Speaker 1: Good morning, Kentucky, Anda, Welcome into the seven o'clock hour,
Speaker 1: and welcome to July. It is July first, and it's
Speaker 1: a wet start, so be safe out there. Many accidents
Speaker 1: throughout the morning. We'll give you the latest. In fact,
Speaker 1: I lied, we.
Speaker 2: Won't one person.
Speaker 1: Well, Bobby Ellis will have your update on traffic, and
Speaker 1: again you're going to need that update if you're commuting
Speaker 1: throughout the Louisville area because again many accidents that have
Speaker 1: led to lanes being blocked and some real delays.
Speaker 2: So just be prepared, all right.
Speaker 1: So obviously the Crystal Rogers murder case, the trial in
Speaker 1: its second week. Yesterday another day where I think, if
Speaker 1: you are the defense, not a good day for you,
Speaker 1: but maybe they disagree. So the latest here is that
Speaker 1: we I think have what is believed to be the
Speaker 1: first I mean, I feel like I've kept up with
Speaker 1: this as best I can, but I also don't want
Speaker 1: to talk out of turn, because you know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: there's plenty that I that I'm not up the date
Speaker 1: on as.
Speaker 2: Far as just specific d details, but.
Speaker 1: With this being a no body homicide, of there being
Speaker 1: no crime scene, and it's just all circumstantial evidence, that,
Speaker 1: of course, is something that the defense should never stop
Speaker 1: mentioning and emphasizing to the jury. But the hair that
Speaker 1: was found in a trunk of a vehicle that is
Speaker 1: similar in color and characteristics to christ Roger's hair through DNA,
Speaker 1: but the testing was not confirmed. So let me back up.
Speaker 1: It was similar in color and characteristics, but through DNA
Speaker 1: they could not confirm it. So it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where I'd love to have a lawyer here to
Speaker 1: tell me if you can't. I mean, I guess you're
Speaker 1: allowed to bring up the fact that it was it
Speaker 1: was similar in color and characteristics, but you also then
Speaker 1: have to make sure that it's known that DNA could
Speaker 1: not confirm that it was her hair. So to me,
Speaker 1: that says that it's inconclusive as far as whose hair
Speaker 1: it is. But that of all the all the information
Speaker 1: that that that it's been out there in the last
Speaker 1: six days, because yesterday was day six of the trial,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the first thing we for the
Speaker 1: first piece of evidence that has been mentioned as far
Speaker 1: as actual physical evidence, and even that is pretty pretty
Speaker 1: pretty weak, right, I mean, it's not I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's not her hair. It's just hair that is
Speaker 1: similar in color and characteristics. So trust me, in no
Speaker 1: way am i trying to make it seem as if
Speaker 1: I'm defending those that are that are on trial here,
Speaker 1: because I am someone that just judging what we have
Speaker 1: learned from those that are in the courtroom covering this
Speaker 1: trial and sharing what is going on. If I was
Speaker 1: on the jury, I think I know what I would
Speaker 1: do as far as my decision, but I guess you
Speaker 1: never really know until you're there. So more testimony from
Speaker 1: witnesses that again I think, put the defense here in
Speaker 1: an even worse spot. You've got another witness who testified.
Speaker 1: This is the former girlfriend of Nick how Brooks, Hawk's brother,
Speaker 1: who did claim that his absence was very unusual on
Speaker 1: July third, which of course is right around the time
Speaker 1: that she disappeared. But the former girlfriend, Amber Bowman, testified
Speaker 1: that she couldn't reach Nick Hawk despite multiple phone calls,
Speaker 1: and he reappeared the next day with no explanation, and
Speaker 1: this aligne with the digital forensics evidence showing Nick's phone
Speaker 1: was off for nearly twenty four hours during the critical
Speaker 1: period of Rogers's disappearance, which of course has just been.
Speaker 2: Very suspicious to say the least.
Speaker 1: Also, a former employee of the Hawk family, Charlie Gerdley,
Speaker 1: who also had testified in Steve Lawson's trial, he provided
Speaker 1: some claims. He alleges that Hawk's mother, Rosemary, said that quote,
Speaker 1: it would be better off if Crystal were gone, suggesting
Speaker 1: a motive within the Hawk family that of course has been.
