Police

A 20- year- old Middlebury, Ind., woman received a prison sentence of 51 months to 20 years for her part in a Jan. 3 armed robbery at Sturgis Petroleum Marathon at the corner of Fawn River and South Centerville roads. St. Joseph County 45th Circuit Court Judge Paul Stutesman handed down the sentence to Kayla Sue Cockburn earlier this month. …

Thanks to the alertness of a Three Rivers police officer, the suspect in a Kalamazoo bank robbery has been arrested. Sgt. Andrew Howes was on patrol Monday when he spotted a vehicle matching the description of one used in a July 10 robbery at Consumers Credit Union. Howes stopped the vehicle on Millard Street. The suspect, later identified as Simon …

Authorities have released the name of a worker who died in a fall at a grain elevator company in Kalamazoo County. The sheriff’s department says 31-year-old Marcos Fonseca of Marcellus died after the fall Tuesday morning at H&H Feed & Grain Inc. in Schoolcraft Township, just west of Vicksburg. The department says he fell about 15 feet when he left …

Authorities are looking for a man who robbed a Sturgis convenience store while wearing trash bags to disguise his identity. Police say the man walked into Sturgis Party Store around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, showed a handgun and demanded money. The man took cash and police say he was last seen running away from the store. Anyone with information about the robbery is …

Police in the Kalamazoo area say the death of a 19-month-old boy is being investigated as a homicide. Police say Nyshuin Lewis was pronounced dead Tuesday after officers with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety responded to a report of an unresponsive child at a Kalamazoo Township home near the community’s border with the city of Kalamazoo. Officers and medical …

Authorities say a 4-year-old girl has died after she became entangled in clothing at her western Michigan home and was accidentally strangled. The Ottawa County sheriff’s department says Makayla VanderLaan died Tuesday after being found unresponsive Sunday at her Grand Haven Township home at River Haven Village mobile home park. The department says the girl was playing alone in her …

The state appeals court says Calhoun County can keep $11,400, a gun and a camera seized from a car, although the owner wasn’t charged with a drug crime. The court says there’s a preponderance of evidence that the cash was tied to illegal activity. In a seizure case, that’s a lower standard than beyond a reasonable doubt. Brye Rounds was …

A former employee of Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine has been sentenced to five years of probation for embezzling more than $100,000 from the university. The Lansing State Journal reports 39-year-old Brandi Moody of DeWitt Township also was ordered Wednesday to pay restitution. She’ll have a six-month jail sentence suspended if she repays $43,000. She paid $100,000 in …

Officials say Michigan’s seat belt use rate is remaining steady from a year ago. The Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning says Wednesday that a direct observation survey conducted statewide by the Wayne State University Transportation Research Group found the rate was 93 percent. The state’s record was 98 percent in 2009. Law enforcement officers from police departments, sheriff’s offices …

Authorities say they plan to request a charge against an SUV driver after a motorcyclist was killed in a hit-and-run crash in western Michigan. Police say the motorcycle and a SUV collided at an intersection about 1:20 a.m. Sunday in Kalamazoo. The SUV’s driver fled, leaving the SUV at the intersection. Police say 34-year-old motorcyclist Robert Vern Pueblo of Plainwell …