Deadly force in the name of self-defense?

A Sutherlin man was sentenced to 19-months in prison Friday (Aug. 7) for criminally negligent homicide. Last summer, the man shot an intoxicated intruder who appeared to have stumbled into the wrong house in the middle of the night and went to sleep on the couch.

The man pleaded no contest to the charge in June but said early on that he was acting in self-defense the night he shot the intruder.

The sentencing has generated some interesting comments from people in Douglas County. At the heart of comments is one question: “Can a homeowner use deadly force to protect their home?”

The man was originally facing a second-degree manslaughter charge as well, but the charge was dropped as part of the plea agreement. Members of the district attorney’s office reportedly worried that a many people — i.e. jury members — would think the Sutherlin man had the right to shoot the intruder and, therefore, decided that the plea agreement was the best route.

Here’s the link to the story where you can read more about the case and see what News-Review readers have to say about the 19-month sentencing.

Williams Creek Fire

Photo taken by News-Review photographer Robin Loznak

Since July 28, I’ve been covering the Williams Creek Fire, located about 35 miles east of Roseburg.

I went out to the fire line Tuesday to get a closer look at the burnout and mop-up efforts. My Nomex gear is a bit big so our photographer had me stop for a sad firefighter shot, which ended up making me look similar to Dopey (you know, like Snow White’s seven dwarfs).

As of this morning (Aug. 6), the fire was up to 6,577 acres and was 50 percent contained.

Now covering public safety and courts!

As of mid-July, I am now the public safety and courts reporter! I will also continue to cover health and fitness and the soldiers from the local Oregon National Guard company.

I managed to get a taste of all aspects of my new beat my first full week in the position (July 20-24).

During that first week, I covered a case where a man was defending himself and had racked up about a dozen charges while in jail. During the second day of his trial, he pled guilty to the charges. The following week he pled guilty to most of the remaining charges. In all, he will serve 140 months in prison.

During that first week I also covered a fatal logging accident, a fatal car crash and a fatal motorcycle crash. For each of those stories, I had the tough task of calling the victims’ families to ask about their lost loved ones. All of the families were willing to talk to me, and I had the opportunity to tell readers about the victims in each of these tragedies.

The week ended with a house fire that destroyed a motor home a couple had been living in and a farmhouse that had been in the family for decades.

It was an exhausting week, but I loved every minute of it. I had been hoping to get on the public safety and courts beat for some time and was thrilled when the opportunity arose. I studied political science in college and focused on courts and law. The political system has always intrigued me.

I look forward to what each day brings on this fast-paced beat. (This week it’s several-thousand acre wildfire burning abut 35 miles from Roseburg.)

Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association awards

The News-Review was named the best newspaper of its size in the state during the annual Summer Publishers Convention of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association in mid-July.

In addition to winning the General Excellence award, the newsroom staff took home 25 awards in the ONPA’s Better Newspaper Contest.

I won three awards in the contest, which judged work printed in 2008.

I was given the second-place award in the “Best Feature Story: General” category for a story I wrote about Roseburg’s Charlie Company of the Oregon National Guard. I spent the weekend with the soldiers in Redmond, Ore., and wrote a story about their one-weekend-a-month training. The soldiers have since deployed to Iraq. Here is the link to the story.

I won third place in the “Best Feature Story: Personality” category for the story I wrote about Frank Lane, a local man who grew up on a California homestead. Here’s his story.

I also won third place in the “Best Writing” category. This category required me to submit three pieces of writing to be judged. I submitted the story about Frank Lane (see above), an enterprise story about women smoking during pregnancy and a health feature about a young man who was battling cancer. Blake Krieg died from cancer in December 2008.

It’s been humbling to have my work recognized by my peers during my first full year as a reporter.

Melrose Marble Madness captures world record

More than 730 Douglas County residents came together one sweltering Saturday afternoon to break the world record for the largest marble tournament.

“I think it’s really cool because Roseburg is a little city in Oregon and not many people know about it,” 13-year-old Raluca Gosman said of the new title. “Maybe now they’ll start to find out about it.”

I covered the record-breaking event and captured a slice of the action on video. Here’s the link.

Haunted barn story & video

In honor of Halloween, a fellow reporter and I visited a couple of Douglas County haunted houses and wrote a story about them.

We visited the Metz Hill Haunted Barn, which is about 20 miles north of Roseburg. This was easily the scariest haunted house I’ve ever visited. So many creepy little things waiting in every direction you turn. I wrote the portion of the story about Metz Hill.

I also filmed and edited a video about Metz Hill, so you can see for yourself how spooky it is. In retrospect, I wish I would have had an actor or the organizer talk about costumes because my transition is a little rough — just another bit of knowledge to take with me next time I do a video.

We also visited a smaller haunted house put on by the Roseburg Elks Lodge. It was more of a family-friendly event than the Metz Hill barn, but was still fun. Cara Pallone, my co-worker, wrote this portion of the story.

Here’s the link to the story and my video.

Our photographer, Jon Austria, also had some great photos from both the house and the barn. Here’s the link to the photo gallery, if you’re interested.

Enjoy!

Wiener dog races

I covered the annual Roseburg Family Harvest Festival last weekend. I wrote a sights-and-sounds story about the festival and put together a video about the Wiener Dog Nationals. 

 

Here’s the link to the video.

Inaugural video project

This week is fair week in Douglas County.

It’s easily the biggest thing to hit Roseburg and the surrounding areas in the 10 months I’ve been working for The News-Review. Douglas County folks are serious about their fair.

I scanned the fair schedule, and one performer caught my eye instantly — Tammy Harris Barton, hypnotist.

I’ll be the first to admit, though, I was skeptical. I wasn’t quite sure if I believed that Mrs. Harris Barton could hypnotize people without them exaggerating their actions and playing along. I figured the show would provide an interesting sights-and-sounds story, though, so I signed up to cover it.

I also thought the show would make for an interesting video for our Web site. Now, I learned how to edit video using Final Cut Pro while at Poynter and have played with a video camera from time to time, but I had never stepped up to the plate and decided I was going to smoosh it all together for a video project — until Tuesday.

I went to the show Tuesday night, equipped with my notebook and pen and a point-and-shoot camera for video recording.

Trying to operate a camera and still write some of my own notes proved to be tricky, but I managed. I ran into another speed bump when my first memory card filled up, then my back-up card as well. Luckily for me, I asked our photographer to bring a few extra cards — just in case. I went through four memory cards and still could have used more. (Lesson learned: change the camera’s settings to extend the available time on the card).

I managed to talk to most of the hypnotized folks for my written story, and grabbed Tammy Harris Barton afterward to answer a few questions on camera. 

In the end — after several hours of writing and video editing — I came out with two pieces of work that I can be proud to show. Of course, I’m my own biggest critic and found several things I would do differently for the video given the chance (i.e. improve transitions, more B-roll sound, etc.) but still learned a ton.

I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and (finally) applied some of the video knowledge I gained at Poynter, and I plan to incorporate video into my assignments more often now that the intimidating “first time” is past.

In the meantime, if you want to check out my inaugural video project, here’s the link.