N etiraskan
Friday, March 3,2000
dailyneb.com
Vol 99, Issue 115
Hawking honors
Elaborate residence hall won’t draw
Nebraska’s best and brightest to
UNL. OPINION, PAGE 5
Duffy’s Tavern has been
them in for the past 60 years.
A&E, PAGE 9
Son left with questions after plea
■ UNL student’s father pleaded
no contest to killing wife and
stabbing daughter in June 1998.
By Michelle Starr
Staff writer
Nineteen months after the crime was com
mitted, the son of both the victim and the attack
er feels like the case is finally coming to a close.
Aaron DuPree, a UNL student and son of
Craig and Joan DuPree, has mixed feelings
about his father’s not going to trial for the
killing of his wife.
Craig DuPree escaped first-degree murder
charges and pled no contest to lesser charges in
Lancaster County District Court on Wednesday.
County Attorney Gary Lacey offered the
lesser charge after consulting with the family
and weighing the possible outcomes.
Craig DuPree, who said he was insane at the
time of the murder, had two psychiatrists, one
for the state and one for the defense, saying he
was not sane at the time of the crime. A second
psychiatrist for the state said he was sane.
“Given the circumstances, we concluded
since we have the burden to prove he was sane
beyond a reasonable doubt, we decided to go to
a lesser charge,” Lacey said. “I wasn’t sure a
reasonable jury would find him sane. I think it
was a prudent thing for me to do given the cir
cumstances.”
Judge Karen Flowers accepted the plea and
found Craig DuPree guilty of manslaughter,
second-degree assault and two counts of use of
a weapon to commit a felony.
He was convicted for stabbing his wife,
Joan, to death shortly before 6 a.m. on June 11,
1998. She died from wounds to the throat.
According to court documents, Craig
DuPree and his wife, Joan, had an argument
about his lying to her about their financial situ
^ There are some days I love him and miss him,
and there are others where I am angry with him.”
Aaron DuPree
Craig DuPree’s son and UNL student
ation.
The argument escalated and Craig DuPree
picked up a knife. He told police he lost control
and stabbed his wife.
When their daughter saw her mother on the
ground in their bedroom covered in blood,
Craig DuPree also stabbed his daughter, Emily,
now 15, in their home at 5300 S. 53rd St.
Aaron DuPree, now a 21 -year-old sopho
more theater major at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, was asleep on the couch
downstairs at the time of the killing.
He awoke groggy to his sister talking to
their father about something concerning their
mother and blood, he said in an interview with
the Daily Nebraskan.
The severity of the situation didn’t wake
him fully until he heard his sister pleading for
her life, he said.
“She said ‘I won’t tell anyone. Please don’t
kill me,”’ Aaron DuPree said.
Aaron DuPree said he had blamed himself
for a long time for not stopping the killing.
The morning Joan DuPree died, Emily
Please see DUPREE on 3
Heather Glenboski/DN
RECYCLING COORDINATOR Dale Ekart is responsible for checking how well people in
campus buildings are recycling their trash. He said he looks for ways the university
community can recycle more efficiently.
UNL coordinator looks
in trash for recyclahles
By CaraPesek
Staff writer
Some might say Dale Ekart’s job stinks.
Ekart, the recycling coordinator at UNL, spends
two weeks each year sorting through the garbage of
every building on the University of Nebraska
Lincoln campuses.
But Ekart’s unusual job serves a noble purpose -
helping the environment.
The mission of the annual adventure, which
Ekart refers to as “Dumpster diving,” is to find out
how much garbage the UNL community recycles.
Ekart said that since he began Dumpster diving
in 1993, the percentage of garbage UNL recycles
has increased each year.
In 1993, only about 10 or 11 percent of UNL’s
garbage was recycled. Last year, Ekart said, UNL
students, faculty and staff members threw 26 per
cent of their garbage into recycling bins rather than
garbage cans.
This year, Ekart expects the percentage will be
even higher.
“We’re doing pretty well,” Ekart said. “Now we
have most of the good stuff out of the trash.”
And the list of good stuff recycled by the univer
sity is constantly growing, Ekart said.
ti I’ve found animals
both dead and alive,
brand-new items and
even money.”
DaleEkart
UNL’s recycling coordinator
During his 1993 Dumpster dive, Ekart said he
found that a lot of cardboard was being thrown away.
He looked into more efficient ways to recycle it.
Since then, he’s also looked into more effective
ways to recycle products such as aluminum and
steel cans, plastic bottles, newspapers and office
paper.
In some instances, recycling bins were placed in
buildings where the Dumpster dives revealed little
recycling previously had taken place.
Other times, the bins simply were moved to
more convenient locations.
For example, administrative technician Betty
Pratt recently asked Ekart how recycling could be
improved at CBA.
After conducting an audit of CBA’s trash, Ekart
recommended the recycling bins simply be made
more handy than trash cans, Pratt said.
Please see DUMPSTER on 8
Some students’ actions endanger NU on Wheels
By Kimberly Sweet
Staff writer
In the second semester of its opera
tion, those affiliated with UNLs newly
launched safe-ride-home program say
they are pleased with the results.
But some worry the continued suc
cess ofNU on Wheels could be marred
by the disrespectful behavior of a few
students.
After the start-up of the semester,
newly hired drivers have reported inci
dents of students abusing their free
ride privileges, as well as the drivers,
said Molly Schmitz, NU on Wheels
coordinator.
Schmitz said she is worried about
the effect the incidences will have on
retaining drivers for the program and
maintaining the relationship with
Husker Cab Inc.
Incidents including students blow
ing smoke in nonsmoking cab drivers’
faces, cursing at drivers who refuse to
wait for riders to finish their drinks and
calls harassing the cab company’s
operator hurt the success of the pro
gram, she said.
“The program is providing a ser
vice to students,” Schmitz said. “But if
students abuse it, it will be hard to get
drivers.”
Donna Corey, personnel manager
for the cab company, said the number
of serious incidents involving cab dri
vers has been small in number.
But in one case, a student who
called the operator every minute and a
half was turned over to the police and
arrested for harassment, Corey said.
Other students who have threat
ened the drivers in one way or another
have simply been left to walk, Corey
said.
Most of the incidents have involved
students not showing up for a cab after
they have called and requested one, she
said.
That affects the amount of time stu
dents have to wait for the rides, the cab
drivers say.
“When they don’t cancel their
Please see WHEELS on 3