MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A Hamblen County man was arrested after photographs were taken in a convenience store’s restroom.
Investigators say Vincent L. Antonucci ,72, was seen taking photos in a women’s restroom at a Weigel’s located at 2750 North Davy Crockett Parkway.
Antonucci was arrested and transported to the Hamblen County Jail. He faces charges for violating privacy by taking unlawful photos.
There is no more information at this time. WATE 6 On Your Side will continue to track the story.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency issued a warning after a man drowned in a Hamblen County lake Monday.
James Bradley Campbell, 23, and Jonathon Derrick Jones were fishing on Cherokee Lake near Panther Creek State Park Monday. Campbell died after Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says the two men’s kayak tipped over. Jones tried to save Campbell, however, he was not able to find him. Jones called 911 with the help of a passing boater, according to TWRA.
The Hamblen County Rescue Squad found Campbell’s body at 7:36 p.m. TWRA believes Campbell was not wearing a life jacket.
Jones says his cousin’s blood sugar was very low and he perhaps hadn’t had anything to eat or drink that day, which caused him to fall overboard. He says he’s still trying to make sense of what happened.
“One of the nicest people I’ve been around. Like, he’d give you the shirt off his back, his shoes, food. He’d do anything for you even if you had done him wrong. That’s what i don’t get. This always happens to good people,” said Jones. “[He] raced, motocrossed, fished, kayaked, anything outdoors he loved doing. He just loved nature. That was Brad.”
Recently, other people have drown in East Tennessee due to not wearing life jackets or wearing them properly.
“We’re trying to send a clear message before the holiday weekend, on average we’ll have about twenty to thirty fatal boating accidents every year, “said TWRA spokesman Matthew Cameron.
Richard Rolen, 70, drowned after falling overboard earlier this month. Rolan’s body was found by fishermen on Douglas Lake. Investigators believe Rolen’s life jacket was not buckled correctly and his personal flotation device was not fully inflated.
Adam Vongsa, 33, was found dead after his boat overturned in the Cumberland River below the Cheatham Dam last week. Also, investigators are still looking for Jeremy Cross, 36, after his kayak tipped over on Percy Lake in April.
In the U.S., 85 percent of people who drown from boating accidents were not wearing a life jacket, according to the United States Coast Guard.
“This water is nothing to play with you know,” said Keith Reed, a frequent boater.
TWRA warns East Tennesseans to wear life jackets in order to prevent similar incidents. “What we mean is that properly worn life jackets greatly increase your chances of survival while boating,” said Cameron.
Funeral arrangements for Campbell have been set at Westside Chapel Funeral Home in Morristown. Family will receive friends from 5 to 8 p.m .Thursday at the funeral home. Funeral services will follow at 8 p.m. Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at Economy United Methodist Church Cemetery.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – Several internationally known dancers will perform with an East Tennessee group Saturday night for a special event.
James Boyd, Preston Swovelin and Adrienne Hicks will perform with the Company 180 Dancers in Morristown. The show is at 7:00 p.m. at Morristown East High School’s Auditorium at 1 Hurricane Lane.
Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door and students 18 and under are free.
Organizers said the performance will be nothing short of amazing. The professionals have been working with Studio 180 Dance’s master class all week and dancers said they are excited for the chance the perform.
BEAN STATION (WATE) – Three people were face multiple charges after a Hamblen County traffic stop.
The Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office says Anthony K. Smith, 46, was arrested Thursday after a traffic stop near Cherokee Park Road. Investigators believed Smith took $140 in cash, keys and a 2001 Chevy Tahoe from a home on Copper Ridge Road. Investigators arrested the suspect after he passed County Line Road in Bean Station. The passenger inside Smith’s vehicle, Joey Norris, was arrested for violating probation.
