LAW ENFORCEMENT personnel were out in numbers during the 2012 New Year's weekend, performing DUI Checkpoints around the county. Tennessee Highway Patrol and Bradley County Sheriff's Office Traffic Unit personnel performed stops at a number of locations. Information will be released later this week as to how many people failed to heed warnings about impaired driving. Banner photo, GREG KAYLOR
According to detective Steve Ross of Cleveland Police Department, five male students, ranging in age from 15 to 17 years old, broke in to the Cleveland High School Science Wing and destroyed property. After a thorough investigation which went on for several days in early February, officials made arrests and filed charges.
Ross confirmed three of the students attended CHS, one was a Walker Valley High School student and the fifth was a student of Teen Learning Center.
Also in February, an alleged burglary-in-progress call led to the discovery of 195 suspected marijuana plants at a home on Mount Bethel Road.
Mark Daniel Bowman was arrested by U.S. Customs agents at a Miami, Fla. airport prior to boarding a flight to Ecuador, according to officials.
Bowman faced charges of possession of Schedule VI drugs for resale, possession of Schedule I drugs for resale, cultivating marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The suspected marijuana plants were approximately 4-feet tall and different varieties of the illegal drug were being grown under controlled lighting and feeding conditions.
The first major trial of the year came to a close after two men were convicted of the shooting death of Aston Smith.
Darius Twitty, 19, and Terrance Armstrong, 18, guilty in the shooting death of Aston Smith, 17. Twitty was initially charged with first-degree murder, and Armstrong with facilitation to commit murder. The two were convicted of voluntary manslaughter in February. The shooting occurred in August 2009 at Mosby Park.
In March, Juan Antonio Hernandez, 43, was indicted along with Manolo Mendez Escobar (aka Johnny Ayala Garcia), 27, of Guatemala, Pascual Ramirez-Ramirez, 35, also of Guatemala, James Darrell Ward, 48, of Chattanooga, Francisco Baltazar Pedro, 45, of Monterey and Amilcar Lerdo of Gainesville, Georgia.
All were charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Tennessee with conspiring to unlawfully produce Tennessee drivers licenses.
According to the indictment, between July 2009 and January, "the individuals agreed with one another to transport intelligible applicant to the Tennessee Drivers License Testing Site located on Bonny Oaks Drive in Chattanooga. The applicants presented counterfeit documents to a Department of Motor Vehicles employee, who in exchange for cash, unlawfully produced Tennessee drivers licenses."
Weather-related lootings were also evident after the April 27 tornadoes.
Eight people were arrested during the months after the tornadoes struck the community. They were charged after taking air units, refrigerators and other items from property owned by victims of the storms.
In June, a local couple was charged with alleged animal neglect.
Deputy Joe Renner of the Bradley County Sheriff's Office responded to an Ellis Drive residence and discovered 20 canines, two horses, 16 birds and one cat were "without food and clean drinking water."
According to his affidavit, "A passerby stopped to advise deputy Johnny Stokes and I about some animals located at 1080 Ellis Drive, that appeared to be neglected. Upon my arrival, no one was home," noted Renner.
Patricia and James Freeman were charged but charges were later dropped.
Jamie S. Johnson, 46, of Compton, Calif. traveled across country and was stopped on I-75 northbound by 10th Judicial District DTF agents after he was noticed driving without headlights. Johnson reportedly admitted to have been consuming drugs prior to the traffic stop, according to Steve Lawson, Drug Task Force director.
Johnson was arrested and charged after it was discovered he was transporting PCP, or Phencyclidine, an old and banned recreational disassociative anesthetic.
Johnson was arrested and booked on both state and federal charges. State charges include warrants for reckless endangerment and possession of PCP for resale, according to Lawson.
Tiffany Isaza will spend 10 years behind bars after entering a guilty plea to vehicular homicide charges earlier this year in the 2009 death of Dustin Ledford. Isaza was reportedly traveling in the wrong direction on APD 40 when she struck Ledford's vehicle. Laboratory reports on Isaza's blood-alcohol content registered a .24, three times the legal limit of .08, according to information from the investigation. Methamphetamine was also found in Isaza's system.
Aaron Lawson still faces aggravated assault and murder charges in two separate cases. A trial for the assault is scheduled for Jan. 4, while officials continue with a case where he was alleged to have killed Charles "Eddie" and Debbie Phillips on April 19. Lawson is the father of the couple's granddaughter. The Phillips' had been shot several times outside of their Leatha Lane home, according to reports.
Lawson fled Bradley County and was found by law enforcement hiding out at a relative's business near the Meigs/Hamilton County border.
Midyear, Bradley County deputy Dustin Patrick shot and killed a woman who reportedly attacked him with a knife, then jumped in his patrol car and drove away on Interstate 75.
