Wartburg News

Foreign exchange students gather at the home of Lendelle and Sue Clark for an orientation meeting earlier this school year.

At 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 15, Morgan County citizens' pleas for help were diverted and none realized it.

Tyler Eichholtz watched his brother, Cory, snag a few headlines two years ago as a Bearden High School wide receiver.

TennesseanTravel.com Rock climbers carve out spots in Tennessee Yes, there is the splendor of the Rocky Mountains, the allure of Yosemite, and the tempting red towers of the Western desert.

The Wartburg Police Department is celebrating a big win: a brand new, state of the art police cruiser.

A man who pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in connection with what a prosecutor called a "drug deal gone bad'' received an effective 15-year sentence Friday.

Stanley Brown, 37, of Nashville admitted to:

1. Shooting 27-year-old Tommy Morrell once in the head with a .38-caliber handgun, killing him, on Oct. 7, 2007;

2. Shooting Charles Ward, 39, in the arm and shoulder;

3. Stealing Morrell's 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

The shootings occurred inside a Moses Lane home in Roane County's Midtown community.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol reports a Harriman man has died after overturning his vehicle in a drug related wreck in Morgan County.

Jason O. Harris was traveling northbound on Highway 27 near Armes Chapel Road when his vehicle went off the road and struck a tree.

Harris died of his injuries at UT Medical Center.

THP has not yet said what drugs were involved.

A man has been arrested for the burglary of a Wartburg church that nearly cost the pastor and his wife laptops with pictures of their late daughter.

Phillip D. Burgess, 27, of Wartburg, is charged with burglary and theft of property more than $1,000.

Union Baptist Church was broken into this past Saturday.

A brand new projector worth $850, $40 in cash, and two laptop computers that belonged to Pastor Jernigan and his wife were taken.

Joseph Huckeby, 17, is a rising senior at Sunbright School who spearheaded the effort to build a concrete landing pad for emergency helicopters in Deer Lodge, Tenn.

For 10 weeks Joseph Huckeby oversaw heavy equipment belching diesel fumes and the efforts of 40 people to construct a concrete landing pad in Morgan County for medical helicopters that previously had to land in open fields.

Not bad for a 17-year-old rising senior at Sunbright School who has Spina bifida, a birth defect of the spine that causes him to amble with a limp and forced him to undergo 20 surgeries.

"We've had rain. It's not super bad. It's still bad, but if we don't have rain, it has so much iron you can't even cook with it," Reba Bates said.

A section of Highway 62 in Morgan County buckled Thursday afternoon during blasting for a road widening project.

All criminal charges in a case centering on an accidental shooting this past March in Meigs County were dropped by the DAG Russell Johnson’s office during a hearing in General Sessions Court Thursday, Jul;y 9th.

Shane Godsey was walking back to his vehicle after a day of hunting turkey along the Tennessee River. Another hunter, William Whaley of Decatur, allegedly mistook Godsey for a turkey and fired into the bushes, hitting him with approximately 30 shotgun pellets.

Originally, Assistant District Attorney Kristin Kelly had no plans to file charges against Whaley. Godsey's lawyer, Jes Beard, filed an affidavit that resulted in a reckless endangerment charge against Whaley.

Kelly approached Beard with a proposal to drop the charges against all three people involved with the state covering the court costs. Beard wanted to see the charges against Whaley pursued and advised Godsey not to accept the agreement.

Before a decision could be made, Kelly informed the court the state was dropping the charges against all three individuals without prejudice, meaning the issue cannot be raised again.

Beard objected to the decision, saying his client had not agreed to dismiss the charges against Godsey, but admitted the district attorney's office had almost total control in the matter.

Giles maintains his innocence, attorney says By TAVIA D. GREEN * The Leaf-Chronicle * July 7, 2009 A judge decided Monday to reduce bond for a former youth minister accused of sexually abusing teenage girls, and he sent the case to the grand jury.

A federal grand jury indicted 14 people on a 34-count indictment in connection with an alleged methcathinone ring in Morgan County, according to U.S. Attorney James R. Deadrick.

Morgan County Sheriff Dennis Ledbetter said, “This group is responsible for putting a lot of dope into Morgan County. We want to make sure they get locked up for as long as possible.”

