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Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:03 |
Sylva man charged, jailed
in series of armed robberies
A Sylva man was arrested and incarcerated last Monday morning in connection with a series of armed robberies ÇƒÓ all of which were committed within the same week ÇƒÓ in Asheville, Black Mountain and Waynesville.
Dale Henry Hooper, 38, of Enlsey Street was charged with common-law, or unarmed, robbery in four of the seven incidents.
Police from the three localities believe the seven armed robberies were connected. Clerks said they saw a gun, but no weapon was recovered by police when Hooper was apprehended.
Hooper was arrested after Officer Joshua Biddix recognized the suspectës vehicle while on patrol on Tunnel Road.
Hooper is
charged with two armed robberies in the Tunnel Road area, including One
Stop at 891 Tunnel Rd. on Nov. 6 and Eckerd Drugs at 2 Riceville Rd. on
Nov. 7.
In the other two
holdups with which Hooper is charged, he netted $437 in cash from
Mountain Energy at 301 Smoky Park Highway on Nov. 5 and Eblen Short
Stop at 875 Brevard Rd. on Nov. 6.
The Eblen and One Stop holdups occurred during the day.
The suspect
reportedly robbed businesses by telling them he had a gun and in a
couple of cases actually had brandished a firearm. Witnesses said he
drove off in a late-model, gray Ford Ranger pickup.
Footage from
security cameras as well as witness reports confirmed that the suspect
is a man with a bald spot and receding hairline in his 40s.
One witness
described the robber as having reddish-blond hair, standing about
5-foot-8 and weighing 200 pounds. The same witness said that he
observed shirts piled up in the suspectës truck.
Other businesses
that were robbed between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7 include Flick Video on U.S.
70, Number One China restaurant on Old U.S. 70 in Black Mountain and EZ
Stop on Old Balsam Road in Waynesville.
No charges had been filed as of Monday in those cases, according to detectives.
Two Candler men charged
with setting barn on fire
CANDLER ǃÓ
Arson investigators have charged Jonathan Lee Lance and William Andrew
Chapman with setting fire to a neighborës barn.
The men were
supposed to take care of neighbor Steve Griggës dogs while he was in
jail. But when Grigg returned home Friday, he discovered that his barn
had been doused with gasoline and burned to the ground.
The Oct. 10 fire
destroyed a lawn mower, a four-wheeler all-terrain vehicle and
electrical equipment at Griggës home at 204 Beaverdam Loop.
Asheville
Buncombe Arson Task Force Director Buddy Thompson noted that Lance, 25,
was stopped in a traffic stop last Thursday. Chapman, 19, who is an
employee of Grigg, had turned himself in earlier.
The men face
felony charges of burning an unoccupied building. Additionally, Lance
faces misdemeanor charges of resisting an officer and property damage,
while Chapman has been charged with resisting and assaulting a
government official, athorities noted.
Grigg said the
men were drunk while trying to siphon gas from his lawnmower to put in
their vehicle and a broken piece caused gas to spill all over the
floor. Then, Grigg claims, Lance threw a match onto the gas for unknown
reasons.
At that time, Grigg was in jail for speeding to elude arrest in a police chase on Christmas.
E-mailed threats to Bellamy
downplayed by city police
Threatening e-mails sent to Mayor Terry Bellamy do not constitute a crime, a city police spokesman announced last Wednesday.
The threats came
after City Council voted Sept. 26 to raise the rent on an Army Reserve
Center ÇƒÓ a move that was decried some veterans, as well as The
Asheville Tribune.
The rent on the
8.9-acre property at 224 Louisiana Ave. is currently set to double to
$120,000 from the $60,000 that the Reserve has been paying since 2000.
Prior to that time, the city had charged $1 for 50 years, starting in
1950.
Bellamy noted that she had shown the e-mails to City Manager Gary Jackson, who advised her to take them to to the police.
One of the
e-mails, sent from veteran J.C. Cooper of Autryville read, "Good job,
Mayor. Come down to Autryville, Iëll see if I canët help you out. Out
into the river that is."
When contacted,
Cooper, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces member who served in
Vietnam, reportedly said he meant no harm, but did not apologize.
