Guilty Plea In Spokane Washington Killing

Twenty-five year old, Nicholas James Walter, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery in an incident involving an arranged purchase of marijuana. A teenage victim Matthew Migaki was killed in the ordeal. Walter could see as many as 20 years in prison for the crime.

'As part of a plea agreement he accepted Wednesday in Spokane County Superior Court, prosecutors dropped a weapons charge that could have meant five more years in prison.

According to court documents, Walters and two teenagers arranged to meet Migaki, 17, last June 5 on the pretext that he knew how they could get some marijuana.

Instead, investigators wrote, they planned to rob Migaki and the weapon discharged as Walter was pumping the action of a sawed-off shotgun to intimidate him.

Walter fled but was arrested in Sacramento, Calif., after gave the slip to a police officer in Portland, Ore., by using a false name.

Under the plea agreement, Walter is required to testify against Caleb J. Hanowell, whose trial on the same murder and robbery conspiracy charges is pending.

A third defendant, James N. Beasley, 16, pleaded guilty last year, agreed to testify against Hanowell and could remain in juvenile detention until he turns 21.'

Guilty Plea In Spokane Washington Killing

Spokane Catholic Diocese To Sell Bishop's Office Building

The Catholic Bishop's office building in Spokane Washington will be sold in order to help cover costs associated with a recent sex-abuse case against the diocese.

'The diocese has retained Keen Realty, a Great Neck, N.Y., company that specializes in representing companies in bankruptcy or other financial troubles, to sell its historic Catholic Pastoral Center downtown, as well as two vacant parcels near Spokane.

The Pastoral Center, also known as the Chancery, is among $11 million in assets the diocese claimed when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2004, listing more than $81 million in claims.

Keen Realty Vice President Michael Matlat said the Pastoral Center's asking price is $1.5 million. A 92-acre parcel of land near Medical Lake, west of the city, also is listed at $1.5 million, while a 3-acre parcel in the Spokane Valley is worth an estimated $75,000.

"It has always been our intention to sell everything," Shaun Cross, a lawyer representing the diocese in its bankruptcy case, said Wednesday. "This is the start of that process. Virtually everything the diocese owns will be put up for sale."

A federal bankruptcy judge recently ruled that churches, schools and other properties in 82 parishes are owned by the bishop and could be sold to satisfy creditors, who are mostly people who claim they were abused by priests and other clergy.

The properties are believed to be worth an additional $80 million. The diocese has appealed that ruling.

Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is among those named in bankruptcy claims as an abuser. Skylstad has denied the claim that he sexually abused a young woman in the 1960s.

The house where Skylstad lives also will be sold, part of an estimated $5 million in real estate the diocese owns, Cross said.

Another $3 million is potentially available from a parish construction loan portfolio, he said.

The diocese has announced settlements amounting to about $10 million with insurance carriers and is negotiating possible settlements with other insurance companies.

The 28,968-square-foot, three-story Pastoral Center on West Riverside Avenue was built in 1910 and has served as a general office building for the diocese.

The 92-acre vacant parcel is just northwest of Interstate 90 and Medical Lake Road, about two miles southwest of the Spokane International Airport.

The three-acre parcel is in a residential area next to Painted Hills Golf Course in the Spokane Valley.

The diocese recently sold the former St. Anne's Children's Home property for about $500,000.'
Spokane Catholic Diocese To Sell Bishop's Office Building

Extradition In Motion For Accused Suspect In 2001 Auto Collision

It has been five long years since Frederick D. Russell was living south of Spokane in Whitman County. The friends and relatives of three victims killed, and four injured, in an automoble crash in which Russell is accused of causing, could see him coming back from Ireland soon to face charges.

'A judge in Ireland granted a request Tuesday to extradite Russell to the United States to face trial on three counts of vehicular manslaughter in Whitman County.

The extradition has been under review ever since the former Washington State University student was found in Dublin on Oct. 23, four years to the day after he fled the United States.

"This is really a very significant step in getting him back into a Whitman County courtroom," Prosecutor Denis Tracy said. "Based on the track record of Irish courts in not granting extradition, we were quite concerned. But it looks like the effort is paying off."

Russell, 27, is charged in the 2001 crash on state Highway 270, the two-lane road that connects Pullman and Moscow, Idaho.

His attorney, Mark Moorer, said his client has always maintained his innocence.

"That appears to be the question of the day: Will he appeal (the extradition ruling)?" Moorer asked. "I have an e-mail in to (Russell's) solicitor (in Ireland) and I am waiting for a response."

Accident reports said Russell was driving an SUV about 90 mph and trying to pass other vehicles when it struck three cars the night of June 4, 2001. All the dead and seriously injured victims were returning from a movie in one car.

Killed in the crash were WSU seniors Brandon Clements, 22, of Wapato; Stacy G. Morrow, 21, of Milton; and Ryan Sorensen, 21, of Westport. Seriously injured were John Wagner, of Harrington, Kara Eichelsdoerfer, of Central Park, and Sameer Ranade, of Kennewick.

Russell suffered minor injuries. At the hospital after the crash, his blood-alcohol level measured 0.12 percent, above the legal intoxication threshold of 0.08.

A few days before his trial was to begin, Russell hitched a ride on Oct. 23, 2001, with Bernadette Olson, who was a graduate student at the time studying under Russell's father, Greg Russell. The elder Russell is a former prosecutor who then was working as the head of WSU's criminal justice program.

Olson drove Fred Russell to the airport in Calgary, Alberta. Federal officials believe Russell flew immediately to England before settling in Ireland.

In March 2004, Olson pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to investigators about her interactions with Russell. She later resigned from her post as assistant professor of criminal justice and legal studies at the University of West Florida.

Tracy's office, with help from U.S. officials, filed for Russell's extradition after a Dublin tipster spotted his photograph on the U.S. Marshals Service's Web site, which listed Russell among the United States' 15 most-wanted criminal suspects. He had been working in a Dublin lingerie shop under the alias David Carroll.

Until Tuesday, the return of Russell, who also faces four counts of vehicular assault and various charges relating to his fleeing the country, remained in doubt. That's because the previous 18 attempts to extradite U.S. suspects had been denied by Irish officials, including a vehicular homicide case out of California, federal officials said last year.'

Extradition In Motion For Accused Suspect In 2001 Auto Collision