Osage County District Judge Phillip Fromme entered a not-guilty plea Tuesday on behalf of Ramona Morgan, who is accused of felony charges of fleeing, attempting to elude officers, and other traffic charges that resulted from a chase from south of Lawrence to Scranton in Osage County.
The 48-year-old woman from Chewelah, Wash., is a suspect in the death of a former Emporian Tyrone “Ty” Thomas Korte.
A contractor’s employee, Roland Griffith, 24, of El Dorado, also was killed in the accident. Amanda Hopper, who also was at the site of the accident, was injured.
Korte had graduated from Emporia State University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He had worked at the former Food-4-Less grocery store.
He began work with Kansas Department of Transportation in 2002 and was an engineering technician.
The two men died when a passing pickup truck struck them on U.S. Highway 59 near Pleasant Grove.
About 12 minutes after the accident, a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper spotted the pickup he thought fit the description of the one involved in the accident. He chased the vehicle for about 10 minutes.
Law enforcement officers in Osage County captured Morgan and her daughter, Sabrina Morgan, after “stop spikes” they had placed in the road flattened the tires of the pickup truck in which they were riding.
The women were stopped about two miles farther down the road.
Morgan was arraigned in Osage County District Court in Lyndon on Tuesday.
“She waived reading of the complaint and stood mute,” Osage County Attorney Brandon Jones said.
After Fromme entered the plea on her behalf, he set the case for jury trial on April 21, 22, and 23.
The defense, which already had made a motion for bond reduction five times, again asked the court to reduce the $100,000 cash or surety bond, Jones said in a news release. The request was denied and she remains in the Osage County Jail.
If Morgan makes bond, she would be transferred to Douglas County, where she faces an additional $200,000 bond and two counts of reckless second-degree murder, according to a January report in the Osage County Herald-Chronicle.