Monday, April 11, 2011
EKB Capsule News...West Virginia...4-12-'11
- Samantha Evans, a Mingo County mother whose 16-month-old baby suffered severe burns and drowned in a bathtub while she was on a drug binge after snorting Xanax bars and multiple Oxycodone pills prior to passing out, was sentenced Monday to between 3 and 15 years in prison. Evans pled guilty to child neglect resulting in death on March 7th. Mingo County Prosecuting Attorney C. Michael Sparks says that, at the time of Evans’ indictment, child neglect resulting in death was the maximum charge under West Virginia law.
Monday afternoon, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency for Boone, Lincoln, Logan and Mingo counties after heavy rains, flooding, downed trees and power outages hit the area last week. Tomblin, D-Logan, has authorized storm-damage assessments of the four counties and directed state highways crews to use additional manpower to assist first responders and get clogged roads reopened. The state of emergency remains in effect for 30 days, unless extended or rescinded by another proclamation by the governor.
- Coal producer Rhino Easter LLC has resumed production at a flooded Raleigh County mine after the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration terminated two imminent-danger citations issued at its Eagle No. 1 mine near Bolt Friday. The citations were issued March 18th after flooding occurred in a mined-out area above active workings. MSHA determined that leaking water posed a danger to miners.
- Brandon Battle, 23, of Charleston pleaded guilty Monday to four counts of distribution of cocaine. Battle faces up to 20 years in prison and a $ 1 million fine after admitting to selling one half of an ounce of cocaine to a confidential informant with the Metro Drug Unit on four separate occasions from November 2009 through January 2010 in Institute. His sentencing is set for July 13th.
Jeremy Shultz was sentenced Monday to life with mercy on a kidnapping charge, 10-years on a first degree robbery charge and one to five years on another charge, all to be served consecutively. Prosecutors say Shultz robbed a delivery driver who was dropping off prescription drugs at the Cabin Creek Health Center. State Police say Shultz pulled out a gun and forced the driver into the van at gunpoint, forced him to go to Sharon Hollow Road, where he met up with Darren Gravely. The driver's keys were thrown over a hill, his hands and feet were tied and a gun was pointed to his face. Police say the men loaded the drugs, Hydrocodone and Oxycontin, into their own van and took off.
- The trial for James Michael Downey, a St. Albans man charged with murdering his daughter's boyfriend, has been postponed until April 27th. Downey admitted to police and to a neighbor he shot 27 year old Brandon Hall at a home on McKinley Avenue in St. Albans last July. Police, at the time, said Downey was upset at the way Hall treated his daughter. In January, his trial was postponed until April 11th, but his trial was continued again until April 27th.
- State Troopers say a fight at the Quarter Bar on Route 60 east in Huntington around 3:00 A.M. Sunday morning resulted in six to seven shots being fired. When officers arrived, they found a gun, a bag of crack cocaine, heroin and Oxycontin underneath one of the vehicles in the parking lot. Officers also found $985 in cash. Troopers arrested Stephen Dwayne Jackson, 26, of South Charleston, and charged him with five counts of wanton endangerment, brandishing, felon in possession of a firearm and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance.
- Charleston Police responded to a possible shooting Sunday night in the North Charleston area, but they ended up arresting 25 year old Nathan Allen Stewart of Sissonville for burglary and first-degree robbery. Police say Stewart and a second subject, described only as a white man, had forced their way into a residence where Stewart held a handgun and demanded money from the home’s resident, 56 year old David Cadle. Police say the handgun was fired during a struggle between Cadle and Stewart. No one was struck by the bullet.
- The nearly finished 695-megawatt Longview Power plant north of Morgantown will start burning coal this month. Longview is the first new coal-fired power plant to start up in West Virginia in 18 years and is the first since the 80-megawatt Grant Town power plant went on line in 1993. Natural gas is Longview’s start-up fuel used to ignite the plant’s primary fuel, coal, and it will burn gas until the steam release phase is completed toward the end of April. Testing of the plant’s 273 systems will go on into August. Longview is expected to burn about 2 million tons of coal per year, the great majority of it from Mepco, Pennsylvania. The plant will employ 97 people.
The West Virginia School Building Authority has announced $118.6 million in “needs grants.” The SBA approved 14 county projects Monday, five continuing commitments from previous funding cycles. SBA Executive Director Mark Manchin estimates that for every dollar the SBA puts into a school, the community gets back several more dollars. In fact, Manchin says the $118 million will generate more than $250 million at the local level over the next three years. The Putnam County Board of Education had asked for more than $7 million to move students out of portable classrooms. It was not granted, and neither was Kanawha County’s request for $23 million.
- Premier Financial Bancorp announced Monday it has completed the merger of three West Virginia banks and two out-of-state banks into a new operating division known as Premier Bank. Premier Bank is an $820 million West Virginia-chartered bank with 23 locations in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Premier filed applications with state and federal banking regulatory authorities in September 2010 to merge First Central Bank and Traders Bank, two of its wholly owned West Virginia banks, and the two subsidiary banks obtained via the acquisition of Abigail Adams National Bancorp (Adams National Bank and Consolidated Bank & Trust) with and into Boone County Bank, also a West Virginia chartered bank. In the first quarter of 2011, Premier received the required approvals, and, as of the close of business on April 8th, the merger of the five banks to form Premier Bank had been completed.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 10:25 PM 
