Teenage Spokane shooting suspect arrested in Priest River, Idaho
SPOKANE — A 19-year-old man accused of shooting two people in a downtown Spokane apartment has been arrested in Priest River, Idaho.
Trey S. Galloway, 19, was booked into jail in Idaho early Wednesday morning, the Spokesman-Review reported.
Spokane police detectives responding to the shooting found two male victims in a small living room, according to court documents. One of the men, age 19, was unconscious. The other man, age 20, told a detective a lone white man had shot them. Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center staff later said each victim had been shot twice in the back.
Spokane County prosecutors will seek to extradite Galloway to Spokane for trial.
The 20-year-old shooting victim remains in serious condition at a Spokane hospital.
Court reverses conviction on sex offender registry failure
LONGVIEW, Wash. — A 2018 conviction of a man for failing to register as a sex offender in Washington was overturned, an appeals court ruled.
The state Court of Appeals overturned the conviction Tuesday, citing recent law changes, the Longview Daily News reported.
Bradley Lewis Reynolds, 49, was convicted of sexual misconduct in Oregon in 1990 and was required to register as a sex offender, but later moved to Washington, authorities said. Reynolds was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender five times in Washington in 2005, 2008, 2014, 2017 and 2018, prosecutors said.
Reynolds was sentenced to 30 months in prison and six years’ probation in the 2018 case, prosecutors said.
He was required under Washington law to register as a sex offender in the state even though the conviction took place in Oregon, but an appeals court ruled the law was unconstitutional in 2019.
Boise man sentenced to 85 years for child pornography
BOISE — A Boise man has been sentenced to 85 years in prison after he was convicted of making and distributing child pornography.
Fourth District Judge Deborah Bail sentenced 52-year-old Gunnar Ericsson on Wednesday, saying he must serve at least 15 years before he is eligible for parole.
A jury found Ericsson guilty in November of seven felonies, including sexual exploitation of a child and sexual abuse of a minor.
Prosecutors said he was first investigated in 2010, when a victim reported that Ericsson sexually abused her and took photos of the abuse. But at the time, detectives couldn’t find the photos and the victim recanted her report, so the charges were dismissed.
During the initial investigation, Ericsson used the name Eric Sausman, but he legally changed his name to Ericsson after the charges were dismissed.
Man gets year in prison after $200,000 Bitcoin scam in Montana
MISSOULA, Mont. — A judge sentenced a Michigan man to one year in prison after he scammed two Montana men out of more than $200,000.
James Matthew Thomas of Midland, Mich., was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering after accepting a plea deal in September, the Missoulian reported Wednesday.
Thomas, 35, was originally charged in June with 19 counts of wire fraud and four counts of money laundering, prosecutors said.
Thomas solicited money from two Missoula men he met over LinkedIn in 2018 for investments into Bitcoin and issued them a quick return to obtain more investment funding, prosecutors said.
FBI agents discovered Thomas had transferred some of the money to his personal account and used the investments to purchase a vehicle in New Jersey, investigators said.
Federal public defender Anthony Gallagher sought probation for his client at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing, arguing Thomas’ business acumen could be best used to begin the $208,000 restitution payments.
Officers cleared in fatal shooting of man in southwestern Washington
LONGVIEW, Wash. — The decision by SWAT officers to fire at a Longview man who pointed a shotgun at them in September “was a clear, lawful use of force,” Cowlitz County Prosecutor Ryan Jurvakainen said Wednesday.
The two SWAT/Longview police officers, Jordan Sanders and Chris Angel, fatally shot 51-year-old Christopher Johnson on Sept. 8 after Johnson reportedly pointed a shotgun at them, the Longview Daily News reported. The shooting ended a roughly two-hour encounter between Johnson, who was reportedly suicidal, and local law enforcement.
Angel has been with the Longview Police Department for 18 years, and Sanders has been with the agency eight years. Neither was wounded during the confrontation.
Johnson made multiple statements during the encounter about whether officers would shoot him, Jurvakainen said. At 9:47 p.m., while at the open front window of the house, Johnson lifted the shotgun up and aimed it toward the SWAT officers, Jurvakainen said.
Sanders fired four shots, of which two struck Johnson and two lodged in a vehicle. Angel fired once, striking Johnson.
Johnson had no criminal history. He lived with his wife and two teenage daughters and suffered from chronic back and arm pain.
