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Tuesday, 30 January 2007 14:49 |
Body of 48-year-old man
discovered under bridge
The body of a homeless man was discovered under the Smokey Park Bridge, near Roberts Street, last Sunday.
The body of James Lovin, 48, was found by a walker picking up aluminum cans on a state-owned property adjacent to the Norfolk Southern Railroad property, near the French Broad River.
The
death is being treated as a homicide by police, who hope that more
information can be released pending the results of an autopsy that was
scheduled to take place this past Wednesday in Winston-Salem.
Lovin was well-known, according to investigators, and had stayed in a number of shelters and care homes around Asheville.
The location where he was found is a popular place for homeless people to congregate, police said.
Anyone with
information concerning the death is asked to contact Sgt. Ernie Welborn
of the Asheville Police Departmentës Criminal Investigations Unit at
259-5928 or Det. Kevin Taylor at 259-5945.
Man receives 30 to 35 years
for raping 14-year-old girl
A jury sentenced Brian Craig Sexton to 30 to 35 years in prison last Friday for the brutal rape of a 14-year-old girl.
Sexton, 35, was convicted of felony statutory rape and felony statutory sex offense in a trial that started Jan. 23.
According to
court testimony, Sexton knocked on the door of the victimës house,
claiming that his car had broken down. When she let him inside, he
proceded to strike her in the head, choked her into submission and then
raped her, according to Assistant District Attorney Paul Jackson.
During
sentencing, the jury determined that there was an aggravating factor,
because he had taken advantage of a position of trust.
Mother of slain teenager
calls deputies ǃÚinsensitiveë
LEICESTER ÇƒÓ The
mother of a teen who was fatally shot by Buncombe County Sheriffës
deputies July 13 has complained that the department is "cruel" and
insensitive for returning her sonës blood-stained shirt in a decorative
holiday shopping bag with the words "Thank you" printed on its side on
Jan. 22.
Tammy Revis had
requested that the sheriffës office separate his shirt from other
personal belongings, because her attorney wanted it for evidence.
Her son,
17-year-old Terry Evans, was killed by a deputy who was responding to a
report that the teen was going to kill himself. Evans and Revis were
wrestling for control of a shotgun when the officer shot him in the
chest.
Though an
internal probe has cleared the deputy of any wrongdoing, Revis is suing
the department, claiming that she had control of the gun when the
deputy fired on her son.
Revis spent
several months trying to get Evansë personal belongings, but the
department held onto them while the investgation was pending.
A spokesman for
the sheriffës office said that no ill will was meant by the bags and
that they simply had run out of evidence bags to use.
Alleged online sex predator
charged with soliciting child
Buncombe County Sheriffës deputies arrested a man last Tuesday, who is accused of attempting to meet an underage girl for sex.
Dean Alan
Sawyer, 35, faces charges of soliciting sex from a child by computer,
following a sting operation that was conducted with help from the U.S.
Marshals Service.
The Rex Road resident was being held in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
Beer deliveryman arrested,
charged with stealing beer
A beer
deliveryman was arrested last Friday and charged with taking $12,667
worth of the beverage that he was supposed to be delivering to a
downtown convenience store.
Police charged
Billy Stephen Allen, 32, with obtaining property by false pretense
after he was accused of stealing cases of beer from deliveries to the
Hot Spot store on the corner of Asheland and Hilliard avenues,
according to reports.
Allen, who lives on White Clover Lane in Weaverville, was being held in lieu of a $10,000 bond.
Animal cruelty charges filed
against owner of 56 dogs
CANDLER ÇƒÓ The
Buncombe County Sheriffës Department filed more charges of animal
cruelty last Friday against a woman whose 56 dogs were seized two weeks
ago.
Sue Bergantz
Cole now faces an additional 17 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty,
as well as a second felony animal cruelty charge.
She previously
had been charged with one count of felony animal cruelty following a
raid on her house by sheriffës investigators.
When the
investigators arrived at the house, they found some of the animals
living in paint puckets and stacked crates with feces spilling from
them.
Furthermore,
Cole received 100 citations on Friday for violations of a county
animal-control ordinance that requires that the Australian terriers be
spayed or neutered or given current vaccinations.
Cole reportedly
has health problems and claimed that she had to hire helpers to care
for the dogs. The workers, she said, mistakenly mixed female and male
dogs, resulting in a breeding frenzy. She denied that the animals were
mistreated.
UNCA police arrest three on multiple drug charges
After pulling
over a driver for running a red light early last Sunday, UNC Asheville
police found MDMA, marijuana, LSD and various drug paraphernalia in the
vehicle and arrested three men on multiple offenses.
The driver,
Jhonathan Rene Toledano-Lopez, 20, of Weaverville is charged with
underage possession of alcohol, possession of marijuana, felony
possession of LSD, failure to have a tag light and failure to stop at a
red light. He was being held in lieu of a $10,000 bond.
Paul Wayne
Reemes, 19, of Asheville is charged with possession of marijuana and
possession of drug paraphernalia. He was being held in lieu of a $500
bond.
Chad Marcus Van
Hoff, 18, of Leicester is charged with possession of less than a
half-ounce of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and felony
possession of 0.02 ouces of MDMA, a Schedule 1 controlled substance. He
was being held in lieu of a $1,000 bond.
