Grand Island kidnapping suspect also going on trial for inmate assault

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - One of the suspects in the January kidnapping of three small children will go on trial in September on charges that he pulled a shank on a jail cellmate.

On Tuesday, 17-year-old Jozef McAllister, of Hastings, pleaded not guilty to terroristic threats, use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony, and assault by a confined person. His trial is scheduled Sept. 11.

Court records indicate the cellmate, a fellow juvenile, said McAllister pulled a homemade sharp-edged instrument, commonly known as a shank, on March 1. McAllister then set the shank behind him and said he would kill the cellmate if he tried to take it. The cellmate then said McAllister punched him several times in the face.

McAllister is one of two teenagers arrested on Jan. 29 for stealing a car containing three Grand Island children ages 5, 1, and seven months old. Two of those children were later abandoned in a pickup truck and the third, the seven-month-old baby, was left on the deck of a rural Hall County farmhouse in freezing temperatures.

McAllister faces nine felony charges in connection with the kidnapping. A request to move that case to juvenile court was denied last week. McAllister’s trial on the kidnapping related charges is scheduled Aug. 16.

The other teen suspect in the kidnapping case, 18-year-old Tate Wolfe of Kearney, also faces nine felony charges. His trial is scheduled July 10.