Suspect in aggravated assault case scheduled for court Thursday
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A 31-year-old Hutchinson man charged with three counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and unlawful discharge of a firearm is scheduled for a court appearance Thursday.
Jason Mendoza is alleged to have fire a shot in the direction of police and now is scheduled for a court hearing over a possible plea.
The firing of the weapon happened in the 300 block of East 2nd around 10:15 p.m., back in December when three officers were conducting a follow-up investigation in that area when a single shot was fired in their direction. Officers found a shell casing from a .30 caliber semi-automatic hand gun, but didn’t locate the round itself. A witness spotted a man wearing a jacket running from the scene. Officers found the jacket, but no suspect. They were eventually able to run down leads which led to the arrest of Mendoza. No one was injured from the incident.
He remains jailed on a $65,000 bond and the hearing is scheduled in front of Magistrate Judge Randy McEwen.
As always, all hearings are subject to change.
Plea hearing in drug distribution case rescheduled again
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Although a 35-year-old man may still enter a plea, there is not as much certainty that will happen now after the defense again asked for a continuance.
As it stands now, Bruce Alexander II is charged with possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to distribute, criminal possession of a firearm, defacing identification marks on a firearm and personal use drug paraphernalia.
A hearing for a possible plea was actually scheduled for Monday, then got pushed to Wednesday. Now, his attorney says he wants to look over some police reports, so Alice Osburn asked that the hearing be pushed back three weeks to April 1.
The case against Alexander involves a drug-related search being served on his home back on Oct. 22, 2014 and officers allegedly finding new and used packaging materials, digital scales with crystal residue, a glass pipe with burnt residue, a Benelli 12-gauge shotgun with the serial number filed off and two grams of methamphetamine.
He remains jailed on an $18,000 bond and if convicted, his two prior felonies for aggravated assault will work against him at sentencing.
Hutch woman charged in indecent liberties case enters plea
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — As expected, a local woman was in court Wednesday where she entered a plea to a charge of indecent liberties with a child.
Samantha Otterbein is now guilty of inappropriate touching of a 15-year-old girl which occurred back on July 24, 2014. The crime is a level 5 person felony with a sentencing range of two years, seven months, to over 11 years in prison.
Judge Joe McCarville set sentencing for April 10.