From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
PRIMGHAR, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa woman accused of allowing her infant daughter to be abused by the baby’s father has been sentenced to probation. The Sioux City Journal reports that 22-year-old Brittanee Baker, of Sheldon, pleaded guilty last week to one count of felony child endangerment. She received a five-year suspended prison sentence and two years’ probation. Police say Baker told officials that her 5-month-old daughter had been hurt in 2020 by a lamp knocked over by cats in her home. But police determined that the baby’s father, 21-year-old Lawrence Ruotolo Jr., injured the baby when she wouldn’t stop crying, then suffocated the infant the next day. Ruotolo was sentenced in September to five years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of child endangerment.
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A former Wichita high school teacher has been sentenced to three years’ probation for sexual exploitation of a child. Television station KAKE reports that 49-year-old Shawn Wingfield was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty to in November to the charge. He was ordered to register as a sex offender and undergo sex offender treatment. Wingfield resigned in July from teaching gifted English and debate at Wichita Northwest High School after police launched an investigation into him. That investigation began after a woman Wingfield dated gave police text messages he had sent to her in which he said he was sexually attracted to 11- to 14-year-olds. Investigators said they later found images of child pornography on electronics seized from his home.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) – Two men are charged in the fatal shooting of a Cedar Falls man during the weekend. Police say 19-year-old Arthur Craig Lang was killed in the shooting on Sunday. Twenty-five-year-old Brandon Javon Mitchell, of Mason City, was charged Monday with attempted murder, intimidation with a weapon and felon in possession of a weapon. His bond was set at $100,000. And 24-year-old Daniel Martez Judon, of Mason City, was charged with intimidation with a weapon in the shooting. His bond was set at $25,000. Police say the shooting occurred during a confrontation between pedestrians and the two suspects and Lang, who were in a vehicle.
MARION, Iowa (AP) – Police arrested a 22-year-old Marion man after authorities ruled the death of his infant son was a homicide. Samuel Goodwin was arrested Monday on possible charges of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death. He is expected to be formally charged on Tuesday. Goodwin’s son died on April 4. Police and emergency workers responded to a report of an infant who was not responsive and not breathing. Attempts to save the boy were unsuccessful. An autopsy concluded the baby’s death was homicide, caused by multiple head injuries.
PACIFIC JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) – Census data shows that in the three years since devastating 2019 spring floods submerged Pacific Junction in southwest Iowa, the town’s population has shrunk from 475 to less than 100. Now the question is whether it will remain a town. Pacific Junction Mayor Andy Young recently told Omaha, Nebraska, television station KETV that he’s hopeful the town will see families coming back. Dozens of empty lots around the town are the result of federal buyouts, which stipulate a new home cannot be built on the property once the old one comes down.
MILFORD, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a woman who was shot twice last week in the parking lot of a Milford medical staffing office where she worked has died. Now a man who was arrested shortly after the shooting faces a murder charge. The Sioux City Journal reports that 25-year-old Shelby Wiozeschke died Sunday at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, hospital where the mother of two was flown after being shot Thursday morning. Police say the shooting happened in the parking lot at GrapeTree Medical Staffing and that Wiozeschke called 911 and identified 25-year-old Christian Goyne-Yarns, of Spirit Lake, as the person who shot her. Goyne-Yarns was arrested about 90 minutes after the shooting on suspicion of attempted murder. He’s now charged with first-degree murder.