The Indicted, alphabetically by last name:

- Eddie E. Aslinger, 51, of Lansing, Tennessee

- Michael Carroll, a/k/a Mickey Carroll, Michael Herrell, Bo-bo, 41, of Oliver Springs, Tennessee

- David Chamblee, a/k/a David James Chamblee, Jr., 23, of Oliver Springs, Tennessee

- Tiffany Crass, 21, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee

- Brandon Martin, a/k/a Brandon Scoot Martin, 29, of Oliver Springs, Tennessee

- Danny Lee Monday, 44, of Oliver Springs, Tennessee

- Lisa Orme, a/k/a Lisa Dudas, 38, of Coalfield, Tennessee

-Deborah Phillips, a/k/a Debbie, Deborah Braden, Deborah Crabtree, Deborah C. Daugherty, 53, of Oliver Springs, Tennessee

- Frances Richardson, a/k/a Frances M. Phillips, 40, of Coalfield, Tennessee

- Natasha Richardson, a/k/a Tasha, 22, of Oliver Springs, Tennessee

- Mary Roberts, a/k/a Mary Carroll 33, of Sunbright, Tennessee

- Nerisa Rogers, a/k/a Nerisa Jane Aslinger, Nerisa Phillips, 30, of Briceville, Tennessee

- Elizabeth Scisco, 24, of Oak Ridge, Tennessee

- Deadrea Wilson, a/k/a Dee-dee, Deadra Candice Martin, 28, of Harriman, Tennessee.

According to the arrest warrant: A Morgan County 911 dispatcher listened as a gunshot rang out over the phone. The mortally wounded Memford Lynn Hamby then told the dispatch employee that Heather Young had just shot him again. Two more gunshots are then heard on the 911 tape, followed by silence.

The warrant further states that Heather Young confessed to shooting Hamby.

Earlier in the 10-minute phone call, Hamby told the dispatcher he'd wrestled the gun from his assailant and hit her on her head with it, and that she had left to go get another weapon.

A Sunbright man who was fatally shot managed to call 911 as he lay dying. He said that he had snatched the weapon away from his assailant but she'd gone to get another gun.

Memford Lynn Hamby, 60, was found dead inside his Sunbright residence on Thursday. He had been shot at least once in the front torso.

A woman who lives nearby was taken into custody and is being questioned by TBI.

========June 26 Update================

32-year-old Heather Young, in custody in the Morgan County Jail in Wartburg, has been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Memford Lynn Hamby.

A Morgan County jury deliberated just 20 minutes Thursday before convicting a man of the aggravated rape of a 90-year-old woman.

Harold L. Morris, 49, faces a minimum of 15 years in prison for his conviction of aggravated rape, aggravated burglary and aggravated robbery.

Morris, a Deer Lodge resident, forced his way into the elderly woman's house in Lancing on April 8, 2007 and bit her on her breast during the sexual assault. After the attack, Morgan ripped jewelry and a watch off the woman's fingers and hand, further injuring her.

Morris was arrested several hours later in Crossville. Items found in Morris's possession linked him to the incident.

Knoxville News-Sentinel editorial, June 26, 2009:

Justice was not served when prosecutors in the Ninth Judicial District agreed to five years' probation for a Lenoir City man who shot his girlfriend to death.

John Kenneth Harvey, 26, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the February 2008 death of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21.

Harvey admits he was arguing with McMahan when he picked up a loaded .22 from a nearby table. The two argued often, according to McMahan's father, who said Harvey bullied his daughter, and "she said she was going to leave him several times before the shooting."

The gun was a single-action revolver, and the detective in the case said it had to be cocked before it could be fired. The powder burns he found showed McMahan was shot at close range.......

If prosecutors could not do better than a no-jail-time deal in that case, they should have gone to trial and let 12 citizens decide who had the best ballistics expert.

This plea bargain simply undermines faith in the judicial process.

(The full editorial is longer than Topix allows on the news board. To read it in its entirety, visit the accompanying link. The Ninth Judicial District includes Loudon, Roane, Morgan, and Meigs counties.)

The parents of a Lenoir City woman shot and killed by her boyfriend are speaking out against a plea bargain that sentenced their daughter's killer to five years on probation.

The plea-deal was granted by the office of Russell Johnson, District Attorney General for Roane, Loudon, Meigs, and Morgan counties.

"I want justice for my daughter," said Sarah Berry, mother of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21, who was shot by John Kenneth Harvey, 26, in February 2008.

Harvey was originally charged with second-degree murder, and admits he shot the woman during an argument but claims it was an accident. The charge was reduced to reckless homicide.

The victim’s mother, Sarah Berry, said she met several times with the district attorney general's office. She says the office wanted to avoid a trial from the beginning,

The victim's father, John McMahan, said he witnessed the couple's frequent arguments and what he called "bullying" by Harvey. McMahan says his daughter was going to leave Harvey. He says:

I know that's why he shot her, because she said she was going to leave"

Assistant Attorney General Bill Reedy says one critical factor in not pursuing a murder charge was a "dying declaration" made by the victim that the shooting was accidental. The witness was said to be Nathan Lane, who called the ambulance that night.

Lane says that he never heard a dying declaration and never agreed to testify to hearing such a thing:

By the time I saw her she was already going into convulsions. She didn't say a thing to me."

For more details, see the full story.

A Lenoir City man who admitted shooting and killing his girlfriend during an argument last year will receive five years' probation for the crime.

John Kenneth Harvey, 26, was arrested in February 2008 and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Savannah Kathy McMahan, 21.

Prosecutors said they reduced the charge to reckless homicide and agreed to five years' supervised probation after reviewing the evidence in the case.