The sheriff’s office says it received information from the traffic stop on another robbery suspect. Investigators arrested Adreanna B. Bailey, 18. She is believed to be connected with a robbery on Chestnut Oak Drive in Morristown. Three men and one woman assaulted and robbed a 28-year-old resident, according to the report. The suspects took an ATM card and $175.
Smith is being held at the Hamblen County Jail on a bond of $20,000 and Bailey is being held on a bond of $126,000
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A Morristown couple had to take matters into their own hands to rid their rental home of termites. They say their landlord never once came to assess the problem.
The opening to Robert and Michelle Davis’ attic had been infested with termites. The home owner’s sprayed the bugs themselves with a half empty jug of termite killer that had been left in the home.
The Davis family moved to the rental house on March 1. Pest control experts said termites usually begin to swarm when the temperature warms up in May and June.
Michele Davis said she freaked out when bugs flew into her bedroom last month. She says the termites came into the room from the ceiling opening.
She and her husband moved everything out of their bedroom, which used to be a garage. They now sleep in the living room, which offers little privacy.
“My whole bedroom was infested with them,” said Michele Davis. “They were all flying.”
Robert Davis took a solution of termite and ant killer that had been left in the home’s laundry room and sprayed the attic. He said the termites appear to be dead for now.
“I’ve been checking about three to four times a day making sure none are still alive,” said Robert Davis. “They could be coming back at any time now. I don’t know if I have a nest or they could be coming from somewhere else.”
The Davis’ monthly rent is $600 and they have a $600 deposit.
“The landlord, we told the landlord all about it,” said Robert Davis. “He’s basically not wanting to do nothing.”
However, Robert Davis said just hours before WATE 6 On Your Side’s visit, his landlord hired a pest control company to spray for ants outside of the house, but was not paid to spray the attic. He said a second pest control operator confirmed what was in the attic.
“He went up there and looked and said, it’s bad. it’s bad with termites,” said Robert Davis.
Tennessee’s Landlord Tenant Act says attic spaces should be sealed to prevent insects and rodents from entering a house, it’s a health issue. However, by statute, the Landlord Tenant Act does not apply in Hamblen County because it does not have a population greater than 68,000.
WATE 6 On Your Side called the landlord to ask about the termite. Vaughn McCoy was not available, but his wife said he is aware of termites in the attic and is taking care of the problem. She said her husband doesn’t want the home damaged.
A week later though, no pest control company has gone into the attic to spray for the termite. The Davis’ did say their landlord has given them a break.
“He says I can break the lease,” said Michelle Davis. “I just want out of here. It’s not healthy for me, it’s not healthy for my kids. I want to get out.”
Michelle Davis and her husband plan to look for a new rental home this month.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – Leaders in Hamblen County are debating how to balance next year’s budget. One possibility is shifting part of the money collected through the wheel tax that goes to the school system into the county’s general fund.
That move is causing a lot of debate. The courtroom was packed Monday as commissioners had their budget meeting. They ultimately decided to delay a final decision, instead going over each item on the budget. Hamblen County commissioners will meet again on Thursday to discuss balancing a $2 million shortfall in next year’s budget.
A strong mind is just as important to Jeremy Ray as his son’s strong sense of self. “Education is really key to success,” he said.”
Just like balancing playtime, county commissioners are having a hard time balancing this year’s roughly $26 million budget.
“I wish somebody could come read a crystal ball and tell us what the right answer is. Very difficult situation we’re in,” said commissioner John Smyth.
The difficult decision comes down to the current $27 wheel tax, $13 of which goes to the school system and the $14 is for the general fund. Commission recently proposed the school’s $13 should shift to the general fund.
“We’re not a rich community so it doesn’t make sense at all,” said resident Taylor McCollough.
The change means schools could lose more than $700,000 annually. “That would be enough to offset some of the money we’d have to ask for in a tax rate increase. If we use that and a 17 cent tax rate increase, we can get by this year,” added commissioner Smyth.
Hamblen County Schools says despite receiving $3.8 million in BEP funding this year from the state, this is a disheartening possibility.
