Booking mugs. First at Winona in June  albeit briefly. Now in Rochester jail 7-1/2 months.

Murder defendant remains in other county’s jail

WINONA, Minn. – The people who run the Winona County jail are in no rush to bring their most high-profile prisoner, murder defendant Adam Favel, back from Rochester where he has been held 7-1/2 months. It’s a security issue. Fravel’s attorney, Zach Bauer, says Fravel is so reviled in Winona that it would be impossible to find an impartial local jury. A question that cannot be avoided: How safe would Favel be in the local jail population? So although Fravel has been on the Winona jail roster since his arrest June for the murder of his girlfriend Maddi Kingsbury, he has hardly ever been there since he being booked. Because the Winona jail was condemned at the time, Favel was sent as a matter of routine at to the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center 40 miles away in Rochester.  But now that the new $28 million Winona jail is operational, all other farmed-out inmates have been returned. Fravel, however, still sits in Rochester. For court appearances in Winona, deputies transport him back and forth in the locked and caged rear of a squad car. Then at the Winona police garage he’s escorted underground in cuffs through a tunnel to the Courthouse. Asked Friday at the daily news briefing when Favel is scheduled to be returned, Deputy Sheriff Jeff Mueller deferred.

Earlier: Fravel attorney: Murder trial must be moved

Earlier: Jail homecoming: Outsourced inmates returning

Earlier: Bail at $2 million for Fravel in murder case

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – A solar eclipse in April will be experienced by more people than any eclipse in Earth history, says the planetarium director at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The eclipse is due April 8. Bob Bonadurer said the eclipse will be fullest over Illinois, Indiana and Ohio but that Wisconsin and Minnesota and most of the continental United States will receive the moon’s shadow too. “This is a big one,” Binaurer said. “This eclipse will be seen by more people than any eclipse ever before.”

WINONA, Minn. – Police reported finding 0.26 grams of cocaine in a pocket on a Winona woman during a traffic stop. Bianca Richelle Harris, 24, was booked for drunken driving on the basis of a breath test that showed her blood was at 0.13% alcohol – 1-/12 times the legal limit.  A drug charge was pending the results of a blood draw that was sent to the crime lab for evaluation. The traffic stop was at Broadway and Hamilton streets on the East Side about 2:30 a.m.

Harris. Booked and released.

RUSHFORD, Minn. – the Rushford Historical Society received a $255,000 grant to repair its museum in the old Southern Minnesota Railroad depot. The grant was from the Minnesota Historical Society. The depot was he first Fillmore County stop after Peterson for trains heading up the Root River from Hokah as the line was building west to Austin starting in 1855. The Southern Minnesota was later absorbed by the Milwaukee Road, which ran its last passenger train through Rushford in 1975, its last freight train in 1980.

Still looks like a train depot. With baggage carts, a spur switch, a trackside awning and a trainmaster’s bay window. But the only travelers these days are bicyclists on the Root River Trail.

WINONA, Minn. – Police arrested a Winona man after a disturbance call from a homeowner that the man was acting strange. As police were talking outside with Austin John Presson, 29, he dropped a hypodermic needle on the ground, police said. The clear liquid in the canister tested for meth, they said. Police also reported finding 0.96 grams of meth in crystal form on Presson. This was in the 200 block of Franklin Street about 10:20 p.m.

TROY, Minn. – A man standing in his yard heard a gunshot and felt a bullet whiz by his head. This was on County Road 117 in the southwest corner of Winona County. Deputies checked the area for signs of a vehicle but found none. The man figured the shot was from someone shooting at coyotes or some other predator.

WINONA, Minn. – A Plainview driver was injured when her car went into the ditch and struck a tree just north of Elba on the road to Weaver. Tanya Virginia Traaseth, 48, was taken 30 miles to a Rochester hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The crash was about 2 p.m. Traaseth was driving a 2012 Ford Escape whose airbag deployed. Winona County deputies said that road conditions were dry.

