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MONDAY • MARCH 7 • 2011
First-degree murder trial to open today
KU’s Big Event has bold ambition
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Hip-hop artist was found slain more than 4 years ago By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
KU SOPHOMORES KRIS VELASCO, Wamego, and Hannah Bolton, St. Libory, Neb., are organizing The Big Event for March 31, when KU students will volunteer and perform odd jobs around the Lawrence community.
Students recruited to do volunteer projects across city By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com
One of the hardest parts of organizing The Big Event at Kansas University, organizers say, has been convincing community members that it’s not some sort of scam. “There’s no catch,” Hannah Bolton, a sophomore from St. Libory, Neb., recalled telling a skeptic in a grocery store recently. On March 31, the plan calls for hordes of KU students to go out into the Lawrence community and do a whole variety of odd jobs for residents, businesses and other
HOW TO HELP/BE HELPED
tku.com), regardless of socio-economic status. Organizers of KU’s The Big Event are It’s called The Big Event, and it’s looking for students to volunteer to per- styled after a similar event at Texas form odd jobs in the community on A&M University. KU’s student March 31, and for community members to body president, Michael Wade suggest jobs to perform. Smith, included the idea to bring it To request help with a job, or to sign to KU as one of his student senate up to participate as a student, visit thecoalition’s platform issues. bigeventku.com. Job request forms will Bolton said that would make KU be accepted through March 18. the 73rd university in the United States to adopt the idea. organizations. And they really She is one of two co-directors of don’t expect anything in return. the event for KU. The other is Kris Truly, anyone can apply to have Velasco, a sophomore from something painted, cleaned or Wamego. They’re a good pair, said planted (there’s a whole list of Please see KU, page 2A available jobs online at thebigeven-
Senators say arts decision was too hasty By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
TOPEKA — Senate leaders say Gov. Sam Brownback’s order to abolish the Kansas Arts Commission may have been hastily made and there may be enough votes in the Senate to reject it. “His intentions were good,” Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, said of Brownback’s proposal. But Morris and Senate Majority Leader Jay Scott Emler, R-Lindsborg, said Brownback, also a Republican, had a short time frame
agency as a budgetary move has raised stiff opposition from across the state. The Arts Commission’s supporters said it is one of the state’s most notable success stories. It receives approximately $800,000 in state dollars and attracts more than $1.2 million in matching dollars that go to programs and services that reach every county in Kansas. Of those matching funds, the KAC receives $778,200 from the National EndowThe inner workings ment for the Arts and Brownback’s proposal to $437,767 from the Midabolish the small state America Arts Alliance. to make a lot of budget decisions while facing a $500 million revenue shortfall. Sworn into office Jan. 10 at the start of the 2011 legislative session, Brownback had 30 days under the Kansas Constitution to issue executive reorganization orders. That forces any new governor to make a lot of decisions in a hurry, Emler said. Brownback, he said, didn’t “necessarily have time to poll everybody to find out how viable those ideas are.”
Under Brownback’s executive reorganization order, the KAC would be abolished, and its duties would be transferred to the Kansas State Historical Society. A newly formed nonprofit, the Kansas Arts Foundation Inc., would provide the support to “ensure Kansas’ participation in federal and regional arts programs,” said Landon Fulmer, Brownback’s policy director. For the next fiscal year, the Historical Society would receive $200,000 in state funds as “seed” money to
The murder trial of a Kansas City, Kan., man is scheduled to begin this morning, nearly four years and f ive months after Lawrence hip-hop artist Anthony “Clacc” Vital’s body was found west of Lawrence. Durrell Jones, 26, faces a firstdegree murder charge for the shooting death of Vital. According to court records, prosecutors plan to have Jones’ co-defendant Major C. Edwards Jr., 31, of Lawrence, testify that Jones sold and provided drugs to Vital and that Vital owed Jones money Vital for those transactions. “Evidence of the defendant’s prior actions is necessary for the state to prove motive in the present case,” chief assistant district attorney David Melton wrote in a motion in the case. “It is also relevant to show the reason why the homicide occurred.” Edwards pleaded guilty in March 2010 to voluntary manslaughter for his role in Vital’s shooting death. Jones has fought the murder charge for several years, said his attorney John Kerns, who did not reveal anything about his defense tactics. “In my book it never makes good practice to talk about any of the specific details to start out,” Kerns said last week. Here is a look at major events in the case, which will be tried in Douglas County District Chief Judge Robert Fairchild’s courtroom:
Oct. 15, 2006 Douglas County sheriff’s officers are called when a property owner discovers a body in a field along U.S. Highway 40 about 2 miles west of Lawrence. Officers ultimately ruled it a homicide. In coming days, the body is identified as Vital, 28, Lawrence, who was a member of the local hip-hop group called Da Please see SENATORS, page 2A BombSquad. Friends and family
Jones
Edwards
members described Vital as a hard-working artist and a “sweet, humble guy.”
