LE MARS WOMAN ENTERS PLEA IN DEATH OF HER CHILD
A Le Mars woman has pleaded not guilty to charges in the death of her two year old child last spring. 27-year-old Sexlyn Tataichy is charged with second degree murder, child endangerment resulting in death and multiple acts of child endangerment in the April 29th death of her son at their residence. Her attorney filed a written plea of not guilty on Thursday. A trial date in the case has not been set. Tataichy remains held in the Plymouth County Jail on the charges.
DAVIS ARRESTED FOR DOMESTIC ABUSE ASSAULT 3RD OFFENSE
Plymouth County authorities made an arrest Thursday afternoon in a domestic abuse case. The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office received a 9-1-1 call from a woman traveling in a pickup northbound on Hwy 75 out of Hinton. The female driver was with a male passenger. She advised that she was assaulted by the male passenger and had pulled over to the side of the road. Deputies responded on scene and after investigation, the male subject Jamie Lee Davis of North Augusta, South Carolina, was taken into custody for domestic abuse assault 3rd offense and brought to the Plymouth County Jail to be booked on that charge.
FEMA CENTERS TO CLOSE
FEMA plans to close the state’s last two Disaster Recovery Centers in Sioux and Clay Counties Saturday at 5:30 p-m. The centers are located in Rock Valley and Spencer. Iowa residents still have until October 22nd to apply for federal disaster assistance. FEMA opened nearly 25 centers around the state this year to help Iowans recovering from the devastating tornadoes this spring and historic flash floods in June. FEMA has approved almost 70 million dollars in aid so far for about 85-hundred Iowa residents.
COLD CASE WEBSITE
There are over 400 unsolved cold cases in Iowa involving murdered or missing victims. Jodi Ewing is the founder of a website, iowa cold cases dot org, that tells the stories of those victims. Ewing founded the website 20 years ago while working for a newspaper in Sioux City:
Ewing spoke in Sioux City this week, with family members of Maureen Brubaker Farley, a Sioux City teen who disappeared in 1971 while working at a Cedar Rapids diner. Her murdered body was found and it took 50 years before a D-N-A match led to the identification of her killer, a man who had died eight years earlier:
Ewing is personally involved with one cold case. Her stepfather, Earl Thelander, died in 2007 from burn injuries when a country home he was renovating exploded after filling with propane gas. The explosion was caused by thieves who stripped twenty dollars worth of copper from propane gas lines in the home. Their identities remain unknown:
Ewing says it’s important to keep the memory of the cold case victims alive in the hopes that one day their case will be solved.
ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS
The Iowa Department of Transportation has awarded the first round of funding for the National Electric Vehicles Infrastructure program to create a network of electric vehicle charging stations.
The DOT’s Deb Arp says the federal program is providing 7.5 billion dollars nationwide for the program. Iowa will be allocated about $10.3 million per year, totaling over 51 million dollars over the five-year life of the act. Iowa designated four alternative fuel corridors, Interstates 29, 80, 380, and 35, where the chargers will be installed. One will be installed along I-29 in Sioux City, at Gordon Drive near the Sioux City Auditorium. The total project cost there is 1.1 million dollars, with 942-thousand dollars in funding awarded.
Arp says 28 applications have been selected with an intended award amount $16.2 million and 5.6 million in matching private funds, for total estimated project costs of nearly $22 million. The funding requires the chargers be spaced no more than 50 miles apart and less than one mile from Interstates and highway corridors, and be near restrooms, small businesses, and other amenities.
DENISON MAN WHO SOLD DRUGS TO STORM LAKE INFORMANT SENTENCED TO PRISON
A Denison man found guilty of selling about a quarter pound of meth in Storm Lake has been sentenced to prison. In July of last year, Martin Mancilla-Gomez was arrested after selling 113 grams of meth to an informant cooperating with Storm Lake Police. A drug-sniffing dog found another 443 grams of meth wrapped in plastic and hidden inside a wet-dry vacuum in Mancilla-Gomez’s vehicle. This summer, a jury found him guilty of one count of possession of meth with the intent to deliver. Mancilla-Gomez, who is 58 years old, must serve at least four years of a 25 year sentence before he’s eligible for parole.
