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Friday, May 16, 2008
Documents: Colo. man killed father after being raped
CORTEZ (AP) — A Montezuma County man charged with killing his father told police he shot his father in the head after he was raped by the man, then dismembered the body and fed flesh to coyotes, according to court documents obtained by the Cortez Journal.
Jeremiah R. Berry, 20, was charged with second-degree murder Wednesday in county court in the death of Jack Berry, 42, who had been missing since February. Detectives found body parts at several locations in the county.
Jeremiah Berry told police he shot Jack Berry in a canyon on or about Feb. 19, according to a county sheriff’s office search warrant affidavit. He said his father told him that day he had been told by God his son needed a sex change to become his wife. He said Jack Berry then raped him, the Journal reported.
After the shooting, Jeremiah Berry said he stabbed the body 199 times and dismembered the body, feeding flesh to coyotes, the affidavit said. Over the next two days, Jeremiah Berry carried the body parts out of a canyon in buckets.
Jeremiah Berry told officials he placed buckets containing body parts in a storage room at a dog kennel and disposed of a pistol, ax and knives in the Animas River in Durango, the document said. Officials recovered the buckets on April 29.
Jeremiah Berry is being held at the county detention center on $500,000 bond. A preliminary hearing is set for June 20.
County Judge Todd Plewe agreed to unseal some documents and court orders after the Cortez Journal filed a motion seeking their release.
A gag order remains in effect in the case.
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Group: Air pollution threatens Mesa Verde
DENVER (AP) — A national conservation group lists Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park as one of 10 national parks most threatened by existing and proposed coal fired power plants.
The National Parks Conservation Commission says coal-fired plants in New Mexico and Arizona are the largest sources of pollutants — such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides — in Mesa Verde. It says the pollutants harm the park’s ancient Pueblo structures.
The commission says a new coal plant is under development about 45 miles from the park and three others are proposed within 190 miles of the park.
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BuRec forecasts Crystal Dam spill late next week
Hot weather and a near-record snowpack in the upper Gunnison Basin could combine late next week for an uncontrolled spill over Crystal Dam.
It would be first spill at Crystal, the third of the three Aspinall Unit dams on the Gunnison River, since 1997.
“We’re tentatively planning to start ramping up the flows (on the Gunnison River) toward the middle of next week but it all depends on how things change over the weekend,” said Dan Crabtree, lead hydrologist for the Bureau of Reclamation office in Grand Junction.
He said flows in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison and the Gunnison Gorge could reach “at least 6,000” cubic feet per second by next weekend.
Friday, the Gunnison River below Crystal Dam was flowing at 3,280 cfs.
The latest runoff forecast from the Bureau of Reclamation increased the predicted flows into Blue Mesa Reservoir by 40,00 acre feet more than previously expected. The new prediction calls for 1.1 million acre feet, 153 percent of the long-term average and virtually assuring some sort of spill over Crystal Dam, perhaps as soon as the middle of next week.
The Bureau’s forecast center also predicted the North Fork of the Gunnison should peak around the May 21, bringing flows at Delta to 11,700 cfs, close to flood stage.
Any increases on the mainstem Gunnison won’t begin until the North Fork flows decrease, Crabtree said, to control the possibility of flooding.
All runoff and flow predictions are tied to the weather. Temperatures in Gunnison this weekend are forecast to be in the mid- to high-70s.
Also, side channel inflows from tributaries including the Cimarron River and the Smith Fork could affect total flows in the Gunnison.
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Shelton State joins JUCO field
Shelton State (Ala.) Community College won the Southeastern District title to qualify for its second Alpine Bank Junior College World Series in school history.
It is the second consecutive appearance for Shelton State.
The Bucs (45-17) defeated Wallace State (Ala.) Community College-Hanceville 7-4 on Friday afternoon in Hanceville, Ala.
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GJ High grad wins state discus competition
LAKEWOOD — One day after receiving his diploma from Grand Junction High School, Tyler Volkmann added another feather in his cap by winning the boys discus competition at the Class 5-A State Track & Field Championships today at Jefferson County Stadium.
Volkmann had the top throw in the preliminaries: 160 feet, 11 inches.
He surpassed that by more than 9 feet with a toss of 170 feet, 1 inch on his next-to-last attempt.
— Kent Mincer
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Weekend warmup to create potential for flooding
Mesa County officials are advising residents to prepare for possible flooding in the coming week, as a spike in temperatures could put local rivers and creeks at or above bankful.
