Sergeant held after shootings
CHEHALIS — An Army sergeant from Fort Lewis is being held in the Lewis County Jail on $1 million bail after a freeway shooting, and is under investigation in two other weekend shootings in Lacey, Thurston County.
Jeremiah D. Blankenship, 22, of Capac, Mich., has been charged with first-degree assault. Arraignment is set for today.
He is charged with firing a shotgun from his car window into another car on Interstate 5 between Rochester, Thurston County, and Centralia early Sunday.
The driver of the other vehicle, Christopher J. Frey, 36, of San Jose, Calif., was not injured.
In the Lacey shootings, a couple — whom police did not identify — drove through a roundabout Saturday night and later found gunshot holes in their car. Also on Saturday, Kathryn Morrisette, 20, was hit with shrapnel when a shotgun was fired into her car in the same roundabout.
Tacoma woman files suit, claims priest abused her
TACOMA — A Tacoma woman has filed a suit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and a retired Tacoma priest, claiming the priest sexually abused her more than three decades ago when she was in grade school.
The suit, filed in Pierce County Superior Court last week on behalf of a woman going by the initials G.C., seeks unspecified damages.
The suit claims G.C. was molested over at least three years while she was a student at St. Charles Borromeo Church's school in the early 1960s. It accuses the priest of sexual assault and the archdiocese of negligence, saying it failed to adopt policies to identify potential sexual offenders.
Archdiocese spokesman Bill Gallant said yesterday it was inappropriate for the archdiocese to comment on pending litigation.
The woman's attorney, Michael Pfau, said the accused priest apparently is retired and living in Arizona.
Way cleared to extradite man accused of links to al-Qaida
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A Malaysian court cleared the way yesterday to deport an American Muslim to the United States, where he faces charges of conspiring to fight alongside al-Qaida in Afghanistan.
Government officials would not say when Ahmed Ibrahim Bilal would be sent home.
High Court Judge Augustine Paul sided with prosecutors and the U.S. government that Bilal — whose U.S. passport has been revoked — is an illegal immigrant in Malaysia and could be summarily deported.
Bilal has been living in Malaysia since January. Last week, the U.S. government charged him and five others with belonging to a terrorist cell in Portland, and trying to join al-Qaida to fight U.S. troops. Four of the others were arrested and the sixth is being sought.
The charges against them include conspiracy to wage war against the United States and conspiracy to provide material support and resources to al-Qaida.
Judge formally sentences serial killer to death
TACOMA — A judge yesterday formally sentenced serial killer Robert Lee Yates Jr. to death by lethal injection for the aggravated murders of two women.
"You appear to have had it all, a family, intelligence, an athletic youth, normal upbringing," said Pierce County Superior Court Judge John McCarthy. "The difficulty is understanding why you squandered such happiness for such evil, if you will, in committing these horrible crimes."
Last Thursday, the same jury that found Yates guilty of murdering Melinda Mercer, 24, in 1997 and Connie LaFontaine Ellis, 35, in 1998, agreed on the death sentence for the 50-year-old father of five.
Yates is already serving a 408-year sentence under a plea agreement two years ago with Spokane County, in which he admitted murdering 13 other people since 1975. Ten were women who, like Mercer and Ellis, died after encountering Yates while working as prostitutes.
Defense attorney Roger Hunko said he plans to argue on appeal that Yates should serve his 408-year sentence first. He has said the appeals process could take seven years.
Information is from Seattle Times staff and news services.