Wilmjax News

On May 14, 2008, just after 8 p.m., New Bern police were called to a home at 2011 Waters St., in reference to possible drug activity. 

When officers arrived, they smelled the odor of marijuana coming from behind the residence, and saw a black male suspect who appeared to be packaging marijuana for distribution. When the officer called out to the suspect, the man ran into the home. New Bern police followed the suspect inside the residence and after a brief struggle took him into custody.

While officers were in the home, they saw additional evidence of narcotic activity. Police obtained a search warrant and recovered more than three pounds of marijuana, crack cocaine, ecstasy pills and large sums of cash.

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Jacksonville police are looking for a suspect in a shooting on Maypatch Road at around 3 a.m. this morning.

A Jacksonville man, who asked not to be identified, was shot in the left elbow by an unknown gunman while sitting in his car in front of Tarheel Taxi, said police Capt. Tim Akers.

“(The driver) was talking on his cell phone when he saw a black male wearing a dark hoodie walking up to his car with a semi-automatic handgun,” Akers said. “(The driver) drove off, but the suspect shot him in the arm.”

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Jose Aguilar told Onslow County Sheriff’s Department deputies that his 2-year-old son had slipped in the tub, falling and hitting his head. The boy was rushed to the hospital in a coma.

But investigators said two things bothered them: the evidence at the scene did not match Aguilar’s story and Aguilar had been charged with abusing his son when the boy was 10 months old.

When the boy died nine days later on April 10, 2006, deputies arrested Aguilar and charged him with murder.

Aguilar, 26, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and felony child abuse resulting in serious injury and was sentenced to a combined total of 28 to 35 years in prison by Superior Court Judge John Nobles.

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Quick work Monday may have stopped another bank robbery in Jacksonville, as police arrested a gunman in the parking lot of a bank who allegedly had just carjacked a vehicle from a woman and her small child.

Gideon Tawiah Stevens, 25, of New River Drive, was charged by Jacksonville police with two counts of first-degree kidnapping, armed robbery, larceny of a motor vehicle and carrying a concealed weapon, according to warrants.

Early Monday afternoon, a woman standing on the side of the U.S. 17 bypass with a 2-year-old child flagged down Jacksonville police officer Stephen Fell, who was conducting traffic enforcement along the highway, said Capt. Gary Dixon of the Jacksonville Police Department.

The woman told Fell she had been kidnapped by a man with a handgun, who came up behind her while she and her son were sitting in her Chevrolet pickup in the New River Shopping Center. The gunman forced his way into the pickup on the driver’s side, police said.

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A district court judge has revoked an earlier bond and set a new one for a Jacksonville man who is accused of committing a sexual assault while out on bail from a previous sexual assault charge.

Leonel Humberto Saballos, 35, of Broken Oak Court, is in the Onslow County Jail under a $700,000 secured bond. He would have to present the full amount of his bond to the court to be free prior to his court date, which has not been set. He was ordered by the court to surrender his passports or other documents he could use to leave the country, said Dewey Hudson, district attorney for the 4th Prosecutorial District.

Saballos was arrested by the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department on Sept. 2 and charged with breaking into a home and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl. He had been charged in June with 14 other sex charges and was released July 9 on a reduced bond, law enforcement officials said.

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Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown released more details Tuesday about Sunday’s mobile home brawl that left five people injured - two shot, two stabbed and one beaten with a 2-by-4 board.

Sgt. Richard Baumgarner interviewed Dontuey C. Danley, one of the gunshot victims, still recovering at Pitt Memorial Hospital Monday. Danley told Baumgarner that the fray was not about child custody like Carlis Sample, one of the suspects arrested in the fight, had told police.

Danley said Carlis Sample had been pushing for a fight all weekend, beginning at a club early Saturday night.

Carlis Sample wanted to fight his ex-girlfriend, Terri Hayes, so bad that he sent a taxi cab to pick her and some friends up and bring them to his home on Swain Loop Road, Danley told Baumgarner. Danley, Hayes and other friends took the taxi to Carlis Sample’s home and beat him down, Danley told Baumgarner.

Sunday afternoon, Carlis Sample, his current girlfriend America Batten, his brother Marlyn Sample and others showed up at the Whispering Pines mobile home park to retaliate, Brown said.

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One man is being sought by authorities and three people have been charged after a mobile home brawl Sunday that left two people shot, two people stabbed and one person severely beaten with a 2-by-4 board.

The Onslow County Sheriff’s Department is looking for Marlyn Sample, 33, of Lakewood Drive, the man authorities said shot a another man in the back and a pregnant woman in the leg.

Carlis Sample, 31, and America Batten, 24, both of Swain Loop Road, and Antoinette Patton, 32, of Rocky Run Road, were all charged with assault on a female, breaking and entering and felony conspiracy, according to warrants.

Marlyn Sample is charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, according to warrants at the magistrates office.

The man shot in the back was taken to Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital and then airlifted to Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, Sheriff Ed Brown said. He was in stable condition, Brown said Monday.

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ONSLOW COUNTY — An alleged repeat sex offender is in jail in Onslow County.

Officials say Leonell Humberto Saballos broke into a home and sexually assaulted a 17-year-old girl around 4 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Saballos already faces 14 counts of sexual offense stemming from his arrest in June.

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A man who left the state after allegedly stabbing another man over the weekend is now in custody.

Charles Poole Jr., 30, of Briar Hollow Road, turned himself in to the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday. He is charged with attempted murder and first-degree burglary.