Speaker 1: That was last week where that became a real point
Speaker 1: of emphasis early on in the trial that the mother
Speaker 1: was of the belief again according to the prosecution, that
Speaker 1: Krystal Rogers was beneath the Hawk family. So Curtly also
Speaker 1: further testified that Joseph Lawson claimed that he would bury
Speaker 1: Rogers car with a skid steer and nobody would ever
Speaker 1: find it. And then another witness, somebody who was raccoon
Speaker 1: hunting on the Hawk family property on July third, testified
Speaker 1: seeing a white car later identified as belonging to Anna Whiteside,
Speaker 1: who was Hawk's grandmother. Investigators found a hair in the
Speaker 1: car in the trunk that again was similar in color
Speaker 1: and characteristics to Rogers hair, but DNA testing was not
Speaker 1: confirmed in court. Also, surveillance footage showed Nick Hawk and
Speaker 1: his grandmother and a white side selling the car in
Speaker 1: May of twenty sixteen, so this isn't a smoking gun.
Speaker 1: But again I think as this moves along, I would
Speaker 1: assume that the prosecution's feeling pretty good about their case.
Speaker 1: But you really never know. But we'll have the latest
Speaker 1: because again it rolls along today and we'll see where
Speaker 1: it goes. All right, we've got trafficking weather coming your way. Also,
Speaker 1: there's another survey out that I want to take a
Speaker 1: look at because those of you that are in the
Speaker 1: position to purchase brand new vehicles, congratulations, you've probably got
Speaker 1: the means to do so, and again, good for you.
Speaker 1: But we now have an update on what those who
Speaker 1: are purchasing new vehicles are complaining about the most. Some
Speaker 1: of it won't surprise you, but there's one specific complaint
Speaker 1: that did surprise me. We'll talk about that next right
Speaker 1: here our news radiway forty WHS. So we now know
Speaker 1: that the suspect Wes Rowley, that is the young man's name.
Speaker 1: He was a twenty year old. He has been identified
Speaker 1: as the individual who started the fire and then waited
Speaker 1: for firefighters to arrive in Idaho and ambush them. He's
Speaker 1: twenty years old, as mentioned and he's seemingly transient. It
Speaker 1: sounds as if he's spent time living in California, Arizona,
Speaker 1: and Idaho, and he aspired to be a forest firefighter.
Speaker 1: And we don't know and probably will never know for
Speaker 1: sure a motive. But I wouldn't be shocked if him
Speaker 1: attempting to get into that business and not being hired
Speaker 1: for a job he applied for wouldn't be a shocker
Speaker 1: if that was a factor here. Yeah, he applied for
Speaker 1: a forestry service job but was not hired by the
Speaker 1: local fire department. There, So just a tragic situation to
Speaker 1: get in. Two firefighters dead and one still fighting for
Speaker 1: his life.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: So we've got another survey here that tells us those
Speaker 1: that are purchasing the newer vehicles what their biggest complaints
Speaker 1: are about these vehicles.
Speaker 2: So this is JD.
Speaker 1: Powers twenty twenty five initial quality survey from new car buyers.
Speaker 1: And one of the one of the big complaints is
Speaker 1: one that I did not I did not see as
Speaker 1: as I mean, it makes sense, but I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: thought of it. But touchscreen frustration took the top spot,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure what the second one was, but
Speaker 1: the third biggest complaint from those that buy new vehicles is.
Speaker 2: About cup holders.
Speaker 1: So cup holder complaints have surged, and it is believed
Speaker 1: to be a surprising thing for industry executives in the
Speaker 1: automotive industry because that's not something they typically see people
Speaker 1: being dissatisfied. But it's now the third most reported problem
Speaker 1: industry wide, up from it wasn't even in the top
Speaker 1: ten last year. But buyers re frustrated the cup holders
Speaker 1: failed to accommodate the diverse shapes and sizes of modern
Speaker 1: reusable containers such as Yetti and Stanley mugs. And of
Speaker 1: course these are larger than just cups, and some of
Speaker 1: them are. I mean, my wife, she's real big on
Speaker 1: getting a new, humongous cup every week and she'll tell
Speaker 1: me how you won't believe how cold the drink stays.
Speaker 1: And I mean the latest one she has not only
Speaker 1: does it not fit in the cup holder very well,
Speaker 1: it might need to be buckled up in a seatbelt.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's clearly a big thing, meaning a
Speaker 1: booming industry where I'm sure a lot of money has
Speaker 1: been made because Yetti, I feel like was maybe that's
Speaker 1: just the bigger brand, but I remember when like Yetti.
Speaker 2: What do you call them?
Speaker 3: I feel like there's Ozark trail I remember was, yeah, brand,
Speaker 3: But what do you.
Speaker 2: Mean are they called?