Tedesco gets light sentence,
acquitted of intent to kill
A jury acquitted
James Thomas Tedesco Nov. 9 of attempted first-degree murder for the
shootings of his two business partners after jurors determined that he
did not intend to kill the men during his Dec. 26 rampage at the
insurance agency he once owned.
Jurors opted to
convict him on two counts of the lesser charge of assault with a deadly
weapon inflicting serious injuries for the shootings of Michael Ezell
and Murray Wilson at Tedesco Insurance Agency. Both men survived the
attack.
Tedesco, 38, was also acquitted of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury.
Had he been
convicted of the other charges, Tedesco would have faced up to 125
years in prison. Instead, Judge James Morgan sentenced him to 44 to 72
months, with credit for time served since the shootings.
During defense
attorney Jack Stewartës closing arguments, the testimony of Anthony
Sciara, an Asheville clinical psychologicst was cited. Sciara had
testified that Tedesco suffers from bipolar disorder and does not
remember the attack.
However, during
cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Pat Patton pointed out
Tedescoës admission that he remembered putting a handgun in his
waistband prior to the meeting at which the shootings took place.
Tedesco
testified that Wilson and Ezell had told him at the meeting that they
planned to sell the business, which would result in him getting little,
if any, of the proceeds.
According to
testimony, the insurance company began to lose money after Wilson and
Ezell bought a controlling interest in it, about two months before the
shootings.
The N.C.
Department of Insurance claims that Wilson was engaged in an elaborate
scheme to defraud Ezell and Tedesco. He is currently facing charges
that include financial identity fraud, forgery, obtaining property by
false pretenses and selling insurance without a license. His license
was revoked in 1998 after he pleaded guilty to passing worthless checks
and fraud.
Warning on common scams
issued to Asheville citizens
The Asheville
Police Department recently issued warnings regarding two common mail
and e-mail scams that have been circulating recently.
Many residents
of Asheville received letters in the mail about "European lottery
programs." Frequently these letters use the correct name and address
for the resident.
These scams inform the "winner" that they have won a specific amount of money, according to police spokesman John Dankel.
What looks like a legitimate check for a portion of the winnings is included with the notification letter.
Instructions
direct the "winner" to contact a lottery agent for instructions on how
to remit their "tax and clearance fees" so they can receive their
lottery winnings, he said.
Typically the
recipients are directed by the "agent" to wire money ÇƒÓ after they have
deposited the fake check into their personal account ÇƒÓ to someone
outside the country.
They are told they will then receive their portion of the prize money, less a percentage for the agent or sponsor commission.
A day or so
after it is deposited into the personës account the bank will discover
the check is fake and the account will be debited for that amount.
Unfortunately, the victim has frequently already wired the money to the
scam artist and there is no practical way to get it back, Dankel noted.
"Winners" also
are warned in the letter to keep their winnings "absolutely
confidential" to avoid unauthorized persons or organizations from
contacting them about their new-found wealth.
None of the
information in the letter is true, according to police. Persons
receiving these letters are urged to discard them immediately.
Regarding
another common fraudulent scheme, the APD noted on July 15 that the FBI
is receiving renewed complaints about an e-mail scam that first
surfaced sometime in 2004.
People are receiving official-looking e-mails, purportedly from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The e-mail
claims a personës bank accounts are no longer eligible for FDIC
insurance because suspected violations of the USA PATRIOT Act, Dankel
said.
The message also
says this issue can be resolved by clicking on a link provided in the
e-mail and providing a great deal of personal information. Supposedly,
after the information is verified, the accounts will once again be
eligible for FDIC insurance. There is also an implication that failure
to provide the "required" information will result in further
investigation and possibly a visit from federal agents.
These e-mails,
and all like them, are scams, Dankel said. Persons who respond and
provide the requested information risk having their identity stolen and
misused and they place funds in their banks accounts at risk for theft.
Government agencies and legitimate banks do not request this sort of information by e-mail, Dankel stressed.
All such
requests should be regarded as scams and the e-mails should be
immediately deleted without opening any attachments. Those with any
doubts or questions may contact the bank or government agency directly
by telephone, Dankel said.
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