News

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

Emergency lights filled downtown Marble Falls Saturday night when back-to-back calls were answered on Main Street.

Attempts to revive James Fred Graham Jr. were unsuccessful at Uptown Theatre despite immediate response on the scene, while the victim of a fall down stairs adjoining the R Bar and Grill is still hospitalized in Austin.

A jury trial has been set for a Burnet County man charged with four counts of indecency with a child through sexual contact after a case status hearing was held Friday, Jan. 27.

A trial date of March 20 has been set for Travis Dean Wimberly, 23, Burnet, who was indicted in February 2016. He will be tried by 424th District Judge Evan Stubbs.

Wimberly is accused of indecency with a child by having sexual contact with a minor, a second-degree felony, on two separate occasions — once on Dec. 28, 2015, and three times on Jan. 2, 2016. He is also charged with indecency with a child through exposure, which is a third-degree felony, from another incident on Jan. 2, 2016.

He remains in the Burnet County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bond, or $10,000 on each of the five counts against him.

Representatives for District Attorney Wiley “Sonny” McAfee declined to comment on the pending trial last week.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

The death sentence was taken off the table for a Blanco County man Friday, Feb. 3, when he entered a guilty plea in 33rd District Court in Burnet and accepted a life sentence for the murder of a child.

John Cody Lawrence, 24, appeared before District Judge Allan Garrett, to plead guilty to capital murder of a child under the age of 10, as well a four counts of assaulting a public servant.

The case made headlines in San Antonio last year, when the 15-month-daughter of Lawrence's girlfriend died in University Hospital there on May 5.

That was two days after Sunny Dakota Slade-Bort was found in the couple’s Blanco apartment bruised and unresponsive by emergency medical services and was air lifted to San Antonio.

District Attorney Wiley “Sonny” McAfee said he was contacted when the child was put on life support.

The time has come for lakefront property owners to finish their projects and pull equipment from lakebeds.

The Lower Colorado River Authority made its official announcement Monday, Jan. 6, that the six-week drawdown of lakes Austin and LBJ will end later this week.

The refill of Lake Austin will begin Thursday, Feb. 9, and the refill of Lake LBJ will begin Friday, Feb. 10. Both lakes will be back in their normal operating ranges by Monday, Feb. 13.

The lakes were drawn down for six weeks beginning Jan. 2 to give lakeside property owners an opportunity to repair and maintain docks, retaining walls and other shoreline property. The goal was to curb the growth of nuisance aquatic vegetation such as hydrilla and Eurasian watermilfoil. Lake LBJ was lowered about 4 feet, and Lake Austin was drawn down about 10 feet.

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

On Wednesday the final report of the Wirtz Dam study by the Capitol Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) was released online, with tabulations of those 18 community meetings, 848 completed surveys and 812 comments.

“It was a positive, strong response,” said Burnet County Judge James Oakley, a member of the board of directors of CAMPO. “We had a first reading of the report last month and it will come back to the Transportation Policy Board on Feb. 13.

A San Saba woman is in the Burnet County Jail in lieu of $300,000 bond after she failed to appear in court for charges regarding injury and abandonment of her three children in Llano County and fled to Nevada. It was her second bond jump.

Mary Elizabeth Sewell, 23, originally was arrested in October 2015 and charged with abandoning and endangering a child through criminal negligence. She was released on bond, apparently fled the state.

“She took off and we had to send two deputies, a male and a female, to go pick her up from Reno, Nevada,” Llano County Sheriff Bill Blackburn said. “She bonded out when she was returned and when it appeared she was going to test hot for drugs, she went on the fly again. After we got warrants out on her, she came back and turned herself in at Lampasas.”

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

Two people arrested with documents that point to identity theft in Texas and states beyond remained in Burnet County Jail Thursday, Feb. 2.

The Marble Falls Police Department (MFPD) have been investigating more than two weeks a case in which Shayne Thomas Negri, 27, of Burnet and Stella Marie Hernandez, 37, of Kingsland were arrested Friday, Jan. 27.

“The management of Hill Country Express contacted us Jan. 13, after people left without paying,” said MFPD Detective Sgt. Trisha Ratliff. “When they went to clean out the room they found what appeared to be drug paraphernalia and wanted it removed safely.

“We did locate paraphernalia along with information identifying multiple victims of identity theft such as ID and credit cards, other forms of ID, personal mail and any number of different documents. They ranged to multiple states.”

By Glynis Crawford Smith

The Highlander

When the owner of a local business filed the report of an attempted burglary, he brought his own video of the crime and that led a quick identification of the perpetrator.

“The suspect knows we have identified him and talked with him,” said Detective Sgt. Trisha Ratliff of the Marble Falls Police Department on Thursday, Feb. 2. “We are having a serious discussion with him about whether he will turn himself in or be arrested.”

“It was an attempted burglary of a van, but due to the damage to the vehicle, the higher class charge will be criminal mischief,” the detective said.

Damage estimates now exceed $2,500.

“It happened Friday night (Jan. 27), but I didn't notice it until Sunday (Jan. 29),” said Shawn Wagner, owner of Economy Plumbing Services on Commerce Street in Marble Falls. “We caught him on two different cameras.”

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and the Hill County Sheriff’s Office are asking for the public’s help in locating John Terry, who disappeared in 2014 in Hillsboro. Authorities suspect foul play.

Terry, 30 and the father of two young boys, was last seen leaving the Walmart Supercenter in Hillsboro at approximately 6:34 p.m. on Oct. 17, 2014.  One day later, his 2014 Jeep Compass was found abandoned on County Road 2346 in Abbott, about 25 miles from his house.

Abbott High School was having their homecoming the night Terry was last seen. At the time of Terry’s disappearance, he was wearing a black  tee shirt, blue jeans, tan work boots and a blue Dallas Cowboys ball cap featuring a “D” in white embroidery.

A Granite Shoals woman who gained notoriety by asking police to check her methamphetamine for Ebola is scheduled to appear in court next week.

Chasitiy Eugina Hopson, 29, appears on the plea docket for 424th District Judge Evan Stubbs at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10.

Last March, Hopson had the misfortune of falling for a Facebook meme posted by the Granite Shoals Police Department indicating methamphetamine circulating around town had been tainted by Ebola, a virus which has killed thousands of people, especially in Africa, where the disease is thought to have originated.

The meme suggested that concerned individuals should take their meth to the police to have it tested to see if it contained Ebola.