WINONA, Minn. – The Winona County prosecutor, Karin Sonneman, wants the judge to throw the book at Adam Fravel for the slaying of his girlfriend — really throw the book at him. Sonneman has asked Judge Mary Leahy to go beyond sentencing guidelines for second-degree murder, which maxes out at 40 years.  With a birthday coming up, Fravel, if convicted,  could be 70 by the time he gets out. Meanwhile Fravel is in jail. He has proclaimed innocence. In a message to the judge, Sonneman says justice requires what’s called an “aggravated elevation” of the sentence for  “particular cruelty” to the family of Maddi Kingsbury, whose body lay hidden in culvert north of Mabel for 69 days. The decomposition was such, Sonneman said, that a proper farewell for the family was impossible. She noted too that the couple’s children, 5 and 2, were in prolonged confusion and uncertainty not knowing where their mother was, what happened to her, and why they couldn’t spend time with her. Also, the grandparents, who now have custody of the children, had the wrenching task of explaining the death to the children after the body was discovered, Sonneman said.

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

WINONA, Minn. – Police found two so-called “ghost guns” on the Near East Side, where juveniles had abandoned a stolen car and fled. Police Chief Tim Williams said the handguns  were the first of the non-metal firearms he was aware of in Winona. Without a serial number, the source of the guns is virtually impossible to trace. Hence the term “ghost guns.” One gun was found in a trash bin near where the  group of juveniles had scattered when officers arrived to investigate suspicious activity.  The second ghost gun was in a nearby parking lot. This was near Fifth and Center streets.

Uncommon color. Almost all ghost guns are a flat black to look like the real thing. Like the real thing, they can be lethal with real bullets.

Ghost guns profile

Ghost guns are un-serialized and untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home. They are often sold through kits that include all of the parts and often the equipment necessary to build them at home with 3D printing equipment. Generally they are 80% polymer and elude metal detectors. Most kits produce frames that are compatible with Glock mechanisms. They are widely available and can be purchased by anyone, including prohibited purchasers, domestic abusers, and gun traffickers — without a background check. These kits guns are sold at gun shows and online.

A thumbnail history

Kits to make ghost guns were introduced in the United States in the 1990s. They compounded police challenges to track the source of firearms in criminal investigations. The first major producer was Polymer80 of Dayton, Nevada, near Carson City. Just about any hobbyist with a 3D printer can produce ghost handguns and rifles, including military-style war guns like the AR15. A popular machine tool today for numerical controlled milling is a printer from the company Defense Distributed of Austin, Texas. Entry-level 3D printers are about $500. They range up to $4,000. Commercial units go as high as $100,000.

Earlier: Police theory: Stolen bikes swapped for stolen car

JOPLIN, Mo. – A male driver for a company that ferries prisoners between jails was sentenced to nine years in prison for forcing a female prisoner into a bathroom stall at a highway rest stop and raping her. Rogeric Hankins, 37, had been arrested after the woman complained. The woman was being extradited to St. Paul in Minnesota for pre-trial proceedings. She had been picked up on a Minnesota warrant in Olympia, Washington. It’s common for transport services to take round-about routes and pick up and drop off prisoners along the way. Hankins worked for Inmate Services Corporation.  The incident was in March 2020.

GOODHUE, Minn. – A Stewartville driver died when she crashed into the back of a manure spreader being towed by a farm tractor on County Raid 1 north of Goodhue. It was believed that Brenna Amos, 33, died on impact. Amos was headed toward Red Wing, seven miles away, about 10:45 a.m. This was near 210th Avenue turn-off. The tractor, Lyle Dicke, 65, of Goodhue, told police he was he was on a straight stretch of the two-lane highway when heard a loud bang and felt his equipment being pushed forward. He was unhurt.

called for Mayor Tom Kuntz to resign for gay-unfriendly sentiments against a gay pride event. The mayor had called the event a sign of “sin and brokenness.” Nathan Black, founder Rainbowatonna, said the mayor had demonstrated homophobia in numerous forums. The mayor behavior has no place in secular governance, Black said. Black sent a protest letter to all six members of the City Council. The “sin and brokenness: reference was a prayer at a meeting of clergy at a church sponsoring a pride worship service and later posted online. Black said. The mayor also had weighed in against other pride events. Vendors that were lined up for the drag show have been harassed and intimidated, Black said. Amid the mayor’s public posture about the drag show, the original venue backed out, Black said. The Associated Church, which then offered itself as a back-up venue for the show, had been subject to negative insinuations about the show. So too after-party planned at the Owatonna Arts Center.

