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FRIDAY • SEPTEMBER 4 • 2015
Coroner: Slaying ‘overkill,’ ‘personal’ Hearing in 2014 stabbing of woman, 19, continues today
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Judge grants attorney general’s stay request; lawmakers grapple with long-term implications
By Caitlin Doornbos Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
By Peter Hancock
Witnesses testifying Thursday in a 19-year-old Lawrence man’s preliminary hearing on his charge of first-degree murder recounted the brutal way 19-year-old Justina Altamirano Mosso, of Lawrence, was killed in November. Mosso was discovered dead in a bloody bathroom of an apartment leased by her estranged husband on Nov. 9, 2014, detectives testified Thursday. Prosecutors believe that Rontarus Washington Jr., who lived down the hall from the apartment, killed Mosso, and they charged him in January with the death. Lawrence police officer Robert Egidy said that while responding to missing persons reports for Mosso’s cousin and estranged husband, FeMike Yoder/Journal-World Photo lipe Cantu Ruiz, around 7 p.m., he RONTARUS WASHINGTON listens to proceedings Thursday in Douglas County District found Mosso “obviously dead,” Court. Prosecutors say Washington murdered Justina Altamirano Mosso, below right, seated on the bathroom floor in a in a Lawrence apartment last year. “large pool of blood” and “slumped to the side.” “Her hair was matted with blood, and there was a broken toilet lid on the floor,” Egidy said. “There were several shoe impressions of blood throughout the apartment.” Detectives later said they found sandals belonging to Washington that had soles similar to those that left the impressions in the apartment. According to prosecutor C.J. Rieg, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation tested those sandals and found a positive match to Mosso’s DNA. After discovering the body, Egidy left the apartment without touching anything and secured the scene, he said. The apartment was eventually searched, but investigators did Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo not find Mosso’s purse or a murder DOUGLAS COUNTY CORONER Erik Mitchell said weapon. However, discarded packContributed Photo Thursday that Mosso’s injuries were “overkill.” aging from a lock-blade knife was found near the apartment’s the body, on her scalp and ing the autopsy that Mosso had entrance. hands,” Mitchell said. been stabbed repeatedly in the face, Douglas County Coroner He then clipped her finger- head and neck — including a cluster Erik Mitchell said Thursday nails and other took investiga- of eight stab wounds into her head that he came to the scene tory swabs, he said. The KBI above her left ear. early Nov. 10 to assess the tested the fingernail clippings Additionally, Mitchell said, Mosso body. Mitchell said he found COURTS and found that DNA under had significant “defensive wounds,” smeared blood on the wall and observed Mosso’s injuries when he Mosso’s right-hand fingernails was caused by a “sharp object,” to both consistent with Washington’s. walked into the bathroom. Please see SLAYING, page 2A Mitchell said that he found dur“There was a lot of blood about
Town Talk
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Fried chicken suddenly abundant on south Iowa
T
he next time I’m driving down south Iowa Street, I think there is a good chance that I’ll replace my seat cushion with a nest of straw and start
High: 91
Low: 71
Today’s forecast, page 8A
sprouting feathers. Yes, that’s my way of telling you there is another chicken restaurant coming to south Iowa, and it is one that folks have been clamoring for.
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Topeka — A Shawnee County judge on Thursday granted an emergency stay of an order that threatens to cut off all funding for the entire judicial branch of state government. That order appeared to calm fears, at least for the time being, that the entire state judicial system could be defunded immediately. But officials throughout state government spent much of the day focused on how to keep the court system open in the long run if WednesNuss day’s ruling is upheld. Judge Larry D. Hendricks granted the stay at the request of the Kansas Attorney General’s office, and lawyers on the other side of the case supported that motion. Kansas Chief Justice Lawton Nuss says he plans to monitor developments in a lower court case that threatens to cut off funding for the Kansas judicial system. Please see COURT, page 2A
No applications yet for open commission seat By Conrad Swanson Twitter: @conrad_swanson
As of Thursday, no applications had been submitted for the seat left open on the Lawrence City Commission by former Mayor Jeremy Farmer’s sudden resignation in July. CITY On Thursday evening, most of the 12-member City Commission COMMISSION Vacancy Advisory Committee met for the first time to discuss plans to help fill the vacancy. Only advisory member Dustin Rimmey, who was selected by Commissioner Matthew Herbert, was absent from the meeting. The committee is tasked with selecting no more than six finalists for the open position by
Popeyes is listed as a tenant on a plan for a remodeled shopping center near 25th and Iowa streets. The site is the Tower Plaza shopping center just south of the Applebee’s on Iowa Street. That shopping center includes First
Please see SEAT, page 8A
Popeyes/Contributed Photo
Please see CHICKEN, page 2A
INSIDE
Sunny Business Classified Comics Deaths
Court funding still in flux
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Rope ’em up After a yearslong hiatus, Ottawa’s Old West Cowboy Days returns Saturday with plenty of family fun, and most of it is free. Page 3A
Vol.157/No.247 26 pages