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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2005
LAWRENCE
Prosecutors 'infer' murder evidence
LAWRENCE — A Kansas State University professor, worried about losing his daughter in a child-custody dispute, conducted Internet searches on how to commit murder before brutally attacking his ex-wife, prosecutors said yesterday in their closing arguments.
But defense attorney Bob Eye countered that the evidence against the professor, Thomas E Murray, was based on "inferences piled upon inferences."
A Douglas County District Court jury started deliberating yesterday and are to resume their work today.
Murray, 48, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Carmin D. Ross, who prosecutors say was bludgeoned and stabbed to death on Nov. 13,2003.
The Associated Press
Stephanie Farley/KANSAN
Study highlights drinking problem
NATION
MANDAN, N.D. — A recent study from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health found more than 31 percent of North Dakotaans age 12 and older said they had five or more drinks in one sitting during the month before the survey, done in 2002 and 2003. The national average for binge drinking was 23 percent.
The sign at Dad's Place, Ninth and Massachusetts streets, points to the entrance of the alternative coffee shop. Dad's Place was created to provide teenagers with a safe place to congregate on Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to midnight.
Binge use is defined as having five or more drinks on the same occasion at least once in the last 30 days.
Nearly 55 percent of North Dakotans between the ages of 18 and 25 reported binge drinking. About 17 percent who were ages 12 to 17 and about 28 percent in the 26-and-older category said they had five or more drinks in one sitting.
Joel Tiegreen, Lawrence resident, begins a game of pool with Travis Adams, Lawrence resident, at Dad's Place, a coffee shop located at Ninth and Massachusetts streets. Both Tiegreen and Adams are active members of the Mustard Seed Christian Fellowship, the church that owns the coffee shop.
North Dakota's 11 percent rate of alcohol dependence and abuse also led the nation in the study.
DOWNTOWN
First lady Mikey Hoeven has been leading a campaign aimed at children to stop underage and binge drinking.
Rachel Sevmour/KANSAN
The Associated Press
BY NEIL MULKA
nmulka@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
What is this place?
At Ninth and Massachusetts streets, there's a concrete stairwell that leads to an orange painted basement entrance. Illuminated by two flood lights, a blue-gray plywood sign hangs above the stairwell with the words "Dad's Place" painted on it. On the sign there are two hands: one pointing toward heaven and another pointing to the west.
"We get that question about once a week," Melissa Ingalls, overseer of Dad's Place and 2000 University of Kansas graduate. said.
Church coffee shop not your father's pool hall
Dad's Place offers teenagers liquor-free fun
Dad's Place, 2 E. Ninth St., is a coffee shop and snack bar designed for teenagers. Open from 6 p.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, it has free pool, foosball and darts. It's dimly lit like a bohemian coffee shop with artsy black and white photos along the wall.
In the center of the room, patrons sit on couches and watch the Kansas men's basketball game on television, cheering and booing.
"We get people that come down here that think it's a bar," Ingalls said. "They come up to the counter, and say, 'Oh, you don't sell beer?'"
The youth group at Mustard
Seed Christian Fellowship, 700 Wakarusa Drive, opened Dad's Place a year and a half ago to give teenagers a safe place to hang out, Ingalls said.
The coffee shop got its name from "the father" in the Holy Trinity — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The two hands on the sign are "D" and "P" in sign language.
Despite its religious undertones, there is no organized evangelism at Dad's Place, Ingalls said.
The Healing Stone, a homeopathic store, was in that location before it was Dad's Place.
It took four months to convert it from a retail space to a coffee shop.
"There's totally a lack of places we can go," Barclay said. "There's plenty of places 18- to 20-year-olds can go to."
Barclay likes that he can hang out at Dad's Place and not spend a lot of money.
"It basically looked like the worst basement you've ever seen," Ingalls said.
Despite it's location on the
Michael Ingalls, overseer and 2001 graduate, estimates that $25,000 to $30,000 of work went into Dad's Place.
Dad's Place is a good place to bring younger siblings without having bad influences around, said Micah Barclay, a 16-year-old student at Veritas Christian School, 256 N. Michigan St.
pub crawl route, Dad's Place only has few problems with the bar crowd.
"There's the occasional bathroom break at our front door," Michael Ingalls, who is married to Melissa, said.
The entrance is dark and secluded, and people sometimes urinate after the leaving
the bars, he said.
Because of its small budget, Dad's Place relies on word of mouth, fliers and curiosity to bring people in.
That curiosity brings in people who are not teenagers, and those people are welcome, Ingalls said.
It was that curiosity that
fured in Leighton Watts, 22, Lawrence resident, a year ago.
"I thought it was a bar," Watts said. "It's a teen thing, but there's people my age if I have problems to talk about. It's a good place for the young people."
Edited by Kendall Dix
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