Jeep Pulling Car Rolls, Pinning Woman

Sheriff deputies have released the details of an accident yesterday that resulted in a woman being airlifted to Winston-Salem. 20-year old Moragan Walker, who is three months pregnant, was trapped between two vehicles. She and two others were using a tow rope and a Jeep to move a car out of the front yard. They had pulled the car about 80 feet up a steep slope, and when they reached the top, they stopped to unhook the vehicles. Apparently, the Jeep wasn't fully in park, because as Walker crouched down to unhook the car, the Jeep rolled back, pinning her between it and the car. The person driving the Jeep jumped back in and drove it forward, releasing Walker. Deputies classify the incident as an accident, and will not be filing charges.

Wilkes Deputies Report First Taser Use

Wilkes County Sheriff Deputies have released their first report of Taser use. It happened early this morning at a home on Welcome Home Road. The man living there had threatened suicide, and locked himself in an outbuilding with two long guns. After one of the deputies talked him out of the building, the man continued to make threats about killing himself. Deputies told him they were taking him into custody for protection sake, and he responded they'd have to fight him, then ran. After both deputies told him repeatedly to stop, one of the deputies fired his Taser, stopping the man in his tracks. EMS paramedics came and removed the Taser probes, and took the man to be checked out at the hospital. The 44-year old man was later placed into protective custody. We're not rleasing his name because of the suicide threat.

Large Fire Near Traphill

North Carolina Forestry Service firefighters remain on scene this morning at a fire reported yesterday afternoon near Traphill. The control burn, which got out of control around mid-afternoon yesterday, was in the area of Austin Traphill Road and John Gray Parkway, near the entrance to Stone Mountain State Park. For a time, flames threatened several structures, but dispatchers tell us this morning they know of no homes damaged of families displaced because of the fire. For about half the afternoon, all evening, and several hours overnight, firefighters from Traphil, Austin, State Road and Mountain View worked with the Forestry Service to bring the fire under control. Dispatchers say all but the forest service were released to go home about 3 a-m. They didn't know yet how many acres burned.

McGrady House Fire

A House fire near McGrady kept firefighters in another part of the county busy yesterday afternoon, and blocked traffic on Highway 18 for a time. The fire was reported shortly before 4pm at a house in the 10-thousand, 900 block of Sparta Road. Mulberry-Fairplains fire department responded. Dispatchers were unable to confirm reports that this is the location of a previous fire or whether the house was occupied or vacant. But they report no injuries and no calls for Red Cross assistance.

Is this Really How it Went Down?

The report of a call for help from sheriffs deputies on Saturday is one of those you just know there's more to the story. Here's how it's reported: David Lee Jennings, who has a history with law enforcement, says he was walking down Highway 115 near Speedway Road Friday morning, and someone stopped and offered him a ride. He was only too happy to jump in. But no sooner was he in the car than the back seat passenger, who he says was a white male, clocked him with something, knocking him out.



Jennings says he came to in the wooded area behind the Shell Station on old 60, and 25-bucks was missing from his wallet. He admitted he had been drinking on Friday, but did not explain why he'd waited a day to report the alleged assault and theft. Paramedics who were called to check him out found nothing serious wrong. Interestingly, the crime report ended with Jennings being hauled off to jail. Seems there was an outstanding jail sentence he hadn't served. So he'll spend the month of April drying out in the pokey.

Boat, Trailer Stolen

The thing about a boat sitting on a trailer unattended is that anyone can hook up to it and tow it off. Many people put locks on thir hitches to prevent that, but as one man learned this weekend, that doesn't always help. Edward Glen Barnes told deputies this weekend that a boat and trailer he left at his rental property in Boomer had been stolen. The last time he'd checked on it, according to the crime report, was back on the 12th. The boat is a 12-foot Sea King, valued at 500-dollars, and the trailer is valued at 300-dollars. No one who lives nearby saw anythingout of place during the two weeks in question.

Wilkes, or COPS?

A local crime report from this weekend reads like a script for the TV show COPS. Deputies were called to Regina Brown's home on Stateview Drive Friday night because there was a fight going on. Brown first told deputies her boyfriend, Manuel Echeverria, had broken into her house and assaulted her. He was still in the house, Brown told deputies as they stood outside.



