Top Stories – Page 93 – The Mississippi Link

FBI Jackson Hosts Public Safety Training

The Jackson Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigations is facing their second day of their Active Shooter Executive Law Enforcement Conference in Starkville.

The conference, which began on Tuesday and will wrap up on Wednesday, July 17, is the second of at least three to be held in various locations in Mississippi.

The conference was developed pursuant to a 2013 White House training initiative and was designed to present local, tribal, federal, and state law enforcement partners with best crisis management practices and lessons learned in mass casualty/active shooter events. […]

Former officers sentenced for stealing govt. funds

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Two former law enforcement officers were sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee for theft of government funds and property.

Zach Robinson, a former deputy with the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office, and Kent Daniels, a former Jackson Police officer and investigator for the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office, were each sentenced to 12 months in federal prison.

They were also ordered to pay joint restitution in the amount of $21,996. […]

Settlement reached in death of Mississippi player

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The family of a Mississippi football player who died following a workout in 2010 has reached a settlement in a wrongful death lawsuit against the university and the NCAA.

Bennie Abram III, a 20-year-old non-scholarship player from Southaven, collapsed during an offseason workout and later died at a hospital in Oxford. An autopsy determined Abram’s death was caused by complications from sickle cell trait, which can alter red blood cells after strenuous exercise.

According to settlement documents, the family will receive $50,000 from the insurance company for the university’s athletic foundation. The Abrams’ attorney, Gene Egdorf of Houston, Texas, says the family also will receive $275,000 from the NCAA’s insurance policy. […]

DOJ to launch hate crime inquiry in case of George Zimmerman

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Although he is said to be in hiding after his acquittal in the shooting death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, trouble for George Zimmerman appears to be far from over.

The Justice Department said Sunday that it was restarting its investigation into Martin’s death in 2012 to consider possible separate hate crime charges against Zimmerman.

Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot Martin was acquitted of all charges by a jury late Saturday. […]

Elderly Morton woman killed in freak accident

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Reportedly, no charges have been filed in a freak accident last month that claimed the life of 73-year-old Morton woman. WLBT reported that Catherine Westman was coming out of a nail salon when she was run over by a forklift in the parking lot of the Fairway Grocery store during the afternoon hours of June 12.

The forklift was being used to remove boxes.

Scott County Coroner Joe Bradford said Westman was taken to UMC in Jackson where she died in surgery. […]

Simpson County woman killed in accident

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A one car accident has claimed the life of a Simpson County woman.

Jefferson Davis County Deputy Coroner Kathy Stephens says the accident happened on Granby Road around 4:30 a.m. Sunday. That’s off Highways 84 and 35 near Prentiss.

The 24-year-old was driving a Ford Taurus when she lost control, left the roadway and hit a tree. […]

Green Circle locating wood pellet operations to George County

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Officials from Green Circle Bio Energy said the company is locating an energy wood pellet manufacturing facility in the George County Industrial Park. The project represents a company investment of $115 million and will create 126 jobs with the potential of up to 141.

The majority of the project’s jobs will be at the George County facility with the remainder being at the Port of Pascagoula. Additional temporary jobs will also be created during plant construction.

The facility is expected to be operational by spring 2015 and will produce wood pellets for shipment from the Port of Pascagoula to European markets to be sold to electric generating facilities as a renewable alternative to coal. Initially, the plant will have the capacity to produce 500,000 tons of wood pellets per year. […]

Man out on bond for teen’s murder now faces drug charges

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WLBT reported that a man already facing a murder charge for killing a 15-year-old boy has now been arrested for drugs.

Jackson Police said Cedric Ratliff, 26, had almost half a pound of marijuana in his possession at a residence in the 1400 block of Cox Street.

The drugs have a street value of about $1,000. One thousand dollars in cash was also recovered from the residence, WLBT said. […]

Former asylum patients’ resting place unearthed on UMMC campus

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Mable Daniels’ great-grandmother was a patient in the State Insane Asylum about a century ago when she was laid to rest on the asylum grounds – before her family, who hails from Vaiden, knew she had died.

“Things were done different back then,” said Daniels, of Forest.

Apparently so; Daniels wonders if her ancestor’s remains could lie in one of the five dozen wooden coffins uncovered over the last several months beneath the former site of the vanished asylum – the campus of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. […]

Macon minister gets new trial in statutory rape of 13-year-old

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A new trial has been ordered for a now 78-year-old minister serving 20 years for the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.

R.C. Hibbler was convicted in 2005 for having sex with a girl who came over to his house to play with his twin daughters.

Prosecutors previously filed an appeal to reinstate the statutory rape conviction after the State Court of Appeals last fall ordered a new trial in the case. The Supreme Court denied that motion last week. […]