggravated robbery, aggravated assault, criminal threat, auto burglary and interference with a law enforcement officer. She had been scheduled for trial.
The case started just after 1 a.m. that morning with the defendant getting into a vehicle that didn’t belong to her at a residence on Detroit Street in South Hutch. She then went to the door of the residence and started beating on the door with a stick. Eventually, the victim came to the door and Brown demanded his keys, claiming she wanted to steal his vehicle, but he refused. She threatened him saying she had a 9 mm handgun. The victim and the defendant apparently scuffled and eventually police were called. Brown ended up in a shed behind the residence where she held police at bay for nearly four hours. She finally gave up and was taken into custody.
Although she claimed to have a gun, officials never found one.
Judge Trish Rose set sentencing for Jan. 23, 2015, and the state will recommend maximum consecutive sentencing, however they won’t oppose placing Brown on Community Corrections.
Hearing date to be moved for suspect in indecent liberties case
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Judge Joe McCarville granted the state’s request Tuesday for a continuance in the case against a man charged with aggravated indecent liberties with a child. This decision came after there was some question whether they would get cooperation from the feds in determining the actual age of the defendant.
The case against Jesus Martinez-Rubio goes back to December of 2009 when the alleged victim was fifteen. The defendant and the victim had a child together, but he apparently lied to her family over a similar case in Rice County and about other things, which led to them reporting the alleged crime here.
The state wants an agent from Homeland Security to testify in the case over the defendant’s age, which has been in question since his arrest. It’s believed that he may have been born in 1990, but possibly 1992. That would make a difference in the state being able to proceed with the case as charged. There is an immigration hold on the defendant, but that’s apparently because of this case. District Attorney Keith Schroeder informed us after the hearing that they will get cooperation from the feds in allowing an agent to testify.
Judge McCarville had granted the state’s request and set a new date for the hearing for Dec. 29, however Schroeder says that will now need to be pushed back into January because the agent needed is on leave until next month. The defense objected to the continuance Tuesday, saying the state asked for the hearing to be moved up and says now they’re not ready to go. Chris O’Hara told the judge that the state has had plenty of time to take care of these issues. He wanted the case dismissed. That was denied by the judge.
The defense also requested a bond reduction which was also denied. Bond is set at $10,000.