IN BRIEF

TRUCK DRIVER INJURED

Two killed as car pulls out in front of pickup

Two people were killed Friday morning after they pulled out in front of an oncoming pickup truck on state Route 160 just north of state Route 159.

Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Kevin Honea said the female driver was pulling out of the Blue Diamond Travel Center about 10:30 a.m. to go north on 160.

The Toyota Corolla she was driving was struck on the driver's side by a Ford pickup truck traveling south on 160, Honea said.

The driver of the Corolla and her male passenger were pronounced dead at the scene. The male driver of the Ford was taken to University Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Their names were not available.

Honea said evidence at the scene indicated that drugs or alcohol, involving the Corolla's occupants, were a factor in the crash.

BOY WAS FOUND UNHARMED

Man pleads not guilty in kidnapping plot

A man accused in the abduction of a 6-year-old Las Vegas boy last year pleaded not guilty Friday to plotting the drug-related kidnapping as retaliation against the boy's grandfather.

Jose Luis Lopez-Buelna, 48, was indicted March 17 on a federal charge of conspiracy to commit child kidnapping, along with 36-year-old co-defendant Luis Vega-Rubio.

If convicted, each faces a mandatory 20-year sentence in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The indictment accused the two men of kidnapping Cole Puffinburger on Oct. 15 to send a message to his grandfather, Clemens Fred Tinnemeyer, whom prosecutors said was a courier in a U.S.-Mexico drug-smuggling ring. The boy was found unharmed three days later in a Las Vegas neighborhood.

Prosecutors said the abduction happened after Tinnemeyer, 52, and his girlfriend, Terri Lynn Leavy, stole $4 million found hidden in a motor home they used to transport drugs for Lopez-Buelna.