4 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 2003
HELP SAVE LIVES and EARN $20* TODAY!
Donate your blood plasma. Help burn, trauma and shock victims, surgery patients & more.
Call or stop by: ZLB Plasma Services
816 West 24th Street Lawrence, KS 66046
785-749-5750
www.zlb.com
Fees and donation time may vary. *For approx. 2 hours.
INVESTIGATION
New avenues opened in Martin investigation
By Annie Bernethy
aberneth@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
More charges could be filed in the ongoing investigation of the death of Shannon Martin, a University of Kansas student killed while studying abroad in Golfito, Costa Rica.
Larry Thomas, of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and A. Jesse Ybarra, a translator, spent 10 days last month in Costa Rica reviewing evidence and interviewing witnesses who had previously been either overlooked or uncooperative.
Martin
DK-7/16,7/23,8/18
Prosecutors have already charged three people — Kattia Cruz, 27, Rafael "Coco" Zumbado, 52, and Luis Alberto Castro, 32 with killing Martin on May 13, 2001. With the new accusations, more people may be added to the list, Ybarra said, but those names cannot be released yet.
Thomas spent a week preparing for his trip with Ybarra by going through the 700-page case file, which is in Spanish. When
they arrived, the two took a quick lesson in Costa Rican etiquette, learning the customs and courtesies of the culture.
Jeanette Stauffer, Martin's mother, said the help from Thomas and Ybarra had taken a great deal of pressure off of her.
"They're my dream team," she said.
Before Thomas and Ybarra arrived many witnesses had not been interviewed and evidence was overlooked, Stauffer said. She said Thomas' 25 years of investigative experience helped the case tremendously.
Stauffer said the KBI, Thomas, Ybarra and Juan Carlos Arce, her Costa Rican attorney, were doing a great job and making a real difference in the case.
After Stauffer's last trip to Golfito, Costa Rican officials allowed her to participate in legal proceedings surrounding the case, which opened up the doors for her to hire Arce.
Arce can now pick up where Thomas and Ybarra left off, adding to the strength of the case, Ybarra said.
Stauffer said it would be at least another month before a preliminary hearing, after which a trial date would be set.
- Edited by Ehren Meditz
LAWSUIT
Tenants, landlords sue city over zoning ordinance issue
The Associated Press
LAWRENCE — A group of tenants and landlords have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lawrence over an ordinance that reduced how many unrelated people could share a single-family home.
The ordinance, approved by the city commission in December 2000, reduced from four to two the number of unrelated people who could live in a single-family home.
College students claimed the rule would reduce the options for affordable housing.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., on Friday, claims the
ordinances are unconstitutional and violate state law.
More than 1,800 houses have been registered under the requirements of the codes.
Two tenants and eight landlords are listed as plaintiffs.
City officials would not comment on the lawsuit yesterday.
Inspections began in February 2002; city officials have used "administrative search warrants" to enter homes when landlords or tenants refused the inspections.
The plaintiffs are seeking more than $75,000 as repayment of the registration fees and for damage payments. A hearing has not been set in the case.