4A
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY BARRY KANSAS
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2006
COUNCIL (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
The chapter, which was founded in 1997, consists of five African-American fraternities and sororities: Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.; Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.; Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc; Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.; Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc; and two Hispanic-American organizations: Sigma Lambda Beta Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Lambda Gamma Sorority, Inc.
The organizations will use the week to recruit new freshmen into the council. Unlike the University's Intrafraaternity Council and the Panhellenic Association, the council requires new members to complete at least one semester at the University before they are eligible to pledge. Prospective members can still connect with the chapter before they pledge.
DeAndrea Herron, San Antonio senior and the council's public
relations chairwoman, said the informational meeting on Tuesday would demonstrate the solidarity of current members of the council, which she hopes will attract new members.
"Being an active part of NPHC allows for each person to work with different members in other sororities and fraternities," Herron said. "You can learn about the other organizations and show the community that even if we are in different sororites or fraternites we can still work together for the common good of our community."
The council's events will conclude with a retreat for all new members on Saturday.
Kansan staff writer Courtney Hagen can be contacted at chagen@kansan.com.
Edited by Dianne Smith
CRIME
Lyons parolee gets death for double homicide
ASSOCIATED PRESS
GREAT BEND — A Lyons man was sentenced Monday to-death by lethal injection for helping to kill a Great Bend couple because he feared one of the victims might tell police about a previous crime.
District Judge Hannelore Kitts pronounced Sidney Gleason's sentence after denying a motion made by Gleason's attorneys to dismiss the case and a motion for a new trial.
Gleason, 27, was convicted of shooting Miki Martinez, 19, and her boyfriend, Darren Wornkey, 24, on Feb. 21, 2004. He was convicted of capital murder, first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated robbery and criminal possession of a firearm. The jury recommended the death penalty during the sentencing phase.
Gleason and his cousin, Damian Thompson, 27, kidnapped and killed Martinez because they feared she might tell police about a previous crime — the stabbing
and robbery of 76-year-old Paul Elliott in Great Bend. Gleason and Thompson killed Wornkey as they kidnapped Martinez.
Thompson previously pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Martinez's death and is serving a life sentence. He will be eligible for parole in 2029.
Gleason had previously pleaded no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter in the shooting of his mother's ex-boyfriend. He also was acquitted in February 2000 of premeditated first-degree murder in the shooting death of one man and the wounding of another in Topeka in June 1999.
Gleason was released on parole a month before the WornkeyMartinez homicides.
He is the ninth person to be sentenced to die under the law upheld earlier by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The last execution in Kansas was June 22, 1965, when serial killers George R. York and James D. Latham were hanged at Lansing Correctional Facility.
AIRPLANE CRASH
Ed Reinke/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A short row of orange and white barriers can be seen Monday at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ky., at far right center and in the background center that mark a portion of the taxiway that was altered during a repaving project just a week before a Comair jet tried to take off on the wrong runway and crashed, killing 49 people. The aircraft when turning left because of the barriers would have the option of making another immediate left onto runway 26 or continuing on to runway 22 at top. Runway 26 is only half the length of runway 22 and not long enough for a commercial jet.
Investigators study crash's cause
By JEFFREY McMURRAY Associated Press
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Investigators in the Coma jet crash that killed 49 people are looking into whether changes made to a taxiway during a repaving project a week ago confused the pilot and caused him to turn onto the wrong runway.
Federal aviation officials said Monday they were also looking at such things as runway lights, markings and signs for clues to what could have misled the pilots, as well as anything else that changed the configuration or appearance of the airport.
Lowell Wiley, a flight instructor who flies almost every day out Lexington, said in an interview that he was confused by the redirected taxi route when he was with a student Friday taking off from the main runway.
Both the old and new taxiway routes cross over the short runway where Flight 5191 tried to take off before crashing into a grassy field and bursting into flame, Airport Executive Director Michael Gobb told The Associated Press.
"It's slightly different than it used to be," said Charlie Monette, president of Aero-Tech flight school at the airport. "Could there have been some confusion associated with that? That's certainly a possibility."
It was unclear whether the Comair pilots had been to the airport since the changes to the taxi route.
"When we taxied out, we did not expect to see a barrier strung across the old taxiway," Wiley said. "It was a total surprise."
Investigators planned to use a high truck to simulate the pilots' view of the runways and taxiways in their efforts to determine why the jet turned onto a shorter runway before dawn Sunday. The lone survivor was a critically injured co-pilot who was pulled from the cracked cockpit.
Authorities also planned to prepare a full report on the pilots, including what they did on and off duty for several days before the crash, which was the worst U.S. plane disaster since 2001.
