SATURDAY October 12, 2013
Football Scoreboard
Looking Good Cosmetology students collect food for hungry
East Noble New Haven
30 6 Concordia Lakeland
Page A2
Weather Partly cloudy, chance of rain, high 76. Tonight’s low in the mid-50s.
Eastside Central Noble 35 3
33 6
Prairie Heights 21 West Noble 13
Bellmont DeKalb
62 27
Page A8 Serving Noble & LaGrange Counties
Kendallville, Indiana
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Murderer arrested again FROM STAFF REPORTS
AUBURN — A DeKalb County man who went to prison for the 1984 murder of an elderly Butler woman is facing legal troubles again. Robert W. Sleek Jr., 60, of the 3300 block of C.R. 427, Waterloo, was arrested Oct. 5 by the Waterloo Police Department on a warrant charging him with theft, a Class D felony. He is scheduled to appear Monday for an initial hearing in DeKalb Superior Court I. Sleek is accused of taking a generator, ladder and rare electrical components from a yard where he was mowing. Sleek
Good Gourd
first denied the allegation, then admitted he had taken the items and said he was willing to pay restitution, according to a police affidavit of probable cause for Sleek’s arrest. Police interviewed Sleek about the alleged theft while he was in the DeKalb County Jail, serving Sleek a 60-day sentence for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He had pleaded guilty to that offense Aug. 28 in DeKalb Superior Court I. Sleek has served a 50-year
prison sentence in the Indiana Department of Correction for his conviction on a charge of murder in the Oct. 5, 1984, stabbing death of 67-year-old Pearl Lemper, who was his neighbor in a duplex. A hunter found her body nine days later in a field near Newville. A DeKalb County jury found Sleek guilty of murder, and then-Judge Charles Quinn sentenced Sleek to 60 years in prison. Sleek appealed, and the Indiana Supreme Court overturned his conviction, ordering a new trial. The Supreme Court ruled a taped confession that was played to
Youngster dies in fire
Area artist transforms gourds into lasting artwork. See her creations and read about her craft on Sunday’s C1 and C2.
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Pence’s committee to plan infrastructure
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Info • The News Sun P.O. Box 39, 102 N. Main St. Kendallville, IN 46755 Telephone: (260) 347-0400 Fax: (260) 347-2693 Classifieds: (toll free) (877) 791-7877 Circulation: (260) 347-0400 or (800) 717-4679
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Classifieds.................................B7-B8 Life..................................................... A6 Obituaries......................................... A4 Opinion ............................................. A5 Sports.........................................B1-B3 Weather............................................ A8 TV/Comics .......................................B6 Vol. 104 No. 281
MIKE MARTURELLO
Fremont firefighters pack up their equipment Friday morning following the Thursday night fire that claimed the life of a rural Fremont teen.
Augustus “Gus” Larson, 13, died in the fire that’s still under investigation.
Fremont boy, 13, dies in fire BY MIKE MARTURELLO mmarturello@kpcmedia.com
FREMONT — A Fremont Middle School eighth-grader lost his life in fire late Thursday night. Augustus “Gus” Larson, 13, apparently did not want to jump from the window of his second story bedroom to flee the fire, said information from Steuben County Sheriff Tim Troyer. “The upstairs window/screen to Gus’s bedroom was broken out and it is believed that Gus did not want to jump and retreated back inside the home in an attempt to escape elsewhere. His body was discovered still inside the bedroom area,” Troyer said. Fremont Community Schools officials were notified and prepared for grief counseling for students. Steuben County Coroner Bill Harter said Gus succumbed to smoke inhalation. His death was ruled accidental. An autopsy was
conducted Friday morning in Fort Wayne. The fire was at 6655 E. C.R. 500N, Fremont, at the Mitchel and Crystal Larson residence. It was reported at about 11:45 p.m. “The Larson family was sleeping when an adult was awakened to the smell of smoke. All family members were immediately awakened and began to escape the home that was filling with heavy smoke,” Troyer said. When Fremont Police arrived on the scene, they found the home fully engulfed in flames, said a news release from the Steuben County Sheriff’s Department. Members of the Larson family were outside of the home and told police there was one person still inside. Personnel from the Fremont Police and Fire departments and Steuben County Sheriff’s Department were on the scene. Fremont Fire and Police personnel tried in vain to reach
the jury during the first trial was inadmissible, because it was obtained illegally, and violated Sleek’s Miranda rights. The case was transferred to Delaware County, where Sleek pleaded guilty to murder. On April 16, 1987, Sleek was sentenced to 50 years in prison. Indiana Department of Correction records says Sleek’s earliest possible release date was Feb. 9, 2009, and appear to indicate he was released from prison on that date, after serving nearly 22 years. In the 1987 sentencing hearing, the judge noted Sleek’s criminal SEE MURDERER, PAGE A8
GOP pitches solution
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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is creating a commission to plan the state’s future transportation infrastructure. The governor’s office says Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann will be the panel’s co-chairwoman with Cathy Langham, who is president of Indianapolis-based Langham Logistics. Pence is to name additional members of the panel in the coming weeks. The panel will review projects related to transportation by road, water, air and rail. It’s charged with identifying a list of priority projects for the next 10 years. Pence made the creation of such a commission an objective during his gubernatorial campaign last year.
