The car seat holding Angelica broke from the impact of the two-vehicle crash Wednesday, said Officer Andy Miller of the Smyrna Police Department.
But it still did its job.
The only reason that the infant survived was due to her mother taking the time to properly secure her in a car seat in the rear of the car which is the safest place to transport children, Miller said.
Angelica was upgraded Thursday from critical to fair condition at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, said spokesman John Howser.
Her mother and the driver of the car, 31-year-old Patricia Cook of LaVergne, was treated and released from Middle Tennessee Medical Center. The driver of the other vehicle, Darren Clark of McMinnville, was in serious but stable condition at Columbia Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville. Clark, 30, who was not wearing his seat belt, suffered a contusion to his right lung and a broken collarbone.
Miller said Clark’s pickup truck rear-ended Cook’s car as she prepared to turn onto another road.
The truck rolled over the top of the Honda and severed the roof, Miller said.
Prescott Central Middle School is getting $10,000 in sports equipment from an industry association.
The school will receive 40 pairs of skates, 40 helmets and 40 pairs of elbow and knee pads and wrist guards from Rollerblade Inc., and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.
Rollerblade skating is such a good aerobic activity, physical education teacher Pat Jordan. It gives a total body workout and is so developmentally appropriate for fifth- and sixth-graders.
Jordan applied for the grant one of 250 approved by the group.
An anonymous donor will provide a 12-foot-wide paved oval track around the school’s play field and a 100x200-foot paved activity area.
Charles V. Nash, 53, Rt. 9, Sparta, was killed in the accident on U.S. 70 West, according to State Trooper Jeff Mosely. Nash was driving a 1976 Chevrolet pickup when his vehicle crossed into the westbound lane and collided head-on with a 1984 International Cabover tractor-trailer rig.
The impact knocked Nash’s pickup back into the eastbound lane and into the path of a 1985 Subaru driven by William G. Smith, 19, Rt. 7, Crossville.
Driver of the truck, Henry D. Howard, 48, of Walling, and Smith were injured in the accident.
Although the stadium will be open-air, the facility will have closed luxury suites, locker rooms and other rooms.
Expanding the plant would let the city heat and cool the stadium as well as the new Country Music Hall of Fame and a new hotel planned beside the Nashville Arena, officials said.
The expansion would cost $4 million and would have to be approved by the city’s Metro Council, plant manager Roger Beckham said Thursday. The stadium, which eventually will house the Oilers franchise of the National Football League, has a $292 million budget, and officials say using the thermal plant would save on a separate heating and cooling system.
Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen successfully backed a $39 million thermal upgrade earlier this year to meet environmental regulations so the plant could continue burning trash on the riverfront for at least 18 more years. Environmentalists fought the upgrade.
The firing pin was missing from the .25-caliber automatic pistol which the student showed to a 12-year-old schoolmate on Tuesday, said Robert Yancey, principal at Whitthorne Middle School.
Although the gun wouldn’t fire without the pin, the student was suspended under the school’s no weapons policy, Yancey said.
Frank Casteel, 63, was charged Wednesday with three counts of first-degree murder. Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Doug Meyer ordered Casteel jailed without bond until Monday. Casteel will be arraigned then and Meyer said he may reconsider bond at that hearing.
Prosecutors didn’t seek the death penalty for several reasons. Family members of those killed felt life imprisonment would be a more painful punishment for Casteel, if convicted. There were also no witnesses, no weapon was found and much of the evidence weighs on new DNA technology.
Three men Ken Griffith, 22; Earl Smock, 23; and Richard Mason, 49 decided to go joyriding July 9, 1988, on their all-terrain vehicles near Walden, a mountain community about 15 miles northwest of Chattanooga. When then men didn’t return by nightfall, police were notified. After an extensive search, the bloody three-wheelers were found at the bottom of a cliff. Five days later, the bodies were found several miles away at a dump. Large amounts of blood, brain tissue and bone fragments of the three men were found on Casteel’s property where the men were riding without his permission.
This is a perfect example of someone who might have been able to protect themselves on interstates if they had a gun, Ramsey said today.
Vidar and Delfina Lillelid died April 6 in what authorities say was a carjacking and robbery. Their 6-year-old daughter, Tabitha, died the next day. Their 2-year-old son, Peter, is hospitalized in Knoxville.