Speaker 1: Like these are brands we're discussing, but like these are
Speaker 1: just really they're not glasses, but I mean they're high
Speaker 1: level cups that have I mean, they're bulky, like you
Speaker 1: drop one on your foot, you might break your toe.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, I'm blanking on just what these are
Speaker 1: referred to, because when I think of a Yetti or
Speaker 1: a Stanley or like you with a tumbler, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it, thank you, thank you brain fart there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so those types of cups, I don't remember those existing
Speaker 1: like they did like they do now even five six
Speaker 1: years ago. But you know, it's it's like become an
Speaker 1: accessory with a lot of people. And look, they're popular.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you you know you can. You can put
Speaker 1: a lot of whatever you're drinking in there and it
Speaker 1: keeps it cold. So I'm not being a hater, but
Speaker 1: like to me, it's just bold key and in the way.
Speaker 1: Like again, I'm not surprised these things aren't fitting in
Speaker 1: cup holders. But maybe now the automotive industry will try
Speaker 1: to accommodate, but like they're all different. Not only are
Speaker 1: they big, but they're all different sizes too. So yeah,
Speaker 1: will they make adjustments here when they make vehicles moving forward?
Speaker 2: I doubt it. But what do I know.
Speaker 3: The bigger the cup holder, the worser fuel economy is
Speaker 3: what it's going to be.
Speaker 1: I mean, because it hers doesn't fit well in her vehicle.
Speaker 1: If she hits a left turn with some speed, it's
Speaker 1: falling onto the into the in the passengers seat and
Speaker 1: it lands on the floorboard, and I mean sounds like
Speaker 1: she ran over a pothole or something. I mean, these
Speaker 1: things are bulky and in the way, but clearly they
Speaker 1: get the job done as far as keeping your drink cold. Anyways,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're listening this morning, honey, just just
Speaker 1: know it's not you that that that can't find a
Speaker 1: cup that'll fit in your cup holder. Everybody else complaining
Speaker 1: about it too. All right, we've got trappick in weather
Speaker 1: coming your way. Also another update on sports right here
Speaker 1: on news radio eight forty WHS. Thank you very much,
Speaker 1: John Shannon at seven thirty six here at Kentucky, and
Speaker 1: it's morning news on news radio eight forty whas so
Speaker 1: the the last meal that death row inmates receive has
Speaker 1: always been been been Well, I'm trying to think of
Speaker 1: the right way to word this because I don't want
Speaker 1: to get into, you know, people sharing their thoughts on
Speaker 1: the death penalty. I certainly have mine, but if you were,
Speaker 1: Let's let's let's put it this way. Let's not act
Speaker 1: like we're about to be sentenced to death. John, Let's
Speaker 1: let's look at it this way. Let's just say, for
Speaker 1: the rest of your life, you know, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: eating some kind of like I guess, just prison food.
Speaker 1: Let's put it that way. Let's not think about death.
Speaker 1: Let's just think we only have prison food the rest
Speaker 1: of our lives because that was all that was available.
Speaker 1: But you get one meal to have before that just
Speaker 1: be comes the new norm, nothing but prison food. Do
Speaker 1: you have to give it any thought or do you
Speaker 1: know right away?
Speaker 2: Right away?
Speaker 3: And this may be controversial for some people, at least
Speaker 3: it is amongst some of my friends. But I really
Speaker 3: love a good pizza, King Pizza from across the.
Speaker 2: River, and the hell's controversial about that. Some people don't
Speaker 2: like it.
Speaker 3: I don't know what I mean it is, but people
Speaker 3: say it's a nostalgic thing. That's why I like it.
Speaker 2: But I love it. This is super popular, right, like
Speaker 2: thin crust, square pieces. It's very good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So look, you can't go wrong with pizza. You
Speaker 1: can't go I mean, I think, I mean, this is
Speaker 1: probably probably an overused saying, and I'm not going to
Speaker 1: challenge anybody to find me pizza that I wouldn't like.
Speaker 1: But it's hard to mess up pizza. It is, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's very difficult to mess up pezza.
Speaker 3: But it's also hard to dethrone what everyone thinks is
Speaker 3: their favorite.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, everybody's got their own preference, their own
Speaker 1: I mean, if somebody's ordering pizza and it happens to
Speaker 1: not be the one that I would choose, or even
Speaker 1: in the top five of what I would choose as
Speaker 1: is what pizza I would go with, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to complain because I know I'm gonna still be satisfied
Speaker 1: because again, I love pizza and I haven't had many
Speaker 1: bad pieces of pizza in my life. But there is
Speaker 1: a list here from Delish.
Speaker 2: They they have put.
Speaker 1: Together a recent study that reveals what people would want
Speaker 1: as their last meal that they got to choose, and
Speaker 1: number one is steak. Number two is potatoes. We talk
Speaker 1: in baked potato, we talk in mashed potatoes.
