Child dies from accident involving dump truck

News Briefs From Across The State

By Monica Land

Toddler and five other children involved in accident

A 2-year-old from Union County has died at a Memphis hospital from injuries suffered in a traffic accident on May 18.

County Coroner Mark Golding says Harris Phillips died at 5 a.m. Monday at the Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis.

Phillips was one of six children riding in a van that collided with a dump truck on U.S. Highway 78 near Blue Springs on May 18. Three other people were hurt. Golding says he did not know their conditions.

The accident remains under investigation.

Body found in Hancock County identified

Hancock County officials say a man investigators believe drowned Sunday afternoon in the Mississippi Sound has been identified.

The Sun Herald reports Coroner Jim Faulk identified the victim as 40-year-old Randall Lee Martin of Denham Springs, La.

Chief Investigator Glenn Grannan said fishermen out floundering about 2:45 a.m. Monday found the man’s body in the water near Lakeshore Road.

Grannan said Martin was camping with friends from Denham Springs. He says Martin and a friend had been out swimming and when the man turned up missing, his friends thought he had left with some women they had met on the beach.

Charges filed in Meridian shooting

Meridian police have formally charged a suspect with murder in a fatal shooting.

Police Capt. Dean Harper says murder charges have been filed against 22-year-old Jeremy Powe in the death of 23-year-old Johnny S. Neely.

Powe’s bond was set Tuesday at $250,000.

Harper says Neely was found about 10:30 a.m. Monday lying in the street suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Neely was pronounced dead at the scene.

Harper says autopsy results are pending.

Rankin County man charged with exploiting child

Thirty-two-year-old Charles Crownover, of Brandon, has been arrested and charged with two counts of exploiting a child. Crownover was arrested this week by investigators with the Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Unit with assistance from the Madison Police Department and the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department, all partners in the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

Attorney General Jim Hood did not give specifics in the case but said Crownover was taken to the Rankin County jail. His initial appearance has not yet been set. If convicted, he faces up to 80 years behind bars.