The Lillelids were returning home from a Jehovah’s Witness conference in Johnson City when they apparently met up with their attackers at an Interstate 81 rest area. Jehovah’s Witnesses are pacifists. Ramsey said he was not advocating that people carry guns, but feels those who want to have weapons should be able to.
Robert R. Atnip Jr., 27, of Smithville, was a student at Tennessee Technological University until he was arrested on N. Dixie Avenue around 2 a.m. on March 18.
He went to jail that day on charges of DUI, driving on a suspended license, evading arrest, reckless endangerment, speeding and refusing an alcohol test.
In 1989, he pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide in exchange for an 11-year prison sentence. In 1995, he was paroled after serving a little more than five years of that sentence. One of the conditions of his parole is that he would not drive an automobile during the remainder of his sentence time.
Dreams do come true, Roane State President Dr. Sherry Shope said. It is more than just a dream for some of us. For some of us, it is more of a miracle, according to the Roane County News. Mrs. O’Brien seemed overwhelmed by the honor.
What a wonderful world it is, and how proud I am to have a building named for me, she said. I never dreamed I would have my name on it.
Police said Leonard A. Gentry, 34, of Putnam County made obscene phone calls to women in April 1995 and that he threatened to rape them if they hung up.
Gentry, who was convicted of similar charges in 1994, faces charges of harassment, intimidating victims and making terroristic threats. He is being held in lieu of $40,000 bond.
Superintendent Ronny Colvard said there is a good possibility Chattanooga State will take over the vocational program at the Sequatchie-Bledsoe Vocational Center.
Chattanooga State plans to provide vocational training for Bledsoe and Sequatchie County students during the day and provide adult vocational classes in the evenings.
The five workers Fred Sherrill Pharris, Travis Lee Roberts, Wallace Lee Butler, Barbara Rene Bandy and Patricia Lynn Huddleston allege their constitutional rights were violated because Looper fired them over their political support of the former assessor, Bill Rippetoe. The five workers were all clerical or technical employees of the tax assessor’s office under Mr. Rippetoe, according to the Herald- Citizen.
He lost his bid for re-election in 1996. Looper was the Republican candidate, and Rippetoe was on the Democratic ticket.
A Sullivan North player who reportedly came out of the dugout and tackled Cloud has been suspended from the team for the rest of the year. The game was played on Friday.
Officials say the scuffle broke out after the player tackled Cloud, who was arguing with Froning over delay tactics. The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association is looking at the case.
The brain-damaged policeman broke through that silence just once: Last year, for several fleeting hours, he emerged from his comalike state and thrilled relatives with unbridled conversation, recalling camping trips, his green Jeep and the names of his horses and telling his sons, 12 and 20, he loved them.
On Tuesday, Dockery died.
An autopsy was scheduled to determine the cause of death.
In 1988, Dockery was shot point-blank by a drunken man angry at police for reprimanding him for making noise that bothered his neighbors. The officer fell into a stupor.
Then, on Feb. 11, 1996, he stirred and started talking. Doctors couldn’t explain it. And although he later grew more alert and was able to speak short phrases, Dockery returned largely to silence.
On Tuesday, the paralyzed officer, who had to be fed intravenously, was bathed and dressed as usual and was waiting his turn for physical therapy when something went wrong.
Susan Showalter, a spokeswoman at the Alexian Village of Tennessee nursing home on Signal Mountain, about 10 miles from Chattanooga, said only that he was in distress. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.
The lower-than-expected collections provide more evidence that Gov. Don Sundquist’s budget cuts are on track for the final four months of 1996-97 and for the new budget year that begins July 1.
Sales taxes, which account for more than half of the state’s revenues, were 7.7 percent higher than last March but were still $1.5 million short of expectations. Franchise and excise taxes, which are sort of income and property taxes on businesses, were $3.5 million less than the monthly estimate of $123.6 million.
So far this year, the state’s share of tax collections are $4.7 million less than expected. I think the news is neither discouraging or encouraging, Ferguson said Tuesday.
Tennessee’s constitution requires a balanced budget when the fiscal year ends June 30. Sundquist has proposed a 1997-Õ98 budget of $14.4 billion, about $109.6 million less than the 96-97 spending plan.