Speaker 2: Will find two steak and potatoes, meal.
Speaker 1: Pasta and noodles, some type of pasta dishes number three,
Speaker 1: and then pizza is number four, and then vegetables come
Speaker 1: in at number five.
Speaker 2: Vegeta mean vegetables.
Speaker 1: I'm not the most healthy eater to where I'm eating
Speaker 1: all the different vegetables, but even as like a.
Speaker 2: Kid, I was.
Speaker 1: Rare as far as like I really enjoyed broccoli, cauliflower,
Speaker 1: green beans, corn, carrots. I mean, there's certain vegetables that
Speaker 1: I that I don't touch, but I like vegetables. But like,
Speaker 1: if I'm thinking, okay, one meal, I'm not thinking vegetable.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, honestly, for me, it would be it would
Speaker 1: be some kind of pizza. And I got a few
Speaker 1: that really are up there as far as just my favorites.
Speaker 1: But if on the spot, I really don't know.
Speaker 2: What I would choose.
Speaker 3: You got to have a favorite.
Speaker 1: Eh, Well, I'll tell y'all air my favorite. Okay, there's
Speaker 1: a reason why I'll tell y'allf air. But anyhow, this
Speaker 1: is a breakdown of those that were in fact facing
Speaker 1: the death penalty, and they got to they got to
Speaker 1: choose their their last meal, and frequent requests were fried chicken, steak, Hamburger's, cheeseburgers,
Speaker 1: and of course pizza. And there's there's certain states that
Speaker 1: have sea In Florida, meals must cost hundred forty dollars
Speaker 1: or less and be purchased locally. In Oklahoma it's limited
Speaker 1: to twenty five dollars and it's often from local restaurants.
Speaker 1: But Texas they abolished custom last meals in twenty eleven
Speaker 1: after one of their inmates I guess.
Speaker 2: Got of me and didn't eat it.
Speaker 1: So now inmates there received the same meal as others
Speaker 1: in the prison unit as their last meal. And then
Speaker 1: in Louisiana, the warden traditionally joins the inmate, which I
Speaker 1: kind of remember hearing that as a thing. But isn't
Speaker 1: that wild?
Speaker 2: It's very weird. I mean, is that still a thing?
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe I'm reading research from long ago, but
Speaker 1: I feel like there's something kind of sick about that.
Speaker 1: I Mean, maybe I'm wrong, but you're a warden and
Speaker 1: you are in charge of a prison, and there are
Speaker 1: people that are there on death row. I'm sure you
Speaker 1: have some level of rapport with them for one reason
Speaker 1: or another, maybe because you are compassionate and you are human,
Speaker 1: or maybe because they give you problems and you have
Speaker 1: to deal with that as the warden.
Speaker 2: But I it's.
Speaker 1: Chilling to think about having a final meal with somebody
Speaker 1: before they they're dead because of the death penalty. But yeah,
Speaker 1: hopefully I never have to worry about.
Speaker 2: A last meal.
Speaker 1: And in fact, I don't think I could enjoy a
Speaker 1: last meal like it would be good, but like I would,
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 3: You're just thinking about what's coming afterwards.
Speaker 1: I mean this is not a shock at all, but
Speaker 1: a lot of these inmates that have their last request.
Speaker 1: I don't have a breakdown as far as the percentage,
Speaker 1: but they end up not even having the appetite one
Speaker 1: because they probably haven't eaten like that in a long
Speaker 1: time because they've been in prison, or they can't eat
Speaker 1: because they know they're about to die. I didn't plan
Speaker 1: on it's the waste of a good meal. I didn't
Speaker 1: plan on getting sick and twisted this morning. But I
Speaker 1: don't know, just the whole warden having a meal with
Speaker 1: the inmate before he's about to be sentenced to death
Speaker 1: or not sentence, but actually die is just a wild
Speaker 1: thing to think about. All right, we've got sports coming
Speaker 1: up here in about fifteen minutes, but first let's get
Speaker 1: to traffic and weather right here on news radio waight
Speaker 1: forty WHS seven forty seven here at Kentuckiana's Morning News
Speaker 1: with Nick Coffee on news Radio eight forty whas.
Speaker 2: Take us with you wherever you go.
Speaker 1: Listen live at WHS dot com or listen live on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app. And remember we've got the talkback feature there.
