The state/region in brief

Battlefield bones

lead to penalties

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A southwest Missouri man has to pay more than $5,000 in federal restitution for collecting bones while canoeing through a national battlefield site.

The U.S. attorney’s office for western Missouri said in a news release Wednesday that Coy Matthew Hamilton, 31, will pay the National Park Service $5,351 and perform 60 hours of community service to avoid prosecution for removing artifacts.

Prosecutors said Hamilton was canoeing last year down Wilson’s Creek, which runs through the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield site, looking for artifacts after a storm.

Hamilton saw a bone sticking out of an embankment and dug into the embankment, removing more bones. About 10 days later, he turned the bones in to the park service, which determined the bones were those of an adult dating back to the Civil War.

• THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Killer gets 7 more years behind bars

TEXARKANA - A convicted killer serving a 60-year prison sentence has been sentenced to an additional seven years in prison for escape from a county jail.

The Texarkana Gazette reported that Cortez Rashod Hooper was sentenced Tuesday in Miller County Circuit Court. Hooper pleaded guilty to the May 28 escape as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Hooper was being held on a murder charge when authorities said he and another inmate used a hacksaw they had been provided to cut through the bars of their cell window and escape the Miller County jail.

Both escapees were recaptured May 31 and Hooper pleaded guilty in August to the murder charge in the 2011 shooting death of a Texarkana man.

• THE ASSOCIATED PRESSState lab identifies

Hot Springs body

HOT SPRINGS - Police in Hot Springs said a body found in the city is that of a Hot Springs man.

Cpl. McCrary Means told reporters Monday that the body was identified at the state Crime Laboratory as that of Joshua Williams, 20.

The body was found Saturday afternoon by police investigating reports of a man lying in bushes downtown just east of the Hot Springs Convention Center.

Police said there was a gunshot wound in the man’s upper body and that there were cuts and bruises to his head - but a cause of death has not been determined.

Means said detectives have no suspects or a motive in Williams’ death.

• THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Plane crash kills Texan in Oklahoma

ANADARKO, Okla.

• The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said a West Texas man was killed when the singleengine plane he was piloting crashed near the airport in Anadarko.

Troopers told broadcaster KOCO that 62-year-old Robert Glasscock, 62, of Lubbock died in the crash Tuesday afternoon about 60 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said the plane was a Piper PA-28 and was flying from Crosbyton Municipal Airport in Texas to Anadarko. Crosbyton is about 60 miles east of Lubbock.

• THE ASSOCIATED PRESS County schools file for status hearings

The Pulaski County Special School District is asking a federal judge to hold hearings on whether the district is substantially desegregated.

The district filed a motion Tuesday seeking hearings on its request to be declared unitary. The district first petitioned for unitary status in 2007, but a judge denied that request in 2011.

In Tuesday’s motion, the district said it has made substantial progress since then and asked that hearings be held on issues including special education, one-race classrooms, honors programs and staffing.

The district asks that the hearings be held after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on an affirmative-action case in Texas and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on Arkansas’ school-choice law.

The North Little Rock and Little Rock districts have already been declared unitary.

• THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ex-official admits

Medicaid fraud

JOPLIN, Mo. - A former southwest Missouri public administrator admits that she directed her employees to submit false Medicaid applications to improperly receive federal benefits.

Prosecutors said 60-yearold Rita Hunter’s scheme brought in between $70,000 to $120,000 while she served as Jasper County public administrator for one term ending in 2008. Hunter pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to document fraud.

Prosecutors said the false Medicaid applications were for wards of the state under the custody of the public administrator’s office.

• THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Underwear thief

gets probation

COLUMBIA, Mo.

• A University of Missouri sophomore has been placed on probation for stealing women’s underwear from a residence hall laundry facility.

The Columbia Daily Tribune reported Tuesday that Kevin D. Waida, 19, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor stealing. The imposition of a sentence was suspended in favor of two years of unsupervised probation.

If Waida completes probation without any problems, the conviction could be cleared from his record.

Investigators learned from six female victims that undergarments had disappeared after they did laundry in the residence hall. Detectives with the University of Missouri Police Department ultimately approached Waida, and he handed over 15 pairs of women’s underwear.

Eleven more pairs of underwear and stockings were found when police searched Waida’s dorm room. One victim reported Waida watched her do laundry.