The National Weather Service is forecasting highs in Grand Junction to reach the lower 80s tomorrow and soar close to 90 degrees by the end of the weekend and early next week. Forecasters expect temperatures in areas above 8,000 feet to reach as high as the mid-70s by Monday.
“This is our first wave of high runoff that we are going to see this spring,” Mesa County Emergency Manager Chadd Searcy said this morning. “The forecasts that we’re getting are fairly concerning. There’s a ton of water still up in the mountains and with this next four or five days of higher temperatures, we’re going to see a lot of that water coming down.”
An unusually deep snowpack and higher-than-normal precipitation in April and May have left snowpack levels in the Colorado and Gunnison River basins at more than 140 percent of normal.
Searcy said some forecast models are calling for the Colorado River to be at or above bankful by the middle of next week.
He said Mesa County sheriff’s deputies and county Road and Bridge Department employees will be monitoring data gauges in local waterways. Of particular concern is Plateau Creek, which runs through the town of Collbran, and the lower-lying areas of the Colorado River west of downtown Grand Junction.
Searcy said officials have strategically placed sandbags and other flood-prevention materials in the Collbran area, should Plateau Creek overrun its banks.
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Grand Junction hires football coach
Grand Junction High School hired former Mesa State College defensive coordinator and football player Robbie Owens as its football coach.
Owens will be introduced at a press conference this afternoon.
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COGCC rules may cost energy customers billions
DENVER (AP) — A report done for a Colorado oil and gas trade group says proposed new state regulations could cost natural gas customers billions of dollars over the next decade.
The report commissioned by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association says the proposed rules could slow down approval of new natural gas wells and facilities, limit when companies can drill and increase operating costs.
That could boost natural gas prices by up to $1.7 billion in Colorado over the next decade and up to $32 billion nationally, according to ICF International, a policy, management and technology consulting company based in Fairfax, Va.
The report is part of the information from the industry in preparation for hearings later this month and over the summer on a comprehensive rewrite of state’s oil and gas regulations. The new rules would implement two laws approved last year that require giving more weight to public health, the environment and wildlife when approving oil and gas development.
Colorado is experiencing record gas drilling rates. The state issued 6,368 drilling permits last year, six times the total in 1999.
Gathering the data for the economic report was “a Herculean effort” because of the tight schedule for reviewing and adopting the new rules, Meg Collins, president of the oil and gas association, said Thursday.
“Given the pace of the rulemaking, we thought it was imperative to develop this data to inform our statements,” Collins said.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the main regulatory body, released preliminary proposals in January, followed by five public hearings across the state and dozens of work sessions attended by landowners and representatives from the industry, local governments and environmental groups.
The draft rules were released at the end of March. Regulators plan to adopt final rules by late summer.
Dave Neslin, acting oil and gas commission director, said his staff asked companies for their numbers on the potential costs of the new regulations five weeks ago and the companies declined.
“Unfortunately, they seem to be taking an adversarial rather collaborative approach,” Neslin said.
Collins said the state didn’t request the financial information until April and then gave the industry a two-week deadline. She said the figures are part of the statements and exhibits to be presented by the industry, which opposes the proposed rules. “I think it’s the state’s obligation to develop that data,” Collins said.
Neslin and an economist for The Wilderness Society questioned some of the industry report’s findings and conclusions. Neslin said the report seems to ignore ideas to streamline the permitting process and the fact that companies could seek exemptions from some rules.
The commission is writing an analysis of the potential economic costs of the new rules.
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Buffalo hunter surrenders
DENVER (AP) — A Texas businessman and ranch owner accused of killing 32 bison turned himself in earlier this week, the Park County sheriff’s office said Thursday.
Jeffrey Scott Hawn, 44, of Austin posted $15,000 bond on Monday and was released. He faces 32 counts of animal cruelty and one count each of theft and criminal mischief. The bison were found in late March strewn across hundreds of snow-covered acres about 85 miles southwest of Denver.
Hawn had filed a lawsuit a few days earlier saying bison belonging to rancher Monte Downare had been stampeding onto his property and damaging or destroying trees, fences and a satellite dish. Downare said Hawn failed to repair the damage caused to his fences by wildlife and called Hawn’s property damage an “act of god.” South Park has endured a harsh winter, with heavy snow and high winds.
Of the 32 bison killed, only eight were shot on the Hawn property. The rest were killed on property not owned or controlled by Hawn and his Wateredge Properties. Hawn’s lawyer, Pamela Mackey, declined comment.
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