Speaker 1: Just click that microphone button and you'll be prompted to
Speaker 1: share whatever it is you want with us. So we
Speaker 1: have had a real surge so far in the last
Speaker 1: couple of months. In fact, it's probably been something going
Speaker 1: on longer than just a couple of months, but the
Speaker 1: rise in recent weeks has been very noticeable. And that
Speaker 1: is violent crime that is involving children, juveniles, rather it
Speaker 1: be those as victims or the perpetrator or both. And
Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of people who get
Speaker 1: up every day, go to work, try to make a living,
Speaker 1: take care of their family. They maybe have some effort
Speaker 1: into keeping up with what's going on in the community.
Speaker 1: But they're in their own world, just living their life.
Speaker 1: And I get it. A lot of people are like that.
Speaker 1: But if news is just a background noise for you, understandably,
Speaker 1: So when you hear that a twelve year old girl
Speaker 1: turned herself in for being involved in one of the
Speaker 1: recent shootings that took place in Louisville, that is something
Speaker 1: that will get your attention, because again we're talking about
Speaker 1: a twelve year old. So you have a twelve year
Speaker 1: old and a thirteen year old that have been charged
Speaker 1: in one of the recent shootings here in Louisville that
Speaker 1: left two teenage girls injured. And that's one of many
Speaker 1: situations like that, maybe not to the level of being
Speaker 1: that young, but the burglaries that took place that there
Speaker 1: were a string of them, and the suspects that were
Speaker 1: arrested were all teenagers fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen year olds.
Speaker 1: You also have a drive by shooting that took place
Speaker 1: just a little under two weeks ago in the Beutual
Speaker 1: neighborhood where a fifteen year old girl and a seventeen
Speaker 1: year old boy were injured, and the person arrested for
Speaker 1: that was a seventeen year old male. So I mean,
Speaker 1: this is scary and one of the LMPD sergeants Joe Keeling,
Speaker 1: when talking about this recently, he mentioned of course the
Speaker 1: rise in juvenile crime and did mention that during summer,
Speaker 1: when school is out, it can climb, and also emphasizing
Speaker 1: that parents parenting is of course a big firector here,
Speaker 1: but not only that, even if you have even if
Speaker 1: you are doing the best you can as a parent,
Speaker 1: and it's hard sometimes, trust me, especially if you don't
Speaker 1: have a good support system yourself, maybe you're doing it
Speaker 1: on your own. But supervision, I mean that is that
Speaker 1: is I mean, just assuming your kids are going to
Speaker 1: be on their best behavior when they're when they're out
Speaker 1: of school and to themselves. I mean one, maybe you're wrong.
Speaker 1: Maybe your kids aren't in a position to where they
Speaker 1: can they can fin for themselves, and they need somebody
Speaker 1: to supervise them because if not, they're going to get
Speaker 1: themselves in trouble. So I don't I don't have the
Speaker 1: perfect answer as to how you how you fix this,
Speaker 1: and clearly if anybody did, we wouldn't be in this position.
Speaker 2: But it is very.
Speaker 1: Noticeable when you when you see any real violent crime
Speaker 1: that that becomes a common thing, and certainly here in
Speaker 1: Louisville we've had our share of it. But when it
Speaker 1: involves children as much as it has recently, I mean,
Speaker 1: I just think that's something that stands out. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't wish that we would ever see
Speaker 1: violent crime being part of our daily news cycle here
Speaker 1: in Kentuckyana, And and I mean I wish we weren't
Speaker 1: numb to it, but we are. It's not a surprise
Speaker 1: when you when you in ingand we're not unique. If
Speaker 1: there's other cities I'm sure that are that it's similar.
Speaker 1: So I'm not trying to act as if this is
Speaker 1: the worst place ever and it only happens here.
Speaker 2: It happens everywhere.
Speaker 1: But I don't know, I'd like to believe that it's
Speaker 1: rare to see children be in being involved in it
Speaker 1: as much as we've seen around here lately. But again,
Speaker 1: the parents, that's what everybody asks, who's raising these kids,
Speaker 1: Who's responsible for them? And uh, clearly they don't have
Speaker 1: good role models in their life, some of them, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: And they don't have a good home to to to
Speaker 1: to go home to and to be taught right from wrong.
Speaker 1: But I feel like that's been a thing unfortunately for generations.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's not new that you have parents, you
Speaker 1: have you have children who don't have good parents in
Speaker 1: their home and good role models. But what is different
Speaker 1: now compared to previous generations when you didn't have it
Speaker 1: at this level? Because again, the data will tell you
Speaker 1: that we have a we've we've seen a real spike
Speaker 1: in in violent crime involving children. All Right, we got
Speaker 1: an update of travel and weather coming your way. Also
Speaker 1: another update on sports right here on news Radiate forty
Speaker 1: WHS