Latest News

Evans shootout victim dies

Staff — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:47:29 +0000

One of the men involved in a shootout in Evans on Friday has died.

Patrick Smith, 33, died around 7:10 a.m. Saturday at Medical College of Georgia Hospital, according to Columbia County Coroner Vernon Collins.

His autopsy will be held at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation lab in Augusta on Monday.

The shooting occurred in the 600 block of Blanchard Road, where Smith was shot in the stomach and resident Philip Marshall, 44, was shot in the back.

Power restored to most Augusta area residents

Staff — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:39:42 +0000

After severe storms ripped through the area yesterday afternoon leaving about 11,000 Georgia Power customers, 2,978 SCE&G customers in Aiken County and about 1,400 Jefferson Electric customers without power, most of the area was restored this morning.

A spokesman for Georgia Power said there were still 36 Augusta customers without power at 11 a.m. They planned to have everyone back up by 1 p.m.

According to SCE&G's Web site, only two homes in Aiken County are still without power as of 11 a.m.

Former Greenbrier High School baseball star arrested

Staff — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:34:06 +0000

Former Greenbrier High School baseball star Will Price was among Four Spartanburg Methodist College student athletes charged Friday in connection with a Feb. 7 burglary of a Spartanburg, S.C., residence, according to a report Saturday in the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

Early voting underway in presidential primary

Staff — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 07:03:45 +0000

As of Friday afternoon, 401 people had voted in person and 682 had requested a ballot by mail during advance voting in the March 6 Presidential Preference Primary and Special Election, according to the Richmond County Board of Elections.

Holloway warns teens about travel dangers

Donnie Fetter — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:40:17 +0000

The mother of a young woman whose disappearance became an international story warned Augusta Preparatory Day School students Friday about the dangers of overseas travel.

“One thing I will do is carry her story for the rest of my life,” Beth Holloway said of her daughter Natalee in a video clip she played before her speech to the Martinez private school’s high school students.

Natalee Holloway, 18, disappeared in 2005 during a graduation trip to Aruba with classmates from Mountain Brook High School in Alabama.

Jury finds Bradford guilty of felony murder in slaying of water plant employee

Valerie Rowell — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 03:38:53 +0000

A Hephzibah man was sentenced to life in prison Friday night for the murder of a Columbia County utility worker.

After six hours of deliberation, Thomas Eugene Bradford Jr., 43, was found guilty of felony murder and possession of a firearm during commission of a crime in the death of Raymond V. Lee, 38, a supervisor at the Reed Creek Water Pollution Control Plant.

Bradford was found not guilty of malice murder.

ASU's "Cowboy Mike" to call it quits in August

Tracey McManus — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:15:57 +0000

Those who’ve never met the man recognize him by the big, bellowing laugh and 10-gallon cowboy hat.

The ones who have listened to his Augusta State University lectures know him as the expert on all things Old West.

His name is Michael Searles, but nearly no one calls him that. Like the nameplate on his office door announces, they simply call him Cowboy Mike.

“I don’t even think I know his real first and last name,” said communications sophomore Shanese Nixon, who took a post-Civil War history class from Searles last year.

Aiken County man arrested for manufacturing moonshine

Staff — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:46:50 +0000

An Aiken County man was arrested Thursday in connection with an underground moonshine operation, authorities said.

Boyce Dewayne Fields, 42, of Trenton, was charged with manufacturing illegal liquors after investigators found a “fully operational moonshine still,” that was capable of making around 200 gallons of the illegal liquor at a time in his home, according to an email from Aiken County Sheriff’s Capt. Troy Elwell.

Two men wounded in Evans shootout

Staff — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:39:37 +0000

Two men shot each other Friday afternoon at an Evans home.

The shooting occurred in the 600 block of Blanchard Road, where resident Philip Marshall, 44, was shot in the back and Patrick Smith, 33, in the stomach, according to Columbia County sheriff’s Capt. Steve Morris.

Morris said several shots were fired.

Both were taken to Medical College of Georgia Hospital. Marshall was in serious condition, Morris said.

Morris didn’t immediately know what started the fight.

2007 double homicide suspect brought back to Richmond County

Summer Moore — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:52:16 +0000

A double homicide and kidnapping suspect is back in Richmond County after spending five years in DeKalb County custody, Sgt. James Kelly said.

Richard Nicole Williams, 32, is back in Augusta to face two charges of murder, kidnapping and possession of a deadly weapon in the deaths of his uncle and another man on Dec. 14, 2007.

When deputies arrived at Sharp Edge Barber Shop about 1:13 a.m., they found Robert Carroll, 35, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

Two men arrested in Feb. 6 North Augusta robbery, kidnapping

Bianca Cain Johnson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 20:36:29 +0000

Two men have been arrested in connection with a Feb. 6 armed robbery and kidnapping in North Augusta.

Jodeci Jaquanis Johnson and John Antwoin Ways, both 18 and of Aiken, were sought for the kidnapping and armed robbery of six people at a home on E. Martintown Road.

Both suspects were apprehended and have been charged with several counts of armed robbery, kidnapping, assault and battery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

A third suspect, who has not been identified, has not been caught.

McDuffie dragging death suspects could face indictment by summer

Rob Pavey — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 19:46:50 +0000

A Dearing man and his girlfriend could face a McDuffie County jury as early as September in the slaying of the man’s ex-wife, who was shot, tied to a pickup and dragged more than five miles along a rural highway.

Ricky Charles Wells, 43, and Tina Ann Wells, 40, of Boneville, were charged in the Sept. 29 death of Jennifer Kitchens Wells and remain jailed on bonds set at $1 million apiece. The bond was required because the suspects had been jailed longer than 90 days without indictment.

Flu season starts late but may be picking up, CDC says

Tom Corwin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:47:26 +0000

The flu season is off to “a very late start” but has begun, though when it will peak or end is unknown, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.

The number of lab samples testing positive for influenza increased to 14.4 percent for the week that ended Feb. 18, up from 13.4 percent and crossing an important threshold for the CDC.

Former Augusta resident competes on 'America's Next Top Model'

LaTina Emerson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:38:27 +0000

Seymone Cohen-Fobish was a dental assistant student at Augusta Technical College when she got the call asking if she wanted to compete on America’s Next Top Model.

In April, the former Greenbrier High and Augusta Christian Schools student auditioned for the show in Atlanta, though she accidentally tried out for the All-Stars cycle for previous contestants and wasn’t selected.

House votes to change local elections to July

Walter Jones — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:21:00 +0000

ATLANTA — The House voted largely along party lines Friday to change the date of elections in Augusta.

The measure by Rep. Barbara Sims, R-Augusta, shifts the election date for consolidated cities and counties from November to July. She argued that legislation last year that changed the election date for judicial elections was intended to include Augusta as well.