“So this year we would be okay but the big concern is in the future years because we’ll continue using that money for construction at West High School and getting kids out of trailers or portable classrooms at Fairview and Hillcrest,” said Director of Schools Dr. Dale Lynch.
“What’s going to be next that they’ll be asking of us?” wondered Ray.
Drivers are also left with questions.
“Why take it out now? What’s so important that you can justify taking money away from the students in the community,” asked McCollough.
No matter the final decision, commissioners say this is money they need to look at. Part of the reason they’re making this difficult decision is because of the county’s lawsuit brought by the sheriff, which was ultimately settled, as well as building a new jail and completing road projects.
This would be a long-term shift, though the school system this year would still receive roughly $200,000 from the county.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – Officials in Hamblen County are searching for a victim believed to have drowned at Panther Creek State Park.
Crews were called to the boat launch area of the park late Monday afternoon. Few details have been released, but the sheriff’s office confirmed they were looking for a drowning victim.
Previous story: Man drowns in Hamblen County, TWRA issues warning
A man died late last month in the same area after officials say a kayak turned over. A friend tried to rescue him but was unsuccessful.
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KNOXVILLE (WATE) – A body was found in a Hamblen County lake Friday morning.
Park Ranger Jason Chadwell said a fisherman found the body and alerted Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Hamblen County Chief Deputy Coroner Claude Thompson says the body is that of Geoffrey Hannah. Hannah, 21, went missing on Monday. Hannah was hiking and swimming with his girlfriend on Cherokee Lake in Panther Creek State Park.
Crews arrived to the scene at 7 a.m. The rescue took an hour. Thompson said there is indication that there Hannah may have had a medical issue before drowning. There was no evidence of foul play, or obvious signs of trauma or physical injuries.
Investigators are waiting for an exam to determine the actual cause of death. Results could take two to three months.
WATE 6 On Your Side will continue to update you on the story.
RUSSELLVILLE (WATE) – A Hamblen County man was charged Wednesday after asking two minors for nude photos.
David Roy Jones, 51 faces charges for attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. A report was made to the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office that the suspect asked two females, ages 15 and 17, to send him nude photos.
Jones is being held in the Hamblen County Jail on a $50,000 bond.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A tractor trailer overturned early Thursday morning in Hamblen County.
The incident was reported at 3:53 a.m. for the overturned truck. It is on Interstate-81 southbound near mile marker 14.
Tennessee Highway Patrol said the southbound shoulder is blocked. Northbound traffic has no delays. Crews expect the scene to be cleared by 10 a.m.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – Fifty-four of 79 people wanted for illegal narcotics sales in Morristown have been arrested so far as part of “Operation Ice Blaster,” being conducted by several divisions of the Morristown Police Department and other agencies.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations Unit are also helping. The Grainger County Sheriff’s Office is assisting in locating suspects that live within their jurisdiction.
Police say the operation refers to an ice blaster, which works undetected below the surface of a pond to remove ice and clean the pond. Undercover agents have worked for more than 15 months to target people selling crystal meth, also called “ice.”
Officers say large-scale operations like this, which began Friday morning, often take multiple days to complete. Any suspects not located immediately will be put into the national crime database.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A Cocke County Grand Jury indicted Brittany Rankin, 19, on vehicular assault, DUI, reckless endangerment, driving without a license and on lack of child restraint.
In an interview with WATE 6 On Your Side in June, Rankin said April 11, 2016 was the worst days of her life. The young mother over-corrected while negotiating a curve, drove off the side of the road and striking a cable barrier and rolling her vehicle on Interstate 40 in Cocke County, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Troopers said the baby was ejected through the back left window onto the pavement. They said the two-month-old’s body came to rest on the left shoulder.
At the time, Rankin told officers that she had buckled the infant in his harness before leaving her home about 20 minutes before the crash. An off-duty paramedic that was treating the infant said he overhead Rankin telling her passenger “we didn’t buckle him in.”
