1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 02/28/2013 04:04 AM

OR–1st NewsMinute/369
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

 

PORT ORFORD, Ore. (AP) – An earthquake has hit the ocean floor far off the Southern Oregon coast, but there were no immediate reports of anyone feeling it on land. The U.S. Geological Survey reports the magnitude 5.1 quake was 114 miles west northwest of Port Orford and struck at 2:14 p.m. yesterday. The epicenter was 6 miles deep. USGS spokeswoman Leslie Gordon says there were no immediate reports to the agency’s website from people feeling the quake on shore.

ST. HELENS, Ore. (AP) – A judge has ruled that a man accused of killing the Rainier, Ore., police chief is mentally impaired and can’t assist with his defense, indefinitely delaying a trial. The Longview Daily News reports Judge Ted Grove ruled yesterday that 23-year-old Daniel Butts should be forcibly medicated. Under Oregon law, a defendant found to be mentally impaired goes to the State Hospital for treatment until declared able to assist lawyers. Butts is accused of aggravated murder in the shooting of Chief Ralph Painter in January 2011, after Painter responded to a report of a suspicious person at a car stereo shop.

SPRINGFIELD, Ore. (AP) – Jurors needed only about five minutes to convict a Eugene, Ore., man who threatened a deli clerk with a hatchet during a December robbery. A prosecutor noted that surveillance video showed 22-year-old Sidney Sean Queener pulling the hatchet from under his coat and advancing on the Ashley’s Deli clerk on Dec. 30. The Register-Guard reports that Queener elected to be sentenced right after yesterday’s verdict. He was given a 7½-year prison term for convictions on both first-degree robbery and second-degree robbery charges.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – The Jackson County sheriff’s office says three southern Oregon fishermen swam to shore after their 16-foot drift boat flipped over in the Rogue River. The sheriff’s office says the boat hit a rapid and then a tree yesterday. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Andrea Carlson says 58-year-old Mark Orsenkranz of Ashland, 63-year-old Dennis Jarvi of Talent and 62-year-old Walter Sokolowski of Medford used a sandbar to climb out and started walking back to their vehicle.

 

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.