University of Tennessee economist Matt Murray sees little good news in the March figures. In the final analysis, I don’t expect the revenue situation of the state to turn around. The sales tax is growing at a little better pace than expected. But I think we’re going to be hard-pressed to come out of the fiscal year with revenues consistent with revised estimates. My guess is we’ll have a shortfall.
The university’s senior staff decided that tobacco products will not be sold on campus once the current food service contract expires in August. Two locations in the student center sold cigarettes. Cigarette vending machines were removed in 1991.
The campus vendors sold about $35,000 worth of tobacco products from January 1996 to March 1997. The school gets about $4,500 in commissions.
ETSU interim Vice President Wayne Andrews said students will still be allowed to smoke
On behalf of the victim and the victim’s family in this case, I am pleased with this decision, coming as it does right now as Victims Rights Week is approaching, said District Attorney Bill Gibson, who inherited the case when he was first elected. I think this gives renewed hope to crime victims.
Bush was 18 years old when he went to the Silver Point home of 79-year-old Jodie Lafever and beat and stabbed her to death in August 1988. According to officials, Bush had come to rob her and actually brought a board which which to beat her. After beating her, he got a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her 43 times.
Bush also is charged with the September 1988 kidnapping and murder of 17-year-old Richard Dow, but prosecutors have said they will not try that case until the appeals process on the first case is completed.
Macon County Sheriff Joe Ferguson said the most recent incident occurred Saturday, March 29 at approximately 8:48 a.m. One suspect entered the bank, showed employees a sawed-off shotgun and ordered them to put an undisclosed amount of money into a blue bag. He took the money and left the bank on foot.
The suspect is described as a white male, 24-28 years old, approximately 5-foot-8 and slim. He was wearing blue jeans, a black baseball cap, dark sunglasses and a camouflage jacket.
Police have a suspect in mind. Robert Montesi, owner of Montesi’s Supermarket, was surprised by the armed burglar one morning in March.
My first instincts were that he worked for the SWAT team, Montesi said. He had black pants, black shirt, black vest, black mask on. He had a scanner up to his ear. I was wondering, What’s going on here? The latest victim was the Memphis Currency Exchange, which was robbed on Wednesday.
Montesi said the burglar had sawed through the roof and waited inside, scribbling religious verse on a piece of cardboard to pass the time. Two employees were already being held at the point of a .45-caliber pistol when Montesi arrived.
The burglar left through the roof too.
Memphis police suspect a man who escaped from jailers last November on his way to a checkup at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis.
Terry Adams, 27, was locked up on charges that he was the robber who last year had sawed holes in roofs of at least four businesses, descended through ceilings and robbed his startled victims.
H. Louis Sirkin of Cincinnati is best known for successfully defending a contemporary arts center that displayed the work of controversial artist Robert Mapplethrope.
His latest job will be representing Club 2000, which was temporarily shut down last Friday by U.S. District Judge Thomas Higgins restraining order.
Jerry Pendergrass, who owns the property, and club owner Teen 2000 Inc. are arguing that the city is violating their First Amendment rights by banning their operation in a redevelopment zone.
Higgins ruled Friday that the club’s First Amendment rights were not jeopardized because two similar clubs existed in walking distance. He also noted that Pendergrass had been told before that adult entertainment was not permitted in the zone.
Roger Crouch, 56, has managed research projects and shuttle experiments on previous missions from earth since 1985 as a chief scientist with NASA. This will be his first space flight.
Crouch, who is a native of Jamestown, will be a payload specialist on the April 3 mission. He and the rest of the payload crew will conduct 25 experiments in protein crystal growth, combustion and materials science. Crouch plans to take a Tennessee Tech pennant and a bronze school medallion on the flight. University officials plan to honor Crouch with a launch-day countdown.
According to police, the alleged leader of the ring, Joe Jones, 20, Clarksville, was bringing in large amounts of crack for sale on McMinnville streets by supplying a network of local traffickers.
Arrested along with Jones were five members of his local organization. Jones is charged with three counts of selling crack cocaine, some of which being for sales of 3.5 grams or more. Under state law, the sale of 0.5 grams or more of cocaine is classified as a Class B felony, punishable by eight to 12 years imprisonment.
Geoffrey Mark Greely has asked a Criminal Court judge to dismiss the case against him and declare the state’s helmet law unconstitutional. Greely claims the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with cycle riders First Amendment rights and others.