During an interview at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, Rankin admitted she had smoked marijuana on the day of the crash, but said she had done no other drugs since she had taken an unprescribed Xanax five days before the crash. A blood alcohol test showed marijuana and clonazepam, a drug used to treat seizures, panic disorders and anxiety, in her system.
Months after the crash, Rankin said her baby is happy and healthy, surviving the accident with only broken bones. Her baby was placed in foster care after the crash and Rankin said she is taking parents and working to finish her GED.
“When you see your son laying there and not making a noise or anything, of course you’re going to think the worst. I don’t know what I would’ve done if anything worse would’ve happened,” said Rankin. “I know I messed up but I’m going to do what I have to to make everything right.”
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PERRY, Okla. (WATE) – A man wanted for child rape in Hamblen County was arrested this week in Oklahoma.
Robert Shawn Harris, 37, of Bulls Gap, was wanted by the Hamblen County Sheriff’s Office on two counts of rape of a child. He was also wanted for theft by the Morristown Police Department.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Marshal’s Office began searching for Harris on Monday. He was found in Perry, Oklahoma, where he is being held as a fugitive from justice.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A Rutledge woman was sent to the hospital after an accident in Morristown with a logging truck that caused logs to roll onto her vehicle.
Morristown police say a Ford Mustang driven by Kathy Graves, 48, exited East Morris Boulevard around 11:15 a.m. Thursday and tried to merge onto southbound Highway 25E. The truck made contact with a log trailer driven by Roy Grubb, 38, of Kentucky.
The impact caused the logs to shift, breaking the log straps. A portion of them rolled onto Graves’s Mustang.
Graves was flown to UT Medical Center with what are described as non-life threatening injuries.
KNOXVILLE (WATE) – A man declared criminally insane after claiming Jesus told him to murder his father and stepmother more than 20 years ago in Morristown could be set free.
David Cloar was found not guilty in 1990 by reason of insanity. Cloar has been in a Middle Tennessee mental health facility since 1992. The Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Wednesday he cannot be required to receive psychiatric treatment, but there’s no timeline yet on when he could be released.
Cloar claimed on the stand the killings were “God’s will” and Jesus had told him to carry them out. One of the victims was almost decapitated.
“You can’t be locked up forever if the hospital believes you’re no longer dangerous or no longer have an active mental illness. Then they’ll say let him go,” said attorney John Eldridge.
WATE 6 On Your Side Archive: Hamblen County man found not guilty by insanity
Cloar’s attorney says they can move forward with discharging Cloar from his locked facility, which includes following an outlined plan.
“It’s a 90 day furlough, He will be living in a group home, and every two weeks the hospital will go get him, they’ll have a review,” he said.
A judge reviewed the appeal more than a year ago. Caregivers, psychiatrists and Cloar’s family testified. Dr. David Crawford said Cloar would not be a danger to himself or others if he was discharged, but his sister Debra Clark said she was afraid that the defendant would move back to the Morristown area because their mother lives nearby.
The state still has 60 days to appeal the decision. If discharged, Cloar must continue taking his medication receive psychological care.
Web extra: Read the full court decision [PDF]
“I’m confident David Cloar is going to do just fine, just fine. He really really wants to succeed,” said Eldridge.
If Cloar is released, and has psychological issues, he will have to go back to the hospital. If he violates the law, he will be handled by the criminal justice system. Cloar also has the choice of staying at the group home once his 90 days are up.
WATE 6 On Your Side reached out to two of Cloar’s sisters, but neither have responded.
WATE 6 On Your Side Archive: Hamblen County man found not guilty by insanity
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A father in Morristown was arrested after burns were found on his daughter.
Patrick Deleon Drakeford, Jr, 33, was arrested Sunday. His daughter had burns on her thigh.
