Teen charged with murder
of 14-year-old high schooler

Police arrested an 18-year-old man last Thursday in the shooting death of an Erwin High School student on Dec. 5.

Police charged Brian Keith Banks, of Indiana Avenue, with first-degree murder in the death of 14-year-old Keith Holloway. Banks already was in police custody after being arrested Dec. 5 on unrelated drug charges.

Holloway died from gunshot wounds hours after police found him on Pearson Bridge Road near Richmond Hill Inn about 5:50 p.m. Dec. 4.

His death was the fourth murder in the city in a little more than a week. Police say the city is experiencing a crime wave, partly because of an increase in gang activity.

However, they noted that gang activity is not suspected in this case.

Last year, the city saw a 9 percent increase in violent crimes ó nearly seven times the national increase.
Holloway was the cityís ninth homicide victim this year, making 2007 the worst year for murders in Asheville since 2002, when 12 people were killed.

Police said a witness reported hearing gunshots prior to discovering Holloway on Pearson Bridge Road.

On a 911 call released by police last Thursday, an unidentified person is heard saying, ìHe is not responsive, and thereís blood ... Heís bleeding from his head ó from the back of his head.î

Witnesses say they saw two teens near the roadís intersection with Richmond Hill Drive just before they heard gunshots. They saw a man running away and found Holloway on the road, police said.

Police initially did not release Hollowayís identity, but said that the boyís father contacted them later that night and identified him after seeing news reports of the shooting.

Banks had been arrested Dec. 5 after police detectives served search warrants at his residence and reportedly found marijuana. He was charged with maintaining a dwelling for purposes of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana with intent to sell or deliver.

Police say Banks has a previous criminal record, including charges of discharging a firearm in the city and injury to personal property near his house.

Banks was accused of shooting 29 rounds at a parked, unoccupied car on Alabama Avenue. He has a trial set for January on those charges.

He was also cited by Biltmore Forest police on Oct. 24 for carrying a .22-caliber pistol without a permit.

Anyone with information about the shooting can call the Asheville Police Department at 252-1110.

Authorities seek suspect
in fatal Hillcrest shooting

Police are searching for the gunman in the shooting death of a homeless man outside Hillcrest Apartments last week.

Officers found the body of Chris Allen Sewell about 10:30 p.m. Dec. 2 near a fence between Interstate 240 and the apartment complex after responding to reports of gunfire.

Sewell, 52, had been shot several times, police said.

Asheville police Lt. Kevin West said there was no way to tell whether the shooting was gang-related or the result of a robbery. Police have not found a murder weapon and would not discuss the type of gun used.

Sewellís last known address was A-HOPE, a homeless shelter on N. Ann Street.

However, police say he used the address only to receive mail and had not been there for several weeks.

Asheville Housing Authority Director Gene Bell said a security gate currently is being installed at Hillcrest Apartments and should be functional by the end of the month. Residents of the public housing project will have to use an ID card to open the gate.

The gate and other security equipment will cost about $60,000, he said.

Multiple surgeries required
for Arden shooting victim

ARDEN ó A man who was shot twice outside his home in Arden on Dec. 4 will have to undergo at least two surgeries to reconstruct his foot and thigh.

Datrian Johnson, 22, and his mother, Lisa Allen, had just arrived at his home on Appian Way, and were stepping out of the car when another man approached him. The man shot Johnson twice, in his right foot and left thigh.

Buncombe County Sheriffís deputies early last Wednesday arrested two men in the shooting. Johnny Edwin Christopher, 26, was charged with assault with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

Authorities say the Arden man shot Johnson at point-blank range with an AK-47 assault rifle.

Alan Michael Moffitt, 20, of Arden, was arrested on the same charges for allegedly driving Christopher to and from the scene.

Both men were being held at the Buncombe County Detention Center on a bond of $100,000 each.

Johnson underwent surgery to piece together his foot to his calf with rods, because of extensive damage to the bone.

At least one more surgery was expected to fix the damages caused by the gunshots.

Anyone with information about the incident can call the Sheriffís Office at 255-5555 or CrimeStoppers at 255-5050.

Leicester police car chase
nearly hits 100-mph speeds

A man who refused to stop at a license check point in Leicester led N.C. Highway Patrol troopers on a 26-minute chase that hit speeds of nearly 100 mph last Friday, officials said.

Patrol troopers were conducting a license check on Newfound Road about 3:30 p.m. when Robert Jason Owens, 29, of Leicester allegedly sped off.

Troopers believe he sped off because he was driving with a revoked license.

The resulting car chase covered 41 miles in the Leicester area. He eventually was stopped near Hookers Gap Road, where he was arrested and charged with fleeing or eluding arrest with a motor vehicle.

Owens was being held at the Buncombe County Detention Center under an $11,000 bond.

Robber holds up pharmacy,
makes off with painkillers

A man robbed the CVS pharmacy on Long Shoals Road on Nov. 30 and stole prescription drugs after threatening the pharmacist with a gun.

Police say the robber was a white man in his mid-50s with a scruffy beard and mustache. He was wearing a gray sweat shirt, blue jeans and a black baseball cap with an emblem.

Witnesses say the man entered the store about 5:50 p.m., walked to the pharmacy, and handed the pharmacist a handwritten note asking for the drugs. The man did not show a gun, but implied that he was carrying one.

The pharmacist gave the robber a bag with Oxycodone and other painkillers.

Anyone with information about the incident can call Det. Yvonne Cobourn of the Asheville Police Department at 259-5923.

Pair charged with selling
counterfeit music, videos

FLETCHER ó A South Carolina couple were arrested on federal counterfeiting charges following a raid at Smileyís Flea Market in Fletcher.

