One of two people charged in a South Whidbey murder case that’s received national attention will go on trial next week.
James Huden, 55, is accused of first-degree murder in the 2003 Christmastime shooting death of Russel Douglas, a 31-year-old father of two. The trial is set to start with jury selection on Tuesday, July 10.
The Island County Prosecutor’s Office charged 61-year-old Greenbank resident Robert “Al” Baker Wednesday with first-degree murder, a domestic-violence crime with a deadly weapon enhancement and an aggravating factor.
Greenbank resident Kathie Baker was hit in the head, possibly with a ball-peen hammer, and strangled with a ligature before her body was wrapped in a tarp and dumped in a ravine, according to court records.
A group of citizens, government officials and cops is recommending that Island County commissioners ask voters to increase the sales tax to fund extra deputies, extra police cars and other needs within the law and justice community.
A gaggle of geese marked for death was goose-napped in a clandestine operation on Honeymoon Lake on Wednesday night.
A 27-year-old Freeland man will go to prison after his seventh conviction for violating a court order that bars him from contacting a teenage girl.
Joshua Kolbet pleaded guilty in Island County Superior Court May 21 to a felony violation of a no-contact order, a domestic violence crime.
The proximity of rare plants and an international communications cable may present obstacles for a plan to locate tidal turbines in Admiralty Inlet.
The Snohomish County Public Utility District submitted a final license application in March to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a permit to install two energy-producing turbines in Admiralty Inlet. The proposed location is one kilometer west of Central Whidbey’s Keystone Harbor.
Plans to kill a few geese and goslings that annoy some residents of a Greenbank lake community have upset fans of the waterfowl and spawned an online petition drive to save them.
Board members of the Honeymoon Lake Community recently signed a contract with a federal agency to euthanize the four adult geese and three goslings that took up residence on the lake this spring. The board caused a stir last summer by bringing in federal agents to kill 19 honkers that lived there at that time and upset some residents by pooping on lawns.
A 41-year-old Clinton woman accused of being an accomplice in the shotgun murder of her boyfriend’s wife pleaded guilty to a lesser charge today in Whatcom County Superior Court.
Kara Jo Buchanan confessed in a phone message to shooting the Bellingham resident last July. She attempted to kill herself by slitting her wrists, but deputies found her wandering the beach at Double Bluff on Whidbey. She was transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment.
Documents from a protection order hearing allege that 22-year-old Greenbank resident George Downey perpetrated a pattern of domestic and sexual violence long before he kidnapped and threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and their 4-year-old son on March 16.
Island County Commissioner Kelly Emerson nearly forfeited her office by accident last week, but was saved by the county’s auditor.
Law enforcement officials on Whidbey Island are once again working together to take drugs.
In one week in March, deputies with the Island County Sheriff’s Office responded to 411 calls for service. Among the long list of incidents they had to deal with were 19 car accidents, 12 burglaries, 11 thefts, nine assaults and three sex offenses.