Kuntz. Charges of homophobia leveled at mayor.

Ribbon-cutting. Restroom inauguration on opening day Wednesday at 4:15 p.m. Fewer, shorter lines this year with six stalls for ladies and four urinals fand two stalls for gents.

Winona County Fair runs through Sunday

ST. CHARLES, Minn. – Opening day events at the fairgrounds include 4-H livestock, rabbit and poultry judging, a 4-H dairy judging contest, and a swine show. The midway, operated by Gopher State Expositions, opens at 5 p.m. There are 25 rides and 30 concessions. Square dancing is at 7 with Kaleisdoscope Squares.

MORA, Minn. — State Representative Dan Wolgammot was released from custody on personal recognizance shortly after his arrest for drunken driving. Kanabec County’s attorney, Barbara McFadden, said charges could be expected soon. McFadden explained that the judicial system in the rural county, population 16,000, had limited resources and higher priorities. The booking charge at the county jail was suspicion of driving while impaired. A bodily fluid sample found almost 0.11% alcohol in Wolgamott’s blood — about 1-/2 times more than the stat-defined impairment limit.

Earlier: St. Cloud legislator charged for driving drunk

Wolgammot.  A Democrat. First elected in 2018 from House District 14-B, which comprises mostly St. Cloud.

HARPERS FERRY, Iowa – The Army Corps, which maintains navigation on the Mississippi, plans to stabilize river banks at the Effigy Mounds National Monument to reduce damage to Native American burial and ceremonial mounds. The Corps asked for public comments by August 11 to help shape the project . The s project would be at  the Sny Magill unit of the national monument. Prolonged high water has been an ongoing problem along Johnson’s Slough in the backup behind he Corps’ Lock and Dam 10 at Guttenberg. The project would improve aquatic and floodplain forest habitat, the Corps said.

Quiet period before showtime. Inside U.S. Highway 12 club.

Sheriff calls on anyone and everyone at Jimmy’s

ALMA CENTER, Wis.  – Anyone at a rural strip club the night of June 29 is wanted as a possible witness to a likely homicide. Please come forward, said Sheriff Duane Waldera. “Even if you feel that you witnessed nothing significant, you could be crucial to this investigation.” Customers at Jimmy’s In Between Gentlemen’s Club who don’t come forward will be contacted anyway because they’ve been identified on the club’s video surveillance, the sheriff said. Meanwhile, the investigation is floundering on the death of Andrew Frechette, 55, of Beaver Dam.

Earlier: Unexplained death outside Alma Center strip-club

TREMPEALEAU, Wis.  — Cracks in the Trempealeau swimming pool are taking 24,000 gallons of water a day out of the pool. In a report to residents, Village officials made these points:

> No external contaminants are entering the pool.

> The pool will remain open the rest of the season.

> Village drain systems can accommodate the leakage.

> Such leaks are common considering the design and age of the pool and don’t reflect inattentive maintenance.

Before the leaking was discovered, major repairs already been budgeted at $32,000 for fall. The budget may need adjustment to plug the new leaks, the Village said.

LEWISTON, Minn. –  The Lewiston-Altura School Board agreed unanimously to ask voters for authority to borrow $38.3 million to build a new high school gym and auditorium and to make other facility improvements. The referendum will be on the November 7 ballot. Voters will face a two-tier proposal. The first is for $26.3 million for districtwide projects. If that is approved, then a second proposal is for $12 million for the gym and auditorium. The Board tiered the proposals after a survey found that approval from only 43% of citizens who are not district staff or parents.

Earlier: Poll: Lewiston voters not keen on new school taxes

How they voted

The Board was unanimous. Members: The Board members: David Baer, Sara Daley, Jenny Koverman, Daniel Kreidermacher, Brein Maki, Dave Pringle, Sarah Sommer.

