Wilmjax News

A Fort Bragg soldier admitted in military court this morning that he stalked neighborhoods looking for homes to break into, and raped women that he found inside.

Spc. Menkaura A. Moss pleaded guilty to two rapes, a sexual assault and other crimes that occurred in Spring Lake and Fort Benning, Ga., early this year.

Under his plea arrangement, Moss agreed to a sentence of 60 years in custody. He will be eligible for parole in 20 years.

Moss, 22, described during his court-martial this morning how he walked through neighborhoods wherever he was staying. He looked for homes he could break into — those with unlocked doors or windows. If he found women inside, he sexually assaulted them.

Read more.

CARTHAGE — A Taylortown councilman’s drug case has been continued until Dec. 11.

Lonnie Jones III appeared in Moore County Superior Court on Wednesday. His lawyer, Dusty Rhoades, said he was in discussions with prosecutors.

Jones, 38, was charged in July with 12 felonies and five misdemeanor drug charges after Moore County sheriff’s deputies raided his home.

Read more.

(11/16/07 –EDGECOMBE COUNTY) - Authorities arrested three teenagers and charged them in the murder a Edgecombe County convenience store clerk.

It happened Thursday night outside Princeville at Exum’s Grocery on Highway 33.

The sheriff says the 61-year-old store clerk was alone inside when a group of teens tried to rob him. Several shots were exchanged. The clerk tried to run after the gunman, but collapsed in the store yard.

Officers found Ahmad Nimer laying in the grass with gunshot wounds to his upper torso and hand.

He was rushed to the hospital– but died a few hours later.

Read more.

Charlotte, NC — Someone put two nooses on the UNC Charlotte campus this week.

According to the university, an employee found two ropes tied in noose knots in a bucket in a campus storage area.

The Chancellor says the school is investigating. He also stresses the UNC Charlotte’s zero-tolerance policy for racial discrimination.

Read more.

Students who are black, poor or suffer from disabilities are less likely to succeed on standardized tests, state data shows.

At the district level, all five area school districts failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress during the 2006-07 school year. A federal accountability measure, AYP measures student performance on math and reading tests among various socioeconomic subgroups.

In order for a school or a district to make AYP, students in every subgroup must reach a target goal. For example, about 77 percent of students in each subgroup needed to show proficiency on end-of-grade reading tests in order to make AYP.

While several districts reached more than 85 percent of their targets, no local district had every subgroup make AYP. The subgroups that most frequently missed the mark were black students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.

In the Camden County Schools, for example, state data shows that the school district missed AYP because black students and students with disabilities in grades 3-8 didn’t show proficiency on end-of-grade math tests.

Read more.

HARNETT COUNTY — The Dunn Police Department is trying to locate 34 year old Joaquin Ramirex.

Officials tell us he shot a woman, the mother of two children who he abducted and then fled the scene.

The children have been found but the hunt is still on for their father wanted for attempted murder.

Read more.

Pitt County sheriff’s deputies arrested a man Thursday for the rape of an 18-year-old woman nearly seven months ago.

Ferrell Donte Kenlaw, 25, 338 Linda Drive, Washington, N.C., was arrested shortly before 5:30 p.m. and charged with first-degree rape, two counts first-degree sexual offense, first-degree kidnapping, and first-degree burglary, according to a news release.

Reports indicated that at 5 a.m. on April 23, the 18-year-old victim and her sister were sleeping in a River Creek Mobile Home Park residence, near the Beaufort County line, when the victim awakened to the sound of someone forcing open the front door. A black male entered her bedroom, put what felt like a gun to her head, raped her, and asked for money before exiting through the rear door, the release stated.

Read more.

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.

Read more.

The civil rights group fears police will engage in racial profiling.

Greensboro, NC — The NAACP is taking aim at Greensboro’s new gang task force.

Members of the civil rights group fear police officers will focus more on putting minority youth in jail.

They would rather see a gang prevention plan.

The NAACP wants to deal with causes of gang activity such as poverty and the drop out rate.

NAACP member Deena Hayes said, “One thing, I think we need an analysis here. What happened here in Guilford County? How have we gone from gangs in the single digits to gangs in the double digits? What’s happened around economic development? We’ve had major employment losses in this county for some time.”

Read more.

(11/09/07 –DURHAM) - Authorities need help finding a person of interest in the unsolved murder of a Durham church deacon.

On September 26, family members found 89-year-old Charles Forest Davis stabbed to death in his home.

The day following the murder deputies spotted Davis’ stolen car with two men in it. After a short chase, the men fled the car on foot but police were unable to apprehend either one of the men.

Read more.

(11/09/07 — DURHAM) - Police arrested a man they believe robbed and assaulted a Duke University graduate student.

David Hill was wanted on multiple charges, including assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury and robbery.

Police arrested him Friday afternoon in Durham at the Howard Johnson Hotel on Hillside Road.

Read more.

(11/09/07 — FAYETTEVILLE) - Fayetteville Police detectives are asking for the public’s help to identify a man who brutally beat a convenience store clerk at the Hess-Wilco Station on Raeford Road Friday morning.

Officials say the attack happened sometime between 4:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. at the store in the 3700-blok of Raeford Road. Officials say the suspect, caught on surveillance video, attacked the clerk and continued to assault the woman after she lost consciousness.

The man went on to take cigarettes and money from the store before getting away.

The suspect is approximately 6′ feet tall and 180 pounds.

Read more.

A noose was found at a top university in our state.
    
Campus officials say a noose made of toilet paper was found yesterday inside a bathroom at North Carolina State University.
    
Someone found it in a maintenance building that’s usually used only by employees who have keys.

Read more.

Disagreement over whether a Civil War ancestor should lie beneath a Union or a Confederate headstone has led to the arrest of a Gaston County jailer, charged with desecrating the grave of the veteran.

A warrant was served Oct. 15 on Richard Hill, a detention officer with the Gaston County Sheriff’s Department, Gaston County Chief Deputy Tim Farris said Monday.

The warrant was issued in Madison County, where the grave lies. It was taken out by Sheila Grindstaff of Mars Hill, a great-great granddaughter of the soldier.

According to the warrant, Hill, apparently a sixth-generation descendant, “tore down and removed a tombstone on the grave” of Stephen S. Shook, who is buried in a family cemetery behind Upper Laurel Baptist Church near Mars Hill, “then replaced the stone with a Confederate stone.”

According to the warrant, Shook was “a Union soldier who died on June 10, 1902.”

But before that he was a Confederate, the family agrees.

Read more.

(10/23/07 — RALEIGH) - The man charged with stabbing two Meals on Wheels workers in Rocky Mount faced a judge Tuesday morning as the District Attorney announced his office will seek the death penalty in this case.

The hearing this morning lasted only a few minutes. The judge reviewed the charges and a prosecutor from the District Attorney’s Office announced they plan to seek the death penalty in the stabbing death of 58-year-old Debbie Korengay.

In the courtroom, Tommie Holiday, 30, said nothing and paused before acknowledging the judge when asked if he understood the crime he’s facing - first degree murder charges in the death of Debbie Korengay and first degree attempted murder in the repeated stabbing of Eve Beasley.

Read more.