The three men,
who are students at Ashevlle-Buncombe Technical Community College, were
reportedly driving through the UNCA campus in a 1995 GMC Rally Wagon
when Officer Brandon Hunnicutt observed that the van was missing a tail
light.
Hunnicutt followed and then stopped the vehicle after it ran a red light at W.T. Weaver Boulevard and Broadway Street.
Toledano-Lopez allegedly stated that he did not have his driverës license, but provided information to verify his identity.
Unable to
confirm Toledano-Lopezës license information, Hunnicutt and Sgt. Bruce
Martin asked him and Van Hoff, who was sitting in the passenger seat,
to exit the vehicle.
As the two
officers spoke with Toledano-Lopez and Van Hoff, they observed Reemes
lying in the rear of the van, according to police reports.
After obtaining
information from all three and confirming that each man was under the
age of 21, Hunnicutt and Martin began to search the vehicle for
alcoholic substances. They discovered sugar cubes containing LSD, five
doses of blotter paper containing LSD, MDMA and marijuana in three
separate containers.
The officers also found malt beverages and drug paraphernalia.
Man charged with robbing
same business three times
ARDEN ÇƒÓ A man was charged last week with robbing the same convenience store three times within two weeks.
Ronnie Lathedo
Martin, 36, of Pigeon Lane is accused of repeatedly stealing cash,
cigarettes and lottery tickets from the Enmark store at 2580
Hendersonville Rd. He faces charges including larceny and breaking and
entering for each robbery.
Martin was being held in lieu of a $6,000 bond.
Accused hit-and-run driver
held in Buncombe County
A man whom
autorities say has been on the run since a hit-and-run accident
involving a horse-drawn carriage May 27 is being held in the Buncombe
County jail while he awaits extradition to Marietta, Ga., where the
accident took place.
Noel Vasquez, 24, of Marietta was arrested by FBI agents at 7:30 p.m. last Monday in a Cullowhee mobile home park.
Authorities say
he struck a carriage carrying a newlywed couple, causing the driver of
the carriage, Clint Small, to be hospitalized.
According to a
spokesperson for the Cobb County, Ga., Sheriffës Department, Small has
recovered from his injuries and the horses were unharmed.
Vasquez is charged with hit and run, driving without a license, following too closely and having an open container.
Man, ex take fight on road,
resulting in head-on crash
CANDLER ÇƒÓ A
head-on collision last Wednesday between a Canton man and his
ex-girlfriend may have resulted from a fight the pair were having,
authorities say.
Nathan Poston,
19, was hospitalized late in the morning, after his Ford Ranger struck
a Ford Mustang driven by Wendy Fowler, 21, about 1 a.m. on N.C. 151,
three miles southwest of Asheville.
Fowler and her passenger Courtney Frizzell, 19, were also treated and released at Mission Hospitals.
Poston was
charged with driving while impaired and reckless driving. In addition,
both drivers were cited for being left of center.
The pair
reportedly began their dispute in Canton, when Poston followed the
Mustang and exchanged gestures with the three passengers in Fowlerës
vehicle.
Authorities say
Fowler dropped off two of her passengers so they could fight Poston,
but he drove around them and continued to pursue her.
Fowler then turned her car around in order to drive toward Poston and the two collided head-on, officials said.
Teen suffers head trauma
after accident with friend
A 17-year-old
Asheville High School student was in critical condition last week after
she was struck by her friendës car while standing in its path.
Kathryn Nash
"Katie" Miller was placed in a medically induced coma at Mission
Hospitals to recover from head injuries suffered when she was struck
Jan. 17 by her friend Caleb Winslow Young, 18, who was driving slowly
out of the schoolës Victoria Road parking lot.
According to one
witness, Youngës car was barely moving when it struck Miller. He had
backed out of a parking spot and had just begun to move forward when
the collision happened.
Young reportedly told witnesses that he thought Miller was playing around and would move out of the way.
The exact
details of the incident have been somewhat confused as conflicting
reports were released. A police report mistakenly said that Young had
been charged in the accident, though police officials later reported
that this was not the case.
Furthermore, Principal Judd Porter said that Miller had hit her head after faking a fall, pretending the car had hit her.
However, Officer Todd Brigman said the car hit her, knocked her down and ran over her left leg.
Smoke forces evacuation
of Citizen-Times building
Asheville
Citizen-Times employees were forced to evacuate the newspaperës
downtown office Jan. 17, following reports of smoke on the third floor
of the building.
Fire department
officials received a call about the smoke about 9:45 a.m. and
discovered that the smoke was caused by the buildingës heating system.
Asheville police department
promotes four of its officers
The Asheville
Police Department promoted four of its officers in a ceremony Jan. 12
in the auditorium of the Simpson Building at Asheville-Buncombe
Technical Community College.
Lt. Wade Wood was promoted to captain and will now be in charge of Administrative Services.
Sgt. Sean Pound was promoted to lieutenant and is now the commander of the South/Central District.
Officer Ernie Welborn was promoted to Sergeant. He remains in Criminal Investigations as a supervisor.
Officer Mike Hensley was promoted to sergeant and has been assigned to the West District.
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