WINONA, Minn. – A man walking his dog on the levee at the East End Marina came back to his car to find it stolen. He told police that foolishly he had left his keys in the ignition. Police said a couple bikes had been tossed in the grass next to where the car had been parked. There had been bikes stolen earlier in the day in the neighborhood, leading police to surmises that juveniles had dumped the bikes and driven off in the car. “Quite an upgrade,” one officer mused grimly. This was about 4 p.m. A couple hours later 16 blocks away, near the King Koin self-laundry at Center and Howard streets, a caller reported suspicious activity with seven or eight juveniles with hoodies up, some on bikes, congregating around a black car in an alley. Yes, the car stolen at the marina was black. When police turned into the alley, the kids scattered, some on bikes, some on foot. Police caught two of the juveniles, both from Winona, and turned them over to their parents. Charges are likely, police said.

WYATVILLE, Minn. – A motorcyclist was injured while passing a farm tractor that was turning left into a corn field. Bryce Kokonos, 29, of Rushford, was taken 16 miles to the Winona hospital. His injuries appeared non-life threatening, deputies said. The tractor driver, Zachary Chick, 46, unhurt. The accident was about 12:10 p.m. at one of the Almon Drive entrances to County Road 25 between Stockton and Wyattville. Deputies said Kokinop’s bike clipped a front wheel of the tractor, which was towing heavy field equipment. He was ejected from his bike.

FOUNTAIN, Minn. – A Rochester motorist was injured when he went into a ditch on Highway 80 south of Fountain. Scott Lee Weatherly, 61, was taken 32 miles to a Rochester hospital with non-life threatening. Preston police said Weatherly was eastbound about 10:35 a.m. He was in a 2004 GMC Envoy at the junction with Highway 52.

BURNSVLLE, Minn. — A Burnsville man was charged with murdering and dismembering his elderly mother in June 2022 because she was becoming  suspicious of what he was doing  with her money. Charged was Troy Mitteness, 56. It’s a sordid tale. The criminal complaint alleges that Mittenes stabbed his 82-year-old mother in the back with a large kitchen knife while she was in her bed. He waited a couple of days, then dismembered the body, and dumped the remains — a few here, others there – as he drove west toward Willmar 100 miles away.

Mitteness. Matricide bail at $2 million.

Unraveling the case

Burnsville police were suspicious about proceeds from mail thefts being deposited into an account held by the mother, Sandra Mitteness. Investigators had questions. But they couldn’t find her. The son explained that she was in South Dakota. Then he contradicted himself and said she had died. He showed them an obituary. The  funeral home, however, denied ever providing any services. A check of the mother’s car yielded traces of blood in the trunk. A search of her home found blood on the stairs and a mattress and box spring. Confronted, Mitteness admitted that he had spent all of his mother’s money and she had become suspicious. So he killed her.

DODGE, Wis. — A fourth Bird rental e-scooter stolen from the streets of Winona was recovered from the water at the Trempealeau River hamlet of Dodge. Earlier three stolen Birds were found in a shed, also in Dodge. Even if the thief had access to codes to unlock and drive the scooters, Dodge, population 200,  doesn’t lend itself to scooters. It’s a place mostly of gravel and dirt side streets and no sidewalks. So why Dodge? Winona Police Chief Tom Williams suspects that somebody has a grudge against the Bird franchise-holder in Winona. Harassment, the chief calls it. Recovering the scooters means 12-mile trip to Dodge to fetch the scooters and then to repair them.

Earlier: City Council renews Bird e-scooter license

Vanishing scooters. First there were 100 little scooters. around town. Then 99. Then 98. Then 96. This pair is in East Third Street bar district. Image: Steve Lunde.

Jon Brunner with Miyoko Wolf (Seattle Times, December 2, 2021): “Federal Way Man Is Leading QAnon Gathering in Dallas, Waiting for the Late JFK Jr. to Show Up”

Pamela Eyden (Big River magazine, July/August 2023): “More Trains on the West Bank”

Steve Rundio (LaCrosse Tribune, June 28, 2023): “F unds Sought to Dredge Channel of Lake Onalaska”

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Despite the ongoing pilot shortage, Delta has shuffled its  rosters sufficiently to reinstate a third daily flight between Rochester and the airline’s Minneapolis hub. The additional service begins September 5 with a 5:21 p.m. arrival and 6:06 p.m. departure. The existing schedule has Rochester departures at 5:25 a.m. an 1:45 p.m.

Earlier: Delta drops its lone LSE flight