As a deputy walked into the house, he encountered Hector Reyes, who told him Manuel had run out the back door. Not so, said Brown, who told deputies Manuel was hiding in a closet. It turned out she was right. The deputy had to draw his firearm in order to get Echevarria out of the closet. Echevarria pushed the handgun out of the way and simply walked past the deputy, who tried to get him out the back door. But as the deputy pushed him out the back doo, Echevarria turned around and walked back in. That resulted in him being handcuffed. As two deputies tried to get Echevarria under control, Reyes started to get in the way, saying they were going to have to arrest him, too. When he wouldn't back away from the situation, one of the deputies was suddenly very happy to oblige his wish to be arrested.



Both men ended up in the back seat of a patrol car. As the deputy went around the house to get his flashlight, which had been dropped in the back yard, he heard a pop and turned around to find Echevarria had kicked out the back window and was trying to get away. That earned Echevarria a round of pepper spray. Once both men were suitabley restrained, the deputies again spoke with Ms. Brown, who changed her story. Now she said Echevarria had not broken in, he was let in by Reyes, and the assault occured between the two men and did not involve her.



Echevarria and Reyes continued causing problems on the way to jail, Echevarria claiming he was having a seizure and Reyes beating his head on the wall of an isolation cell, both earning a trip to WRMC where doctors looked them over and sent them back to jail. When it was all said and done, Echevarria was charged with two counts of resisting an officer, damaging county property, and 2nd-degree trespass. Reyes was charged with 3 counts of resisting an officer. And the deputy had another stack of paperwork to fill out to explain the broken back window in the patrol car.

Stolen Truck Recovered

Wilkes county sheriff deputies recently recovered a vehicle stolen in Caldwell county. The Chevy 3500 pickup, worht 90-thousand dollars, is owned by a Pennsylvania company. Deputies say the truck had been parked in open country near Ronda for some time, as they had received multiple calls to check on it. But the first time they went out, the vehicle ID number hadn't been entered into the national crime database, so they left the truck there, to be towed off later as an abandoned vehicle if it remained long enough. Different people called in the truck on the side of the road the next day, and this time when deputies ran the VIN, it turned up as stolen. Deputies called a local towing service to remove the truck and secure it until Caldwell County deputies could give it the once-over. The Caldwell Conyt case remains unsolved, and it doesn't appear the truck was damaged ot anything was taken from it.

License Check Leads to Drunk Driver

A recent driver's license check netted sheriff deputies one drunken driver, who went to great lengths to avoid the checkpoint. Deputies say they were running a check lane at Sparta Road and Ruritan Road recently. A car approached the checkpoint, and instead of pulling in line, the driver turned off his headlights and pulled into a nearby driveway. He backed out of the driveway, and hit the gas, spinning out as he took off in the other direction. Three deputies sped off behind him and got him stopped within a couple of miles.



When 27-year old Glenn Perry Junior got out of the car, deputies say he was wearing only blue jeans and a pair of socks. He leaned over and knocked on the back tire of his car with his had, saying he thought he had a flat. The deputies say the oder of alcohol was strong, and when he was given a breath test, Perry blew a .12. When asked how much he had had to drink, Perry said "about 12." Deputies say he was very unsteady on his feet, and pleaded with them not to arrest him, as he had been stopped earlier in the day in Allegheny for drunken driving and had already done time for yet another case of D-U-I. It was not surprise to deputies to find out he wasn't carrying a driver's license -- in fact, he didn't even have a valid one, because it had been revoked. Deputies did arrest Perry,l on a charge of drunken driving, one of driving on a revoked license, and one of a ficticious tag.

Mailbox Damage Reported

A couple of Wilkes homeowners say they've been the victims of mailbox bashings. Both cases have been reported recently, one in Roaring River and the other outside North Wilkesboro. Billy Ray Billings says he believe he knows who hit his mailbox, because he's been having problems with someone recently, including a couple of other cases of damaged property. This unidentified man had been seen across the street mowing the lawn the day before the box was hit. The other man told the deputy yes, he had been mowing across the street from the Billings, but during taht time Billings had been harassing him, and his mailbox was also damaged about the same time as Billings' was.



In the other case, two men reported a vehicle had run off the road and smacked into their mailboxes. They didn't see the incident happen, and their neighbors also had not seen anything.