Date: 12/04/2012 10:36 AM
OR–3rd NewsMinute/281
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – A Central Point man has been sentenced in Medford to at least 25 years in prison for stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death and trying to set her body on fire. The Mail Tribune reports Jeffrey Wayne Wheeler pleaded guilty last month to murder and arson charges. He apologized at his sentencing to friends and family of Jessica Bethany and said he had relapsed into drug and alcohol use in September 2011 when she was killed at her Central Point apartment.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The man who opened fire on three men in a Salem park in 2009 has been sentenced to life in prison. Twenty-one-year-old Lorenzo Garcia-Ceja won’t be eligible for parole until he’s 60. The Statesman Journal reports he pleaded guilty to murder in the death of Montez Bailey of Salem and pleaded no-contest to attempted murder for wounding two of Bailey’s friends in Northgate Park.
NORTH BEND, Ore. (AP) – Fire has destroyed an old, abandoned hangar at Southwest Oregon Regional Airport in North Bend. Firefighters responded just after midnight to find the building engulfed in flames. It collapsed about 1 a.m. The World reports the wooden hangar was built by the Navy during World War II and was no longer in use.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon Zoo hopes to retain possession of the baby elephant that was born Friday in Portland, but it won’t own the animal. The zoo confirms a report in The Seattle Times that the calf is owned by a California company called Have Trunk Will Travel under a breeding contract that sent the father, Tusko, to the zoo in 2005.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
