Macon man stabbed in leg

Posted on Thu, Jul. 28, 2011

By Amy Leigh Womack

A 33-year-old Macon man was stabbed in the leg about 3 a.m. Wednesday in the 3800 block of Log Cabin Drive, according to Macon police.Rolando Riley, of West Oak Drive, told police he was joking around with a man he didn’t know. At some point, the other man became upset, and they began to fight, according to a police report.
A witness took Riley to The Medical Center of Central Georgia, according to the report.

Bibb investigators ask for public’s help to identify man’s body

Posted on Thu, Jul. 28, 2011

By Phillip Ramati

 

The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in identifying the body of a man found floating in the Ocmulgee River on Sunday morning.The body is described as a white male, possibly 45 to 55 years old, with a shaved head and full beard. He is 6 foot 2 inches tall and wears a size 13W shoe. He also has several tattoos on his chest, including a unicorn facing a white rose on the center of his chest; a tattoo of a castle in the upper center area of his chest; another rose tattoo directly above the castle’s rooftop; and a flower tattoo above his left breast. Other tattoos are more difficult to make out.
The man was wearing a white tank top undershirt, khaki pants and brown boots.
Anyone with information is asked to call sheriff’s Lt. Frank Thomas of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office at (478) 746-9441.

Decapitated dog’s death prompts huge online response

Posted on Thu, Jul. 28, 2011

By MIKE STUCKA

Hope, a mixed-breed dog that was nearly decapitated in Forsyth this month, was euthanized Tuesday after encountering serious breathing complications.She never left Caldwell Animal Hospital after she was taken there July 7.
“The good thing is she got to know that people could be nice to her, because she got a lot of love when she was in the hospital,” Pat Corley, president of Forsyth’s Save-A-Pet organization, said Wednesday.
Save-A-Pet planned to cover all of Hope’s medical expenses, but people from as far away as Australia donated to help out, and one Forsyth attorney wrote a check for about $1,500 to cover Hope’s expenses that day.
Janet and Shane Smith checked on Hope every day, but the couple never got a chance to take her home.
“She was sweet. She did fight. We just wanted her to have a chance,” Janet Smith said. “She just made such a great effect on so many people in such a short period of time.”
One Facebook page for Hope drew about 53,000 comments. A petition urging the maximum penalty against her assailant was expected to draw 500 signatures, but instead it got 5,000. The person charged with hurting Hope, 19-year-old Monterion Dionte Davis, remains in the Monroe County jail on a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals. Bond has been set at $15,000. Monroe County sheriff’s spokeswoman Allison Selman-Willis said there is nothing else with which to charge Davis. Hope belonged to Davis.
Janet Smith said a cable or cord had been around Hope’s neck, apparently for a long time. Her trachea had been cut, and she was breathing through her neck. A donor arranged to provide the dog with a Bailey chair, which allows dogs to eat slowly from a sitting position so the food slides down their throats.
Corley said Hope was about 40 pounds underweight.
“She just had so much bad happen to her,” Corley said.
But a tough life and death may lead to better lives for other animals, Corley said.
“I think one thing is it’s made people aware that, as in other places, we have animal abuse all over. And people don’t realize how bad it is. This is really bad,” Corley said. “Hope pulled us all together, I think, a little bit closer.”
Smith said that in a typical month she and her husband take home anywhere from three to 15 animals, nearly all to be adopted out to other people. Hope, though, was special, and the Smiths never planned to let her go.
“We just wanted to make sure that she never needed for anything again,” she said.
To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251.

Origin of article

Georgia soldier convicted of murder after crash diet defense

Posted on Fri, Jul. 29, 2011

By RUSS BYNUM

SAVANNAH -- A Georgia soldier who argued he shot a superior to death because a crash diet drove him to a violent state of delirium was convicted of premeditated murder Thursday by a court-martial.Under military law, 30-year-old Staff Sgt. Rashad Valmont of Jonesboro gets an automatic life sentence. The only question left for the five-member military jury that convicted him is whether Valmont should ever be eligible for parole.

