Man sentenced to life as habitual offender

News Briefs From Across The State

By Monica Land

Rickman has prior charges of armed robbery

A Pearl River County man has been sentenced as a habitual offender to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The Hattiesburg American reports that District Circuit Court Judge Anthony Mozingo imposed the sentence on Matthew Thomas Rickman during a hearing Friday.

Rickman had been convicted by a Pearl River County jury on April 12 of armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Texan gets 40 months for smuggling $109K

A 23-year-old Brownsville, Texas man will spend 40 months in prison for smuggling more than $100,000 from Georgia to Mexico after pleading guilty to conspiracy to transport currency out of the United States.

The Sun Herald reports U.S. District Judge Walker Gex III imposed the sentence against Gilbert Cuello III Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Gulfport.

A Jackson County deputy stopped Cuello on Oct. 6, 2011 in an SUV on Interstate 10 for a seat-belt violation. Cuello and his wife told the deputy they were returning home to Texas after a trip to Georgia.

Inside the vehicle, deputies found bundles of cash wrapped in plastic. More bundles were later found stuffed into a lead-lined stereo speaker. The total seized was $109,131.

3 sentenced for threatening informant

Three people have been sentenced in a case in which reputed gang members and associates were accused of threatening informants in a methamphetamine investigation.

U.S. Attorney John Dowdy announced in a news release that Ervie Lee Fairbanks, 29, was sentenced to almost three and a half years and Chasity Arulize Huff, 24, was sentenced to just short of three years. Dowdy said both are from Waveland and are ranking member of the Simon City Royals street gang.

Yvette Janel Hayden, 25, of Pass Christian, an affiliate of the gang, was sentenced to about 2-1/2 years.

All three had been charged with conspiracy, witness tampering and retaliating against a witness. They were accused of obstruction in Harrison County and making threats by phone calls, text messages and posts on Facebook.

Catholic school to shut doors

Canton’s only Catholic school will close its doors at the end of the academic year.

Church leaders tell The Clarion-Ledger that Holy Child Jesus Catholic School has struggled with enrollment the last several years, which caused the school to reduce grades to the current pre-K through second grade.

In addition to the resulting reduction in tuition income, the Catholic Diocese of Jackson said last week the recession hurt the school’s funding partners, leaving them unable to provide additional funding.

Holy Child Jesus Catholic School was established in 1947 for kindergarten through second grade students in rural Madison County.

The school currently has 43 students. At its height, the school had more than 300 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and a teacher and support staff of more than 25.