Tuesday, June 14, 2011
EKB Capsule News...West Virginia...6-15-'11
- John Hayes was arrested Monday in Tennessee after telling the sheriff’s department there that he killed his wife’s uncle, 58 year old Robert Workman, in Mingo County, West Virginia. Workman was reported missing June 9th after his sister hadn’t heard from him and couldn't get in touch with him. The Mingo County Sheriff’s Department searched the area with the Beech Creek Fire Department, and conducted local interviews. Workman's body was found Monday afternoon next to his home in Beech Creek. The Mingo County Sheriff’s Department believes Hayes killed Workman May 30th or 31st while he and his wife were in the Beech Creek area visiting family. Hayes was charged with murder and concealing a body and will be brought to West Virginia.
- Monday night, search teams in St. Petersburg, Florida located the body of 65 year old Clark White of Moundsville, West Virginia after he was buried in the rubble of a collapsed structure in Florida on Thursday. White worked for Frontier Industrial Corp., the company sub-contracted out to dismantle an old boiler unit at the Power Bartow Power Plant in St. Petersburg, owned by Progress Energy. White and 20 other employees of Frontier Industrial and Progress Energy were preparing to demolish the building when it suddenly collapsed a little over an hour earlier than expected. White, who had been in the demolition business for 15 years, was inside when the 180 feet tall building with a base of 10,000 square feet, a lot of concrete, steel and other materials came down.
- Arch Coal, Inc. announced Tuesday the completion of a cash offer for shares of International Coal Group, Inc. stock. More than 187 million shares of ICG common stock were tendered at $14.60 per share. Scott Depot-based ICG will be merged with Atlas Acquisition Corp. following a merger agreement, and function as a wholly owned subsidiary of Arch Coal. Arch expects to complete a “short form” merger under Delaware law and complete its acquisition of ICG by Wednesday. Arch offered to buy ICG in May for $3.4 billion. Arch plans to purchase additional shares of ICG common stock directly from ICG, which would result in Arch owning one share more than 90 percent of the outstanding shares of ICG.
- Twenty-seven year old Ernest Young Jr. of Handley was arrested just after midnight Monday for the murder of 81 year old Wilfred Naylor of Mammoth who was discovered dead in his home in the Cedar Grove area Saturday night. Police say Naylor's vehicle was also stolen. A criminal complaint says Young admitted to hitting Naylor with a club that was located inside the residence.
- Jasper Wemh, 26, of Delaware, has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty in March to possession of crack cocaine with intent to deliver. Detectives with the Metro Drug Unit approached Wemh at a storage facility in Cross Lanes on December 29th, conducted a pat down and found $5,752 on him. A search of his vehicle turned up a plastic bag containing 15 grams of crack cocaine in a flip down compartment between the sun visors and a set of digital scales in the center console. Wemh admitted he intended to sell the crack.
- U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller took to the Senate floor Monday to defend Medicaid and its recipients whom he said were not politically active enough to defend their own interests. Rockefeller slammed Republican plans to cut taxes on corporations while simultaneously cutting Medicaid. Rockefeller says 60 percent don't want Medicaid touched, and 82 percent don't want Medicare touched. Democrats have been speaking out against a plan to cut Medicaid, and Rockefeller is one of 41 Democrats in the Senate who have vowed to fight the cuts. A Republican plan would cut $1 trillion in Medicaid for 2012. Rockefeller says it's an easy place for Republicans to cut, because it's not a politically risky move, but the program is needed. President Lyndon B. Johnson created Medicaid in 1965.
- Wade Davis, a former Kanawha County sheriff's deputy has had his probation reinstated after pleading guilty to violating it. Davis was ordered Monday by Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jim Stucky to write letters of apology to a 17 year old girl and her mother who claimed Davis pushed the girl during an organized youth activity. During last month's trial, other teenagers testified on behalf of Davis saying there was no criminal intent behind the conduct, and he pushed them in a playful manner. Davis was convicted of second degree murder following a 2003 stabbing death at a Sissonville gas station. He was later placed on probation.
- Brent Davis was sentenced Monday to 2-10 years in prison after an April guilty plea to the charge of DUI causing death. Police say Davis was intoxicated last September while driving on MacCorkle Avenue in South Charleston when he slammed into a motorcycle driven by Mike Frame, who died shortly after the accident. Davis was given credit for the three months he's already served in jail.
- West Virginia Acting Senate President Jeff Kessler says better treatment programs for people with drug and alcohol addiction issues would help reduce the growing populations in West Virginia's prisons and regional jails. Kessler says 80% of the people behind bars have substance abuse issues and will commit more crimes when released because those issues have not been properly treated. Regional Jail Authority Director Larry Parsons says more and more inmates are sleeping on mattresses on regional jail floors, even though almost 1,200 new bunks have recently been added. Parsons says the largest problem is that 1,800 inmates who should be in state prisons are being housed in regional jails and estimates indicate that number will only grow in the coming years. State officials are considering a plan to build another 300 bed medium security state prison, but Senator Kessler says, "You can't build your way out of this problem." Several measures designed to reduce the prison and jail populations are being considered during interim meetings for lawmakers, and new proposals could come up when the 2012 Regular Legislative Session begins in January.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 9:48 PM 