Armetta Foster, 30, was traveling with her two small children from Florida to Kentucky for a funeral. She abandoned the vehicle she had been driving and began walking on Interstate 75, according to initial reports.
A 911 call sent the Bradley County deputy to the area for a welfare check. Upon the officer's arrival, Foster reportedly produced a knife and slashed the deputy, then continued to do so as she commandeered his patrol car. Shots were fired and according to reports, Foster was struck a number of times before she drove the vehicle away, eventually crashing off the interstate into a residential area off Harrison Pike.
An autopsy revealed a number of drugs in Foster's system. The deputy was eventually cleared after a TBI investigation.
David Keith Daugherty made his first appearance in July in a Bradley County courtroom and was served with a violation of probation warrant and is still held without a bond for the alleged murder of his wife, Elizabeth Annette Carney.
Daugherty was alleged to have killed Carney at their 6th Street home, then fled the area, eventually being arrested in North Carolina.
Carney had not been seen for several days, according to reports.
Family members became concerned and contacted authorities who were enroute to the couple's home when they were told by 911 dispatchers they had found her body.
Carney's body was wrapped and tied in blankets and stuffed into a closet. Preliminary examination and a following autopsy has initially concluded Carney had been strangled to death.
An April 3, 2012 trial date has been set.
Donald E. Hallmark was found guilty of a lesser offense in the shooting of his stepson in March 2010. He was sentenced this week after having a jury trial earlier this year.
According to information from the initial investigation by the Bradley County Sheriff's Office, Hallmark, 65, and his stepson, Richard Lee, 57, were involved in a "domestic confrontation" when Hallmark shot Lee three times.
The two were at their 3rd Street N.W. home at the time of the shooting, reports said.
Hallmark was originally charged with aggravated assault (domestic) and held without bond pending arraignment in Bradley County General Sessions Court.
A jury trial held in Bradley County Criminal Court was held March 1 and a jury found Hallmark guilty of a lesser offense of attempt to commit voluntary manslaughter. Bradley County Criminal Court Judge Carroll Ross sentenced Hallmark to 90 days in the Bradley County Jail and three years' probation.
Several bank robbers also made getaways after pulling off the daring daylight robberies at area banks. In October, a lone robber entered the Athens Federal Community Bank on 25th Street and left with an undisclosed amount of cash, according to officials. Just a few days later, another robber entered Southeast Bank and Trust and took money.
A robber also entered First Volunteer Bank in Polk County in August and fled the scene. Various law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigations.
Several families and local law enforcement continue to search for clues into the disappearance of loved ones.
A number of missing persons cases remain on Bradley County's list of active investigations including that of Marsha Ellen Rader Brantley, who disappeared in June 2009.
Brantley's extended family has been in Cleveland and Bradley County several times during the year to place posters seeking information regarding her whereabouts.
Her husband Donnie Brantley, told investigators she had left him and was planning a divorce.
Donnie Payne disappeared in Sept. 2008. Investigators have followed numerous leads with no luck. Payne was 73 years-old when he was last seen.
Patricia Louise Kelley was last seen in August 1983, after she was believed to have left a night spot in the area of Dalton Pike/Wildwood Avenue, according to initial reporting.
Kelley was 25 years-old at the time of her disappearance.
Sandra Plumley (Hale), 40, disappeared in May 2005. Family members indicated she was traveling to the Chattanooga area; however, "no one has provided details of any contact with her after that." She reportedly lived in Perry, Ga.
The oldest missing persons case is 27 years old. Heller Sample was last seen in February 1983, at her residence on Peach Orchard Hill Road.
No other information has been released regarding her disappearance.
Cleveland Fire Department was involved in several fire investigations throughout 2011.
In early December, CFD and Bradley County Fire Rescue responded with law enforcement regarding an alleged anthrax scare which turned out to be a hoax.
The Bradley County Courthouse and surrounding area was shut down while investigators worked to assess and decontaminate court clerks who had been present when mail was opened and one letter in particular had a strange white powder inside. U.S. Postal Service and the FBI are currently investigating the incident.
The most recent investigation was the largest fire in a number of years, which destroyed the old Cleveland Chair Co., located on 9th Street.
No arrests have been made but the fire was determined to be set, whether intentionally or by accident and possibly by homeless people who had sought shelter from the cold.
The century old building was totally destroyed and valued at $1.2 million.
In March, David Knoop was rescued by Cleveland firefighters after he became entrapped in his burning home located on Windsor Court. Knoop spent several days in an Augusta, Ga. hospital recovering from burns.
April tornadoes left tons of brush and downed trees. In August, Bradley County Fire Rescue was in command of controlling a fire which got out of hand and burned several acres of storm damaged trees in the Chatata Valley. The fire rekindled during the next several days prompting return visits by firefighters to the area.
For more information on criminal, DUI, and traffic matters please, call our office at 305-548-5020.
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