Oregon
BREAKING: Oregon Ducks land commitment from elite QB
Frankfort (Ill.) Lincoln-Way East On300 quarterback Jonas Williams announced his commitment to Oregon on Saturday.
The blue-chip 2026 passer chose to play for head coach Dan Lanning and the Ducks over his other finalists in Alabama, LSU and Ohio State.
Offensive coordinator Will Stein led the charge in recruiting the four-star Williams who becomes commit No. 3 for Oregon in the class. The On3 Industry tabs Williams as the nation’s No. 9 quarterback and No. 92 prospect overall.
Williams talks about his decision
Williams visited Oregon twice, hitting camp in June and returning for Saturday Night Live this past weekend.
“Oregon has been my dream school for awhile,” Williams said. “A lot of people talk highly of Oregon and it definitely lived up to that standard. When I got there I really liked Coach Stein and how he teaches. That’s really important. I’m going to spend a lot of time with him the next four years of my life.”
The 6-foot-1 1/2, 200-pound Williams gave Lanning and Stein his pledge on Tuesday.
“I really like Coach Lanning,” Williams said. “He’s one of the most humble head coaches I’ve met. The whole coaching staff has a sense of integrity to them. I feel comfortable with them and can trust them.”
Williams called Stein and told him he was coming and five minutes later he was on with Lanning.
“It shows how much Oregon loves their players and pours into their players and it speaks volumes to a recruit,” Williams said.
With Williams and fellow touted quarterback Faizon Brandon committing on Saturday, nine of the Top 10 ranked passers have declared.
“I didn’t feel sped up,” Williams said. “I think I took my time with it. I went on the visits I needed to go on. There was nothing more I needed to see.
“When I went to Oregon the first time in June I was like I want commit. That’s why I went back down this past weekend. I was like this is where I want to be.”
Oregon stacking terrific recruiting classes
Oregon signed On3’s No. 3 ranked class in 2024. They have On3’s No. 5 ranked class at this point in 2025. With guys like Williams in the fold they’ll make a run at an elite class in 2026 as well.
“Oregon has been on a roll recently with the 2025 class getting Dakorien Moore and guys like that,” Williams said. “That’s more intriguing for a quarterback to see the type of wide receivers they have. I’m going to be throwing to weapons. A lot of people say the best receivers are at Ohio State or Alabama but Oregon is up there too.
“I also think the position for me coming in will be good. I think I fit in well with the players. I’ve been around the players a bit. I think it’s a good fit for me.”
FALLS CITY, Ore. — A 63-year-old was sentenced to life in prison for shooting and killing a man with a shotgun during a fight at a Falls City, Oregon property back in 2024.
A jury convicted Terry Lawrence Allwen of second-degree murder back on March 20, the Polk County District Attorney’s Office said.
He was sentenced Friday to serve life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
READ MORE | ‘What kind of monster does that?’ mom says as man sentenced for daughter’s killing
Allwen was also convicted of other charges like manslaughter, assault, and felon in possession of a firearm, but the sentences for those crimes will be served concurrently with the life sentence.
Court records show that Allwen was staying in an RV parked on a property owned by the victim, 79-year-old Bo Johnson.
At about 9 a.m. on May 31, 2024, Allwen and Johnson got into a verbal fight over some personal property. During that fight, Allwen got a shotgun from his trunk and shot Johnson once, killing him.
“Mr. Johnson had many more years to spend with his family. His senseless murder destroyed the dreams and plans of so many that loved him. I hope that the fact Mr. Allwen today received the maximum possible sentence will bring the family of Mr. Johnson some relief and sense of justice.”
If Allwen is granted parole, the judge also ordered that he have a lifetime of post-prison supervision.
The Oregon Supreme Court has overturned the conviction of a Lane County man who once photographed child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey and was convicted in 2021 on several child pornography charges.
Randall DeWitt Simons, 73, of Oakridge, was charged in 2019 with 15 counts of first-degree encouraging child sex abuse. He was later convicted on every count and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Simons was first arrested after authorities began investigating a report from a restaurant in Oakridge that someone had been using the restaurant’s Wi-Fi to download inappropriate and concerning images.
Law enforcement officers directed the business to track, log, and report all of the user’s internet activity to the investigating officer for more than a year, without a warrant.
Police tracked the computer’s IP address from the restaurant’s Wi-Fi system, which led officers to a man who lived near the restaurant and had given Simons a computer, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court. Investigators obtained a warrant to search the laptop in Simon’s home, relying on information they had collected over time. He was subsequently arrested.
On March 26, the court ruled warrantless internet surveillance on public Wi-Fi violates privacy.
In an opinion written by Justice Bronson D. James, the court held that the Oregon Constitution recognizes people have a right to privacy in their internet browsing activities and the right is not extinguished when they use a publicly accessible wireless network. It’s even true in cases where that access is conditioned on a person accepting a terms-of-service agreement that says a provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement, James wrote.
During criminal proceedings in the Lane County Circuit Court, Simons moved to controvert the warrant and suppress the evidence obtained by police, arguing the business was a “state actor for purposes of Article I, section 9, and that its year-long warrantless surveillance was an unconstitutional, warrantless search attributable to the state,” the Supreme Court opinion said.
The Circuit Court denied Simon’s motion. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision in part and stated Simons had no cognizable privacy interest in his internet activities performed on a third-party network.
The Oregon Supreme Court rejected the state’s argument.
“The mere fact that a person accesses the internet through a public network does not eliminate their Article I, section 9, right to privacy in their online activities,” according to James. “Even when access is expressly conditioned on a user’s acceptance of terms-of-service provisions purporting to alert the user that the provider may monitor activity and cooperate with law enforcement.”
Justice K. Bushong suggested in a partial dissent the Court should reconsider its approach in a future case to what constitutes a “search” under the Oregon Constitution. The court’s decision reverses the Court of Appeals and sends the case back to the Lane County Circuit Court for further proceedings.
Simons has maintained his innocence since he was arrested in 2019.
Simons had been a photographer for 6-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey a few months before her still-unsolved 1996 murder, the Associated Press reported in 1998.
In October 1998, Simons was arrested on a charge of indecent exposure in Lincoln County, Colorado. According to the book “Perfect Murder, Perfect Town” by Lawrence Schiller, Simons was arrested in 1998 for allegedly walking nude down a residential street in the small town of Genoa, Colorado. Simons allegedly offered to the arresting deputy unprovoked, “I didn’t kill JonBenét.”
Haleigh Kochanski is a breaking news and public safety reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at HKochanski@gannett.com.
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