He was one of several Putnam Countians stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol and Putnam Sheriff’s officers last July 19 as they drove their cycles in a funeral procession from Cookeville to Jackson County. The trip was to attend the burial of Horton Swift, a motorcycle enthusiast who had died in a cycle wreck.
They had removed their helmets for the ride to the cemetery as a gesture of respect for their friend, the cyclers said.
The officers said they were merely working an already planned roadblock. Some of those cited have fought the tickets in the courts and final disposition of their cases is still pending.
Prosecutors said they believe Herman used a combination of force and coercion to make the child engage in sexual activity then used intimidation to keep her silent about the crimes.
Clarksville and Memphis police told lawmakers last week that gang members are migrating to Tennessee from California and Illinois because laws in those states are so tough. The gangbangers are recruiting children to sell drugs, and they’re robbing and killing innocent bystanders sometimes simply for initiation rites.
It’s all over the state, said Gov. Don Sundquist. It’s no longer a problem of big cities. It’s a problem of small communities. What we want is to do something about it early on. So as part of the governor’s anti-gang proposals, he’s planning to spend $625,000 worth of state and federal money to set up a gang-tracking computer database and network.
Four agents of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will be assigned to do nothing but gather and maintain information about gangs in the state’s four regions.
They will analyze and compile the information on computer for dissemination throughout the state, the Southeast and the nation _ but not for public use. Law enforcement agencies will be able to use it and update it. Information on the database could include a picture, a description, the gang affiliation, criminal convictions, crimes that person is suspected in, and possible nicknames.
TBI will provide the software, but each police department or sheriff’s office will have to have a personal computer and pay a line charge to use the system, said David Jennings, the TBI’s legal counsel and a special agent in charge.
The bill would take investigative responsibilities out of the hands of state certified Humane Society officers and create a lot of confusion, Phil Snyder, the society’s central states regional director, said Thursday.
Cruelty often occurs outside normal business hours when extension agents would not be available, he said.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tommy Burks, D-Monterey, said the legislation would keep people without any experience in livestock and farming practices from making things tough on busy farmers.
A lot of these people have no idea what it takes to farm, Burks said. They don’t know that livestock weighs differently depending on the time of the year. They don’t even know about the different qualities of hay and feed.
The sponsor, Rep. Mark Maddox, D-Dresden, said he brought the bill because someone in his district was selling nitrous oxide to minors and one of them died in a car accident.
Maddox said the legislation doesn’t affect dentists or doctors using the nitrous oxide for legitimate uses with patients. And he said it wouldn’t affect hot rod owners or race car drivers who use nitrous oxide as fuel for the high performance vehicles.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Kimsey, 57, was handcuffed as she finished carrying the Olympic torch run through her town, which hosted the 1996 Olympic whitewater kayak and canoe races.
She said she found marijuana seeds in a police department locker she was cleaning and decided to grow the plants for the police department’s drug education programs. Police, however, said they didn’t know about her plan.
Judge Steve Bebb gave her a suspended jail sentence of 11 months and 29 days, and levied a $350 fine plus court costs.
Since her July arrest, Kimsey was re-elected to her third term as mayor of Copperhill. Kimsey declined to speak about the case.
John Vanderpool of Kingsport pleaded guilty last week to burglary and felony theft. A probation hearing is scheduled for July 17. The dolls were stolen from a rented storage area just before Christmas 1995. A man who bought some of the dolls gave police a tip that led to Vanderpool’s arrest.
The company is appealing the emergency order officials received Thursday, forcing them to cease operations covered by the notice until the matter is resolved with the National Transportation Safety Board.
FAA officials said VIP falsified training records, used unqualified pilots and unairworthy aircraft. The company is banned from carrying any more charter flight passengers but can book flights for customers by hiring contract services for them from other charter airlines. VIP President Jim Fox said Friday he’s appealing and that the notice is the first FAA citation of any type the company has received. VIP has operated charter flights from the airport for 13 years.
Fox said the allegations follow an FAA investigation conducted in January while he was in Arizona being trained to fly VIP’s newly-purchased Lear Jet. Fox said he believes the investigation was prompted by a disgruntled employee whose request to fly the new jet was denied. VIP is accused of using unqualified pilots on 68 flights for about a month, beginning on Dec. 1, 1996.
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