FREMONT, Minn. – A 19-year-old woman was shaken and her neck hurt when her all-terrain vehicle slid off an icy trail, hit a rock, and flipped on its top. The woman’s injuries were described as a minor. The windshield of the Polaris vehicle was damaged. This was about 12:55 p.m. on Flanigan Hill Road east of Wilson.

Bundled up, treading up. With morning temperatures hovering around zero, climbers begin the trek up the bluffs below Sugar Loaf from East Lake Boulevard.   Image: Steve Lunde

WINONA, Minn. – A Byron driver was booked for drunken driving after a 0.15% blood-alcohol test during a traffic stop near the busy Huff and Sarnia intersection about 2:20 a.m.  Joshua Matthew Petersen, 20, smelled of alcohol and his eyes were red and his speech slurred, the traffic, officer said.

Basketball (men): Winona State 68, Mary 62

Basketball (women): Mary 76, Winona State 50

Hockey (women): Saint Mary’s 4, St. Catherine 0

Swimming-diving (men):  UW-LaCrosse 154, Carthage 145

Swimming-diving (women): UW-LaCrosse 205, Carthage 91

BLAIR, Wis.  – An Arcadia man at first stood his ground against deputies but quickly gave up peacefully after a 90-mph chase that ended at the U.S. Highway 95 exit into Blair. Taken into custody was 18-year-old Kyler Kellicut. The chase began about 3:30 p.m. at Sorlie Lane between Arcadia and Blair and proceeded north eight miles. Kellicut was speeding to begin with and, being chased, went ever faster, deputies said. The case ended, they said, when Kellicut pulled into a driveway near the intersection of  U.S. 95 and 53. Kellicut was booked at the Trempealeau County jail in Whitehall for fleeing and eluding police.

WINONA, Minn. – The Winona man accused in the March 2023 death of Maddi Kigsbury wants his murder trial moved out of Winona. Adam Fravel’s attorney filed a motion for a venue change with Judge Nancy Buytendorp. The attorney, Zachary Bauer of Rochester, argued that a fair trial is impossible in Winona.  The motion cited:

> Extensive news coverage over the past 10 months that, he said, created prejudicial atmosphere that renders it impossible to seat a fair and impartial jury.

> Community emotions against Fravel, as evinced by massive organized searches searches with as many as 2,500 volunteers and as also evinced also by a series of highly attended and emotional public vigils.

Fravel: New charge flawed

Bauer also asked that an elevated charge of first-degree degree murder be set aside. The first-degree charge, recommended by a grand jury in November, was based on insufficient admissible evidence, Bauer said. The original charge was second-murder. The motions were filed at a pre-trial hearing at which both the defense and prosecution laid out their strategies for the trial. The trial has been scheduled for September or October.

Prosecution plans

Prosecutor Karin Sonneman told Judge Buyendrop she plans to seek an aggravated sentence against Fravel if he is convicted of murder. This, Sonneman said, would be for the “particular cruelty” nd anguish that Maddi Kingsbury’s family went through during the 2-1/2 months that Maddi was missing. Judge Buytendorp took Bauer and Sonneman motions under advisement.

Earlier: New charges loom in Kingsbury murder case

Earlier: Bail at $2 million for Fravel in murder case

Earlier: Police to update Maddi Kingsbury case, arrest,murder charge

Earlier: Tears mix with hope at vigil for Maddi

Earlier: Kingsbury search tally: 1,860 volunteers

Earlier: 700 volunteers trek for clues in disappearance

WHITEHALL, Wis. – Bail was set at $20,000 for a Blair man accused of causing thousands of dollars in damage in ransacking a house in Blair. Shawn Gill, 22, has been held on multiple felony charges for the New Years Day incident. Trempealeau County Judge Rian Radtke set the bail. According to police Gill  rampaged through the house, then attempted to get into a second house, then a third. At the third house the home-owner shot him. He since has been cleared medically for court proceedings.

Earlier: Home intruder shot, wounded in Blair