Auburn man charged in death of infant
Police and prosecutors allege that Jeremy James Sanchez was baby-sitting a relative's two foster children last week when the infant boy was fatally injured.
The King County Medical Examiner's Office has not released the name of the dead infant.
Charging papers filed in King County Superior Court contend that Sanchez shook the baby and struck him against a wall. The child died Friday at Harborview Medical Center.
Sanchez was held in lieu of $500,000 bail yesterday in the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent. Arraignment was set for Nov. 4.
Cle Elum, Kittitas County
Search for missing jet called off after five days
A five-day search for a missing jet was called off yesterday.
The 40-foot Czechoslovakian jet disappeared off the Seattle Center Air Traffic Control radar screen late last Tuesday. Pilot Rocky Stewart and passenger Scott Smith were on board, said Department of Transportation spokeswoman Nisha Hanchinamani.
"They lost radar contact near Kachess Lake and Keechelus Lake. They (rescuers) searched that area several times," Hanchinamani said. "If someone sees something or there are new leads, they'll go back again."
Search-and-rescue crews focused much of their search in the area of Cle Elum. But the jet could have come down anywhere within a nearly 2,400-square-mile area, Hanchinamani said.
The single-engine, two-seat L-39 took off from Boeing Field en route to Lewiston, Idaho, when the pilot radioed air-traffic control to report difficulty controlling the plane shortly before noon.
The men's families traveled from California to Ellensburg, where a search-and-rescue camp was set up. They were notified about the search being called off.
The jet, built in 1981, was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Seattle
Two charged in death of homeless man
King County prosecutors filed murder charges yesterday against a 45-year-old man and his 27-year-old girlfriend in the January beating death of a homeless man in Maple Valley.
David Wayne Pulcino and Shirin Galinkin, both of Tillicum, Pierce County, are charged with the second-degree murder of Jeffrey Thompson on Jan. 8.
Police and prosecutors said in charging papers the three had been drinking under an old railroad trestle near the Cedar River when a fight broke out, and Thompson was beaten and left to die.
Investigators tracked down telephone records from a nearby pay phone, which led them to the pair, prosecutors say. Then they obtained a DNA sample by following Pulcino and retrieving a coffee cup he tossed away. Prosecutors allege that DNA matched DNA left on bottles near Thompson's body.
Galinkin, who has a long criminal record, was held yesterday in King County Regional Justice Center with bail set at $750,000 bail. Pulcino was held on $500,000 bail.
Seattle
Man in fatal shooting is identified as 23-year-old
King County Medical Examiner's officials yesterday identified a 23-year-old man fatally shot outside his mother's Yesler Terrace apartment Saturday as Ilyas Jamal.
Jamal, who died from multiple gunshot wounds, was alive when help arrived but was unable to identify his assailants, Seattle police said.
Police yesterday said they had no suspects.
Everett
Sex offender charged with luring girl, 12
A 54-year-old registered sex offender was charged yesterday in Snohomish County Superior Court with luring after he allegedly asked a 12-year-old girl to get into his car.
Prosecutors say the girl was approached as she stood outside her Lynnwood home. She later identified the man, Robert Garza of Lynnwood, from a flier mailed to residents alerting them that he was moving to their neighborhood.
Police arrested Garza on Wednesday, four days after the alleged luring.
Garza told police that he was watching TV on the day in question, according to court documents.
Garza has multiple convictions in Snohomish County for rape of a child, statutory rape and incest, according to charging papers.
He is being held in Snohomish County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Tacoma
Boy, 17, is convicted in fatal shooting
A teen has been convicted of fatally shooting a man from whom he and another teen were trying to steal a car outside a restaurant in east Tacoma.
A Pierce County Superior Court jury deliberated about half a day before convicting Santana Ocampo, 17, on Thursday of first-degree murder in the death of Julio Cesar Morales-Castro.
Ocampo faces at least 25 years in prison when he is sentenced in mid-November.
Morales-Castro, 25, was shot in his Buick Regal outside a restaurant on Aug. 10, 2003.
A 15-year-old boy who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder testified that he and Ocampo had been planning to steal Morales-Castro's car before the owner unexpectedly came out of the eatery and started to drive away.
Times staff and news services