Investigators believe the child was burned with a cigarette lighter.
Drakeford faces charges for child abuse and is being held at the Hamblen County Jail on a $100,000 bond.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A Morristown man was arrested after police discovered counterfeit bills.
Jonathan Sylvester, 36, faces charges for criminal simulation for using $100 bills at two businesses. The fake bills have “For Motion Picture Use Only” stamped on the upper right corner of the front of the bill and across the top, according to police. The bills also states that the note is not legal tender.
Morristown police believe there could be more fake bills in circulation.
Sylvester is being held at the Hamblen County Jail without bond. His arraignment is expected to be Friday.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A traffic stop in Morristown Tuesday night led to the discovery of a large amount of marijuana and $4,000 in cash.
Jesus Ramirez Pacheco, 19, is charged with running a stop sign, sale and delivery of a Schedule VI drug; unlawful drug paraphernalia; driving while license cancelled, suspended or revoked; violation of financial responsibility law; and violation of the Drug Free School Zone Act.
Morristown police say they saw Pacheco’s Lincoln Town Car run a stop sign near Brown Avenue and pulled him over. He refused to allow officers to search the vehicle, but after detecting the odor of marijuana, a drug-detecting K9 was called in. Officers found the marijuana plus drug scales, plastic baggies and $3,931 in cash.
Pacheco is being held at the Hamblen County Jail on $40,000 bond. Arraignment is set for Friday morning.
KNOXVILLE (WATE) – A parole hearing has held Thursday for a man convicted of a brutal July 1980 murder in Hamblen County.
Randy May was convicted for first degree murder and assault with intent to murder or cause bodily harm. Both his victims, Mary Jones and Mitzi Holt Sizemore, were 15 years old at the time.
May approached the two girls posing as a police officer. He enticed them into his truck, eventually stabbing, raping and killing Jones.
Sizemore had her throat sliced. She was also stabbed in the chest several times. May handcuffed her to a tree, leaving her to die. Jones was killed.
Sizemore, now 51, expressed her feelings at the hearing.
“It ruined my life. I had hopes and dreams of doing something with my life. It’s ruined my health. Mentally, it’s made me scared of everything and everybody,” Sizemore said at the hearing.
“He brutally raped and murdered her. He brutally tried to rape me if I hadn’t fought with everything in me. He sliced my throat, stabbed me three times in my chest and handcuffed me to a tree to die,” she said in her statement, describing that attack all those years ago.
Mary Jones’ family talked about how three generations of their family had been scarred by the crime. May first came up for parole in 2002. There were hearings in 2005 and 2011 as well. He was denied all those times. At this hearing he did something new. May apologized.
“I am so sorry for what I did. There’s no excuse for what I did. These women did absolutely nothing to me,” May said.
“He apologized today to the families for the very first time. I was appalled actually. I know that God says to forgive. And I want to so bad. But if you’ve seen the pictures of what he did to my friend, and if you had to live with what I had to live with all these years, it’s a really hard, hard thing to forgive somebody for,” Sizemore said.
The judge finally decided May will be denied parole for one year. During that time, he’ll have to go through a psychological evaluation. A board will now vote on that decision, the outcome on which will be known in roughly two weeks.
MORRISTOWN (WATE) – A Morristown woman was arrested Saturday after a traffic stop led to the discovery of methamphetamine in the vehicle.
Blake Gabrielle Hilton, 26, is charged with felony possession of Schedule II Meth, possession of Schedule VI marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Hamblen County narcotics officers stopped an S-10 Truck on Andrew Johnson Highway just before noon because the passenger was not wearing a seat belt. The driver admitted there was drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. A search of the vehicle turned up a baggie of meth weighing 1.3 grams, as well as two cut straws inside Hilton’s purse. Hilton admitted the drugs were hers.
After officers took her to jail, they found 0.8 grams of marijuana in the seat where she was sitting.
She is being held on $75,000 bond.
