Andanh.com

The defense rested its case Friday in the trial of a Wichita man charged in the fatal shooting last year of nightclub owner Teresa Hastings.

When jurors begin deliberations Monday, they will be asked to consider the testimony of several defense witnesses who said Friday that the defendant did not fire the fatal shot.

Donavan Thompson is charged with first-degree murder in Hastings' death and aggravated battery in the wounding of a 26-year-old man. Thompson did not testify.

During the first week of the trial, witnesses for the state said a fight broke out at Half-Time Sports Bar at 3120 E. Harry after several young gang members were denied admission because they lacked identification.

One of the witnesses identified Thompson, 21, as the man who took a gun from a car and begin firing. Hastings, 42, died of a gunshot wound to the throat.

A federal judge ruled Friday that a Wichita Catholic school policy requiring students to speak only English didn't break any civil rights laws.

But U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten criticized both sides in the lawsuit for the way they handled the conflict and characterized St. Anne Catholic School's implementation of its English-only policy as "one-sided."

"It has divided a school, its church and congregation," Marten said. "It has divided the Hispanic community in its congregation. And it has touched a nerve in this community and across the nation."

But Marten said the policy didn't rise to the level of a "hostile educational environment" -- the legal standard applying to this case -- and denied a request from three Hispanic families to end the practice at St. Anne.

Marten said school administrators resisted working with Spanish-speaking parishioners to resolve a dispute that seemed to single those students out.