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Gus, “however, the fire was too involved to fully enter the structure,” Troyer said. Firefighters from seven departments were called in to fight the fire, which was placed under control at 1:17 p.m. The fire remains under investigation by the sheriff, Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office and Fremont Fire. Investigators remained on the scene Friday afternoon. Assisting the Fremont Fire Department were fire departments from Angola, Orland, Ashley, Steuben Township, Hudson, Montgomery, Mich., and Northwest Township in Ohio. Also on the scene were personnel from the Indiana State Police, Steuben County Emergency Management, American Red Cross and Steuben County Coroner’s Office. AN EARLY VERSION of this story was posted on kpcnews.com at 7:05 a.m. Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With time running short, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner accelerated efforts Friday to prevent the U.S. Treasury from default and end a partial government shutdown that stretched into an 11th day. The latest impacts: New aircraft grounded, military chaplains silenced and a crab harvest jeopardized in the Bering Sea. “Let’s put this hysterical talk of default behind us and instead start talking about finding solutions,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Republicans in the House and Senate separately made proposals to the White House for ending an impasse that polls say has inflicted damage on their party politically. Each offered to reopen the government and raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit — but only as part of broader approaches that envision deficit savings, changes to the health care law known as Obamacare and an easing of across-the-board spending cuts that the White House and Congress both dislike. The details and timing differed. “We’re waiting to hear” from administration officials, said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Hopes remained high on Wall Street, where investors sent the Dow Jones industrial average 111 points higher following Thursday’s 323-point surge. Obama met at the White House with small business owners about the impacts they were feeling from the budget battles, and said he hoped to be able to bring them toward a conclusion, said Det Ansinn, who attended the session. “He was a little slightly melancholy that maybe it could be done over the weekend and maybe not. He’s been down this road before,” said Ansinn, owner of Doylestown, Pa.-based mobile and Web app developer Brick Simple. Ansinn said he told the president how the shutdown is threating to delay some of his projects and he fears what a possible impending government default could do to the SEE GOP, PAGE A8
Auburn man killed when SUV leaves road, hits tree FROM STAFF REPORTS
AUBURN — An Auburn man was killed when the sport-utility vehicle he was driving struck a tree Friday at 2:57 p.m. on DeKalb C.R. 29, north of the DeKalb-Allen county line road. Joseph L. Raymond, 35, of the 300 block of Lincoln Street, died at the scene, the DeKalb County Police Department said. His passenger, David N. Morgan, 35, of Corbin, Ky., suffered injuries to his left arm and orbital socket and a nasal fracture. He was transported to Parkview Regional Medical Center at Fort Wayne
to be treated for his injuries. Police said Raymond was driving southbound on C.R. 29, approximately 2,000 feet north of C.R. 72, which forms the county line. For no apparent reason, his 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee veered off the roadway, entered the west ditch and struck the tree head-on. The reason the vehicle went off the road is uncertain and is being investigated by accident reconstructing officers from the Indiana State Police and DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, a news release said.
JEFF JONES
An Auburn man was killed when this sport-utility vehicle struck a tree Friday afternoon on C.R. 29, south of C.R. 68, DeKalb County Police said. The crash scene is approximately five miles south of Auburn and one-half mile north of the DeKalb-Allen county line.