All discussions between the plane and the control tower were about a takeoff from the main strip, Runway 22, which is 7,000 feet long, National Transportation Safety Board member Debbie Hersman.
Somehow, the commuter jet ended up on Runway 26 instead — a cracked surface about 3,500 feet long that forms an X with the main runway and is meant only for small
planes.
Both runways at Blue Grass Airport have lights along the edges, although the ones on the longer runway are much higher intensity. The long runway also has lights in the center. In the days leading up to the crash, those runway center lights were not working, according to a notice the Federal Aviation Administration sent to airlines.
Hersman told a news conference
that investigators were "looking into reports about any work that had been done at the airport, what might have approved, what might have been proposed and what might have been completed. Anything that might have changed the configuration or appearances of the airport."
According to the NTSB database, there have been four accidents caused by pilots taking off on the wrong runway worldwide since 1982.
Investigators take a measurement of Runway 26 at Blue Grass Airport on Monday; Aug. 28; 2006 in Lexington, Ky. A Comair flight took Runway 26; the shorter of two runways; by mistake Sunday; Aug. 27; and crashed on takeoff; killing 49 people. Investigators are examining why the Sunday commuter flight used a runway that was too short for takeoff.
Mark Humphrey/ASSOCIATED PRESS
RAMSEY INVESTIGATION
Prosecutors: Karr is not JonBenet Ramsey's killer
BY JON SARCHE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BOULDER, Colo. — Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Monday against John Mark Karr in the slaying of JonBenet Ransey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his insistence he sexually assaulted and strangled the 6-year-old beauty queen.
Just a week and a half after Karr's arrest in Thailand was seen as a remarkable break in the sensational, decade-old case, prosecutors suggested in court papers that he was just a man with a twisted fascination
with JonBenet who confessed to a crime he didn't commit.
"The people would not be able to establish that Mr. Karr committed this crime despite his repeated insistence that he did." District Attorney Mary Lacy said in court papers.
The 41-year-old schoolteacher will be kept in jail in Boulder until he can be sent to Sonoma County, Calif., to face child pornography charges dating to 2001.
The district attorney vowed to keep pursuing leads in JonBenet's death: "This case is not closed."
Karr was never formally charged in the slaying. In court papers, Lacy defended the decision to arrest him
--and bring him back to the United States for further investigation, saying he might have otherwise fled and may have been targeting children in Thailand as well.
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Lacy said Karr emerged as a suspect in April after he spent several years exchanging e-mails and later telephone calls with a University of Colorado journalism professor who had produced documentaries on the Ramsev case.
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According to court papers, Karr told the professor he accidentally killed JonBenet during sex and that he tasted her blood after he injured her vaginally. But the Denver crime lab conducted DNA tests Friday on a cheek swab from Karr and were unable to connect him to the crime.
"This information is critical because ... if Mr. Karr's account of his sexual involvement with the victim were accurate, it would have been highly likely that his saliva would have been mixed with the blood in the underwear," Lacy said.
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She also said authorities found no evidence Karr was in Boulder at the time of the slaying. She said Karr's family provided "strong circumstantial support" for their belief that he was with them in Georgia, celebrating the Christmas holidays. JonBenet was found beaten and strangled at her Boulder home on Dec. 26, 1996.
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Karr has been "obsessed with this case for a long time. He may have some personality problems, but he's not a killer," Harris said. "He obsesses. He wanted to be a rock star one time. He's a dreamer. He's the kind of guy who wants to be famous."
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In an interview Monday with MSNBC, Gary Harris, who had been spokesman for the Karr family, said he knew the DNA would not match.
"We're deeply distressed by the fact that they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand, with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him and no independent factors leading to a presumption he did anything wrong." Temin said.
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Human Relations
Introduction to Business
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Earlier this month, Ramsey family attorney Lin Wood pronounced Karr's arrest vindication for JonBenele's parents, who had long been suspected in the killing.
On Monday, the attorney said: "From day one, John Ramsey publicly stated that he did not want the public or the media to jump to judgment. He did not want the public or the media to engage in speculation, that he wanted the justice system to take its course."
Wood said he still has great confidence in the district attorney. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June.
JonBenet Ramsey's aunt, Pamela Paugh, said she was disappointed there won't be a prosecution of someone in the case, but added: "I think our justice system worked as it was supposed to."
"We asked the DA to do her thing. She did it," said Paugh, who is Patsy Ramsey's sister. "My disappointment came about the end of December 1996 when we didn't have the killer then. We've had 9 1/2 years of disappointment and waiting."