KS - Justina Altamirano Mosso, 19, murdered, Lawrence, 7 Nov 2014 *Arrest*

LPD and members of the coroner's office identified the victim as 19-year-old Justina Altamirano Mosso... On November 9, officers responded to the apartment to check on her welfare and found her dead inside the apartment...

Officials said Mosso is from Mexico and has been living in Lawrence for less than a year.

Neighbors at Cedarwood Apartments said they have heard yelling and fighting in the apartment for a while. Police previously said the scene indicates that a violent incident occurred resulting in the death.

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“This particular investigation has been complicated by a language barrier between officers and many individuals contacted through the course of the investigation,” McKinley said. “Though some investigators speak fluent Spanish, we have very few of them.”

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The Lawrence Police Department announced that an arrest has been made in a November homicide at Cedarwood Apartments. Sgt. Trent McKinley with the Lawrence Police Department said Rontarus Washington Jr, formally of Lawrence, was arrested Thursday morning in Greenville, Mississippi.

McKinley said Washington was taken into custody for first-degree murder and aggravated burglary...

McKinley said detectives from the Lawrence Police Department traveled to Greenville, Mississippi on Monday after developing leads indicating the suspect was possibly in that area.

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Friday was the second of a two-day preliminary hearing for Washington, and afterward Chief Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild bound Washington over on the murder charge...

On Thursday, prosecutors presented evidence that Washington told investigators that he went to Ruiz’s apartment Nov. 7 sometime after watching Ruiz and Mosso fight in the parking lot. He said that he had seen that the door to the apartment was open, so he went inside to look for some “change” to take...

However, when detectives processed the crime scene, they found a fingerprint matching that of Washington’s underneath a toilet tank lid believed to have been used to beat Mosso over the head, they said. They also found Mosso’s blood on the soles of Washington’s sandals and some DNA evidence underneath Mosso’s fingernails...

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The criminal trial for a man accused of murder has been rescheduled for early 2017.

Rontarus Washington Jr., 20, is accused of killing his neighbor at Lawrence's Cedarwood Apartments in November 2014. He was arrested in Mississippi in January 2015 and faces felony charges of first-degree murder and aggravated burglary.

A trial for Washington was scheduled to begin Monday. In August, however, he made a motion to reschedule. His criminal trial is now scheduled to begin Jan. 17, 2017.

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A doctor will determine if a man accused of violently killing his 19-year-old neighbor in 2014 in Lawrence's Cedarwood Apartments is fit to stand trial.

Rontarus Washington Jr., 20, faces one count each of first-degree murder and aggravated burglary. His trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday morning.

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At a hearing Monday, Douglas County District Court Judge James McCabria referenced a report from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services and the hospital “indicating their opinion that Mr. Washington is competent to stand trial.”

But Washington’s appointed attorneys disputed that finding.

A Lawrence psychologist from whom they previously requested a competency examination had “the exact opposite finding, that he was incompetent to stand trial,” said Adam Hall, who is representing Washington with Angela Keck.

The judge set a hearing to further discuss the matter Thursday afternoon.

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Rontarus Washington had disturbing behavioral problems that began during his childhood in Greenville, Miss.

Washington acknowledged that those problems included fire-setting, cruelty to animals, fighting with weapons, truancy and drug use, according to two psychologists who evaluated him this year. They said Washington also struggled and was bullied in school and told them he acted as a class clown in an attempt to deflect attention from his learning disabilities.

The psychologists’ testimony was part of a deep dive into Washington’s personal history and mental state that began playing out in a court hearing earlier this month.

At issue: Is Washington mentally competent to stand trial for a violent murder three years ago this month at Lawrence’s Cedarwood Apartments?

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Douglas County District Court Judge James McCabria on Tuesday found Washington, 21, competent to proceed to a jury trial in the case, Cheryl Wright Kunard, assistant to the DA, said in an email. She said Washington’s next hearing in the case, a status conference, is scheduled for Dec. 11.

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A jury trial for the man accused of murdering a 19-year-old Lawrence woman at Lawrence’s Cedarwood Apartments in 2014 is now set for April 30.

That trial date falls more than three years after Rontarus Washington, 21, was arrested and jailed in connection with the killing.

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Rontarus Washington Jr. has now been in custody of the Douglas County jail more than three years, the longest of any inmate there.

Meanwhile, the pending murder case against him continues to balloon in complexity.

Washington’s jury trial was just pushed back again and is now set to begin Sept. 24, nearly four years after the homicide at Lawrence’s Cedarwood Apartments.

Much of the delay is due to extensive motions filed by Washington’s co-defense attorneys, who remind that their client — now 21 — is a young father who faces the possibility of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years.

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The Douglas County Jail’s longest-serving inmate has requested — and has been granted — another delay before he faces a jury that will decide whether he’s guilty of murder.

Washington was arraigned on Nov. 13, 2015, and pleaded not guilty to his charges. At that time, his jury trial was set for May 2016.

Since then, Washington’s trial has been pushed back six times, primarily at Washington’s request. The trial is now set to take place Oct. 22 through Nov. 2 of this year.

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