Ricky Dale Dixon, 49, and Laura Ann Epley, 50, of Taylors, S.C., each were charged with five counts of trademark violations, including felony unauthorized use and possession of audio and video recordings.

Investigators with the N.C. Secretary of Stateís office carried out the raid with assistance from agents with the Recording Industry Association of America. They seized 2,895 allegedly pirated CDs and DVDs worth an estimated retail value of $51,774.

During the raid, several other vendors abandoned tables of pirated CDs worth an estimated $474,882.†

Red Cross embezzler gets
2-3 years, restitution order

A woman who embezzled $164,000 from the Asheville-Mountain Chapter of the American Red Cross will serve 24-32 months in prison and will have to repay the money, a judge ruled Nov. 30.

Eileen Therese Saxon, 45, of Black Mountain, was convicted of embezzling 13 percent of the organizationís annual budget while she served as its accounting director for 15 months. Prosecutors say she wrote herself extra payroll checks during the 2006-7 fiscal year.

Some of that loss will be covered by insurance, the chapterís executive director, Patrick Fitzsimmons, said.

A background check of Saxon prior to her hiring came up clean, as did a check by the Asheville Citizen-Times.

However, Saxon is being accused of a similar crime by Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, where she worked form 2002-05. A 2006 audit showed she embezzled $250,056, according to a lawsuit the academy filed in Buncombe County Superior Court in March.

The academy did not notify the Red Cross of its problems with her.

Last break-in ring member
sentenced to 6 years in jail

A federal judge sentenced the last of seven members of a burglary and credit-fraud ring to more than six years in prison last week.

Anthony David Sexton, 19, was sentenced to 75 months in prison and ordered to pay $32,767 in restitution for his role in a scheme to steal credit cards form the cars of hikers and bicyclists at several recreation areas in

Western North Carolina.

The federal charges included conspiracy to commit bank fraud, damage to property, aggravated identity theft, theft of personal property and theft of public money.

Authorities say the group broke into cars in Bent Creek and other national-forest locations last December and January, and then used the stolen credit cards to make purchases at Target, Best Buy and other stores.

The groupís ringleader, Luis Francisco Camacho, 22, of Leicester, was sentenced to 88 months in prison.

Other members who were sentenced to prison include James Augustus Williams, 25, of Swannanoa; Jamel Richard Moore, 23, of Asheville; and Elizabeth Leal Garcia, 22, of Asheville.

Stephanie M. Parker, 33, and Neal Jesse Joiner, 22, both of Asheville, were sentenced to probation.

The group stole credit cards, checks and personal-identification information from at least nine cars, much of which police seized during a search of two Asheville homes.

A spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service said the organization investigates 30-40 break-ins a year in Western North Carolina.

UNCA student arrested
on multiple drug charges

UNC Asheville campus police on Nov. 29 arrested a student on multiple drug-related charges after responding to a report of marijuana being smoked in one of the schoolís dormitory rooms.

Jeffrey David Rose, 18, of Summerfield, was charged with one weapons violation for possession of a switchblade knife, possession of hashish, possession of marijuana, and possession of paraphernalia.

Officers David Shelton, Robbie Craig and Gene Payne, and Sgt. Joseph Jones arrived at 115 Mills Hall about 8:30 p.m. after receiving a report from housing officials about a strong odor of marijuana.

Ian Hayes, a student in the room, gave the officers permission to enter the common room shared by rooms 115 and 113, and then informed them that he was not a resident of the dormitory, according to police reports.

While in the common area, Shelton said he could smell a strong odor of marijuana smoke coming from room 115C.

When Craig knocked on the door, Rose and Sydney Fulmer, a student from another dorm room, came out.

ìAs they came out of the room, it was filled with marijuana smoke,î Shelton wrote in the report.

After Rose consented to a search of his area of the room, Craig found a brown pill bottle with a small amount of marijuana in the top drawer of a desk and paraphernalia in the deskís second drawer, police said.

However, Rose would not open the bottom drawer of the desk. After the officers urged him to reveal anything else he was hiding, Rose reportedly consented to letting Craig look in the bottom drawer.

There, the officer found a quart jar full of marijuana buds, nine plastic ziplock bags, a scale, a pint jar full of marijuana stems, another small jar of hashish and a switchblade knife, according to the report.

Police also found two water bongs inside his closet.

Rose was taken to the Buncombe County Detention Center and held under a $1,500 bond.

In other action, UNCA police charged James Zuill Keesler II, 18, of Charlotte with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia on Dec. 1.

Officers Shannon Green and Erik Oian responded to a dispatch about a ìsuspicious vehicle that was occupied by two malesî near the schoolís Millar Complex about 8:50 p.m.

They found Keesler behind the wheel of a parked 1998 Pontiac Grand Am, along with a passenger.

Keesler told the officers he was lost, at which point Green reportedly detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle.

The two men in the car consented to a search of their bodies and the car, according to the report. During the search, Green said he found marijuana in the driverís-side floorboard of the vehicle.

At that point, Keesler reportedly told Green about two pipes in the car, one under the front driverís-side seat and one in the center console between the two seats.

While retrieving the pipes, Green also found a medicine bottle with marijuana residue.

Keesler was issued a state citation. He was ìvery respectful and very cooperativeî thoughout the incident, Green noted in the report.

Man charged with passing
forged checks at store

Buncombe County sheriffís deputies on Monday arrested a man they say used bad checks worth more than $1,000 at a convenience store.

Mark Faith Cogdill, of Weaverville Road in Woodfin, was charged with two counts of uttering a forged instrument.
According to warrants, Cogdill, 19, passed two checks totaling $1,200 at a store in Swannanoa.