Valmont was convicted in the June 2010 slaying of Master Sgt. Pedro Mercado. Both men served in a medical administration unit of the Army Reserve stationed at Fort Gillem outside Atlanta.
Sentencing would come Friday at the soonest at Fort Stewart, where the trial was held in southeast Georgia.
After four days of testimony, jurors ultimately rejected Valmont's defense that he was dehydrated and delirious after a different supervisor ordered him to shed 3 percent of his body fat in a dangerously short period. His fiancée testified he skipped meals and put in extra hours at the gym and sauna, pushing his body to exhaustion.
"This case was a tragedy because it was completely preventable," said Tim Bilecki, one of Valmont's civilian attorneys. "We believe the command really broke this soldier."

Two days after receiving written orders to drop the weight, Valmont left his work cubicle to retrieve a Glock handgun he kept in his car. He walked into Mercado's office and shot him six times as a coworker watched in horror.

The coworker, Anthony Williams, testified that he asked Valmont why he'd shot Mercado. He said Valmont replied: "I'm tired of him. (Expletive) him."

Prosecutors did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment. During the trial, they argued that Valmont was exacting revenge for poor performance reviews by his supervisors. Coworkers testified he'd been working earlier in the week on a rebuttal of his most recent evaluation. Mercado had also recently denied his requests for leave and vacation time.

After the shooting, Valmont left the building without harming anyone else and drove to a nearby police station. Prosecutors said he told officers while turning himself in: "I just shot someone at Fort Gillem."

Mercado, 47, was slain as he planned to retire after 30 years in the military, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. His family says he had made arrangements to begin work as a consultant.

Bilecki said the defense team will appeal Valmont's conviction. Meanwhile, his attorneys will push for the best available sentence of life with a possibility of parole.

"We would like to give our client an opportunity to one day get out of prison and see his family again," Bilecki said.

24 out of 39 Bibb County Schools did not make AYP

Today, the state released AYP numbers for local schools. They answer the question- are local schools meeting federal benchmarks?

In Bibb County, 24 out of 39 schools are not.· That includes all of the high schools in Bibb County: Central, Howard, Northeast, Rutland, Southwest, Westside, and Hutchings.

Here's a look at the Bibb County elementary schools that did not make AYP: Barden, Brookdale, Bruce, Burdell-Hunt, Burghard, Jones, King-Danforth, Rice, Riley, Rosa Taylor, Union, and Williams.

Five Middle Schools also didn't make AYP: Ballard-Hudson, Bloomfield, Howard, Rutland, and Weaver.

Bibb County Superintendent Dr. Romain Dallemand had this to say in a news release about the poor results, "With less than half of our schools making AYP on the first determination, we all must recognize the sense of urgency for implementing change at all levels of our schools and the district so that all of our students are receiving high levels of education."

We also checked Houston County's scores.· 7 out of 37 schools didn't meet federal benchmarks: Houston Career and Technical Center, Northside High, Perry High, Warner Robins High, Northside Middle, Thomson Middle, and Westside Elementary.

Across the state, 63 percent of schools made adequate yearly progress.
That's down from 71 percent last year.

Westside High School of Macon Georgia is under investigation

The Bibb County School District is conducting an investigation at Westside High School. The principal, Laura Perkins, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The district released a statement Thursday, saying it's not at liberty to provide any further detail since this is an ongoing investigation.

Middle Georgia might loose post offices

Post offices here in Middle Georgia are under the microscope today as they face the possibility of closing.

One post office is in Allentown. The Allentown Office is one of 3,700 post offices nationwide getting eyed for closure. The United Postal Service says since more and more people aren't going to post offices it's considering closing 1 in 10.

The Allentown office serves around 400 people and residents say losing it would be a big blow to their community.

"We got to cut the budget some how and if that's the way to do it. It'll be a shame, but I can understand why they did," says resident Eugene O'Neal.

Ideal, in Macon County, is another city that might loses it's post office. There's a plan to replace several post offices with "village post offices,” which would be in convenience stores or pharmacies and would offer stamps and other services.

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