According to a Sheriff’s Department news release, Poole forced his way into a residence on Gum Branch Road on Sunday that was occupied by his estranged wife Crystal Poole, 30, of Gum Branch Road, and George Taylor, 38, of Lake Cole Road, Midway Park.

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ROCKY POINT — Pender County authorities say that two men arrested over the weekend on drug trafficking charges are illegal immigrants who may be part of a larger network.

Alejandro Hernandez-Garcia, 31, and Luis Escobido Gonzales, 28, were arrested Saturday in Rocky Point by the Pender County Sheriff’s Department and charged with charged with three counts of trafficking cocaine, possession with intent to sell, manufacture and deliver cocaine, maintaining a vehicle to deliver narcotics and possession of drug paraphernalia. Gonzales was also charged with possession of a concealed handgun.

“Our narcotics unit has been working an investigation on a large drug trafficking case involving several people, and pursuant to that we made a traffic stop,” said Capt. Jamie Ezzell of the Sheriff’s Department. “In the vehicle were two Hispanic males who admitted they were in the country illegally.”

Traffic stop bust: The Pender County Sheriff’s Department said it seized these three kilogram packages of cocaine and a handgun from two suspects during a traffic stop Saturday.

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Top left, Stamper; top right, Spicer; bottom left, James; bottom right, Dixon

An investigation into the sale of a popular drug at a local high school led to the arrests of four individuals.

Capt. Rick Sutherland of the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department said a deputy got a tip that an individual was selling ecstasy to students at Southwest High School in the spring. The school resource officer looked into the allegations.

“By the time school got out, he hadn’t been able to prove anything,” Sutherland said.
Sutherland said the investigation was then turned over to the narcotics division, and working with agents from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, they conducted surveillance on a residence in the Southwest area.

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Police say gang-related graffiti has been appearing on public buildings in New Bern in recent months.

One boy was arrested July 16.

Police said he was found vandalizing abandoned storage sheds in Fox Chase Village, a mobile home community off Neuse Boulevard.

Police said they found the boy with wet paint on his hands holding two cans of spray paint.

He was charged with damage to real property, littering and possession of marijuana.

On July 10 police went to the 1800 block of Durham Street where a boy had defaced the roadway in front of a house. He was arrested and charged with second-degree trespassing and damage to property.

Beth Stevenson, New Bern police spokeswoman, said graffiti is showing up in areas throughout the city.

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July 18, 2007 - 6:31PM

U.S. Marshals and Jacksonville police are looking for new leads in the case of a man who escaped from a federal prison in western Pennsylvania in December 2005.

Michael Hill, 41, was serving a 19-and-a-half-year prison term for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base, a crime he committed in Jacksonville, a deputy U.S. marshal said.

He has several family members in Jacksonville and may return to this area, police said.

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July 9, 2007 - 9:11PM

The following is the written statement issued by former Jacksonville city councilman Jerome Willingham on Monday announcing his candidacy for the City Council this year and addressing criminal charges pending against him:

When I attempted to address the allegations against me, and the illegal actions of the NC Sate Bar, I was censored. Accordingly, I will have no further specific comment about those false charges.

I am returning to public participation because I refuse to place my life on hold any longer. Those issues have been lingering for about three years. I have not committed any crime. I have no criminal record. I know attorneys who have committed crimes, and they have not missed one day of practice. When I see public figures being more successful after convictions, I refuse to be further victimized or penalized as I stand here as an innocent person. I have been recognized for providing outstanding performance in every employment capacity I have ever served in except for my confrontations with the NC State Bar.

I decided to file for the Ward One seat because I have proven that I can express, and execute a beneficial vision for the City of Jacksonville. The challenge is to juxtapose quality of life issues and necessities, both of which will be counter balanced by tax equity. I see waterfront development as overdue; but my community has anxiety about catastrophic tax increases generated passively because of a neighbor’s land enhancement. I have the solution of palatable coexistence.

I have no problem with anyone being critical. But put whatever you say in context: you cannot, in fairness, define my public life without mentioning my leadership in making our city election system more diverse and representative; without mentioning my successful attack on a city ordinance that restricted the freedom of assembly (a constitutional right) in my community; without mentioning my contribution to landmark projects like Riverwalk Crossing, Kerr Street Recreation Center, Sturgeon City, the new city hall, Jacksonville Commons, the new public service facility, roads and utilities in Georgetown, and preserving the zoning integrity of Bell Fork Homes.

Statement here.

Chrissy Vick
July 9, 2007 - 8:56PM
Daily News Staff

In the extensive political history of Jerome Willingham, a former Jacksonville city councilman, he has sued the city of Jacksonville while serving as a councilman, was disbarred as an attorney and has been charged with embezzlement.

Now, he’s running for Jacksonville City Council again.

Willingham, 52, filed to run for Ward 1 of Jacksonville, promising to “express and execute a beneficial vision for the city of Jacksonville” in a written statement Monday. He urged voters to take his past “in context.”

In September 2005, the former attorney turned himself in after being wanted by the State Bureau of Investigation on an embezzlement charge from late July 2005.

Willingham is accused of embezzling $52,509 through a real estate closing from George Wigfall, a client he represented while a practicing attorney, according to warrants at the time, a Daily News report said. The case is pending and is scheduled to be taken up by the District Court on Aug. 22, according to a district court official Monday.

The N.C. State Bar ruled in October 2004 that Willingham could not practice law in the state for five years because of how he handled the funds of three clients, including Wigfall, and a Disciplinary Hearing Commission order at the time.

He also lost his license in 1995 for allegedly violating State Bar bookkeeping rules.

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