Oct. 22, 2006 Sheriff ’s officers and others arrest Edwards, who was said to be out with Vital the night before Vital’s body was found, at a hotel in Verona, Miss. The arrest was based on a federal warrant for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. The federal charges linked Edwards to Vital’s murder, but he wasn’t charged in Douglas County with murder for two years, pending resolution of the federal case. December 2006 Three Lawrence residents were charged in Douglas County District Court in connection with the investigation, but none had yet been charged with the murder itself. Carlos R. “Smurf” Green later pleaded no contest to being a felon in possession of a firearm and explosive device and was sent to prison for a parole violation. James Neal Williams entered a plea to obstruction and was sentenced to serve 14 months in prison. Not all of the charges stuck. An obstruction charge was dismissed in 2007 against Audrey Ferguson, whom prosecutors accused of telling her roommate not to cooperate with officers. Jan. 18, 2008 Edwards pleads guilty in federal court to unlawful possession of a sawed-off shotgun and admits that on Aug. 11, 2006, he left the gun on the porch of a Lawrence residence and returned the next day to retrieve it and discovered it had been turned over to police. He later is sentenced to serve five years in federal prison. Please see TRIAL, page 2A
Zenger at home on the road on outreach tour By Andy Hyland ahyland@ljworld.com
Kansas University’s new athletic director got a chance last week to make good on a promise he made during his introductory press conference — to get behind the wheel and meet new people. Sheahon Zenger said being from Kansas is almost like a religion to him, and he enjoyed the opportunity to revisit some familiar places. The trips are important to him, he said, because he gets to interact with new people. It’s something about the way he was
raised, he said, that makes him love being out with the people of the state. He rattled off the highways he traveled on the trip. Highway 148, Highway 119, Highway 9 and Highway 81. Roads he’s traveled “thousands of times,” he said. The trek started in Salina on Monday. Jordan Long is a server at Martinelli’s Little Italy, where Zenger met people. He was working on Monday, so he didn’t have a lot of time to hear everything that was going on, but he caught bits and pieces. “He talked to just about everybody,” Long said.
and getting a little dismayed that one of his favorite Hays eateries, the Taco Shop, had closed for the evening. He and his staff had a meetand-greet in Hays on Wednesday morning. His second-grade teacher showed up. Chad Augustine is the owner of Augustine’s Bakery in Hays, where the event was held. He said Zenger stayed for two hours and his place was packed wall-toSteven Haulser/Hays Daily News Photo wall for most of it. “We were so full, you couldn’t SHEAHON ZENGER, athletic director for Kansas even walk from one side of the University, center, shares a laugh with hometown building to the other,” he said, friends Ed Stehno, Hays, left, and Stehno’s wife, Donna, during a gathering on Wednesday at Please see ZENGER, page 4A Augustine’s Bakery in Hays.
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That included Long himself, a die-hard Kansas State fan. He said Zenger was easy to get along with, like you could be friends with him really quickly. His travel plans underwent some late rearranging as Zenger made time to attend his wife’s aunt’s funeral on Tuesday in Greenleaf. Members of his staff met people in Great Bend and Dodge City. Zenger caught up with them in Garden City. He arrived in Hays late Tuesday, about 10:30 p.m., but decided to take some time to drive around, seeing the house his parents lived in when he was young
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