Today is
Tuesday June 09, 2026
LONGVIEW – Two persons have died in a Longview fire. It was reported shortly after 11:00 Friday night on Cherie Lane. Family members have told KETK the victims are Randall Russell and his daughter, Lisa Russell Tesmer, 52. No word on the cause of the fire. According to the police department’s Facebook page, the residents in the adjacent duplex were not injured.
BROWNSBORO – A Brownsboro volunteer fireman has died in a one vehicle accident in Henderson County. It happened just before 8:45 Friday evening ten miles south of Brownsboro on County Road 3600. Dead at the scene was Joseph Gentry, 28, who was a passenger in a car driven by Christopher Garrison, 21. Gentry, who was not wearing a seat belt, was tossed from the vehicle. Garrison was not seriously injured. The Department of Public Safety report says the driver lost control of the vehicle in a sharp curve and the front end hit a ditch.
LONGVIEW – A Longview man arrested for criminal trespass is also facing drug charges. Jack Monroe Hollins, 57, was arrested shortly before 11:30 Thursday night on East Marshall Avenue. In one pocket, officers found a bag of pill bottles and pieces of foil which they say contained several small baggies of powder cocaine. In the other pocket was a pill bottle with more baggies of cocaine. More baggies were found in his wallet. Hollins is also charged with charged with manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance. His bonds total $51,000.
EAST TEXAS – Two persons have been arrested after authorities served search warrants at two East Texas game rooms. One was in Diana and the other was in Gladewater. Over 100 computers were seized from the two rooms. A large amount of money and suspected methamphetamine were seized when a third warrant was served at a Gladewater residence. Charged with tampering with or fabricating physical evidence were Hussain Imtiaz, 51 and Fahad Imtiaz, 25, both of Gladewater. Investigators say additional charges may be filed in the investigation. The raids followed a fatal stabbing outside the Diana game room last weekend. Read the rest of this entry »
CANTON – A traffic stop in Van Zandt County has led to the seizure of a quantity of drugs. The west bound vehicle was stopped by a sheriff’s deputy and a state trooper. Officers found two pounds of heroin. That led them to a home near the traffic stop. There, they found $18,700 and around 33 pounds of heroin valued up to $3 million. The suspects will not be identified pending further investigation.
LONGVIEW – There will be no jury duty in Gregg County on Monday. District Clerk Barbara Duncan’s office said that anyone with a summons for the jury panel does not need to respond. The jury duty was cancelled because all trials set to begin Monday have either settled or been continued to another day. The names of those who had been called for Monday will be reshuffled into the random selection process.
TYLER – A Van Zandt County man is charged with leaving three children alone while he picked up his wife at work. Refugio Flores Lara, 38, of Ben Wheeler is charged with abandoning or endangering a child with intent to return. Tyler police were called when three small children were reported to be walking around a motel on East Gentry Parkway Thursday night. Officers were at the motel when the couple returned. Lara was booked into the Smith County Jail with a bond of $10,000.
TYLER – On Saturday, from 7:00am to 4:00pm, traffic on Rice Road will be diverted between Kinsey Drive and Old Bullard Road. This is because of roadwork and construction. Rice Road will be closed to local traffic between Cloverdale Drive and Briar Cove Drive and closed to truck traffic from Kinsey Drive to Old Bullard Road. It is estimated it will take around 9 hours to complete the work.
LAKE FORK – The second Legacy Class largemouth bass of the 2018 ShareLunker season came out of Lake Fork on Thursday. Angler Michael Terrebonne of Cut Off, Louisiana caught the 13.00lb, 25-inch largemouth bass in 6ft of water during an annual family trip to the lake. The fish, now known as Toyota ShareLunker 572, was weighed and held at a local marina until Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Inland Fisheries staff arrived to verify the catch and transport it to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center at Athens. The fish is now in the “Lunker Bunker†at the center and is being monitored and cared for by hatchery staff to prepare for spawning.
TRINIDAD – Two Henderson County residents are facing drug charges following a Thursday afternoon traffic stop. Gerald Don Williams, Jr., 50, and Amy Lynn Smith, 37, both of Trinidad, were charged with possession of a controlled substance. Williams was also charged with possession of marijuana. In their vehicle, deputies found three pipes, a baggie containing a crystal-like substance believed to be methamphetamine and another baggie containing marijuana. Read the rest of this entry »
TYLER – A Smith County insurance agent is free on bond after being charged with several counts of child sexual abuse. William Ronald Crist, 46, of Flint, was booked into the Smith County Jail Thursday afternoon after being arrested by the Bullard Police Department. He is charged with one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and two counts of sexual assault of a child. He was released Friday under bonds totaling $30,000. His lawyer sent a statement to KETK, which says in part, “My client adamantly denies the charges against him. He is currently going through a bitter divorce from his wife and we believe these allegations are being made by his wife for financial reasons and by his accuser for personal reasons. Mr. Crist passed a polygraph exam regarding these allegations.”
AUSTIN – Tyler’s unemployment rate continues to run below both the state and national numbers. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.0% in January. That is just below the national unemployment rate of 4.1%. The annual employment growth for Texas was 2% in January, marking 93 consecutive months of annual growth. Tyler’s unemployment rate for January was 3.8%, just up from the 3.7% figure in December. Longview’s unemployment rate to start the year was 4.6%, up from 4% in December. But it is still way below the city’s 6.6% unemployment rate in January of last year.
LONGVIEW – A Spring Hill school district coach has been arrested for an alleged improper relationship with a student. Arrested shortly after 4:30 Thursday afternoon was Jacob Vincent Badgett, 25, of Longview. Badgett is a assistant boys 7th grade basketball coach and an assistant junior high football coach. According to the Longview Police Department, this is an ongoing investigation. He was placed in the Gregg County Jail under a $50,000 bond.
TYLER — The entrance to the old Tyler airport terminal has been reopened after being closed for a time this afternoon due to an accident at Highway 64 West and Airport Drive. Traffic was down to one lane eastbound on Highway 64 West until emergency services gave the all clear.
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville police are looking for a wanted felon. He is Drayshadrian Hunter, 26, who is also known as “Stinky Butt.” He is wanted on warrants out of the Jacksonville Police Department as well as Smith, Van Zandt and Kaufman counties. Officers were tipped off that he was seen in the area of Lincoln Park Wednesday afternoon. When he saw the officers, he ran into a wooded area between Greely and Grant Streets. Even a police canine team and a DPS helicopter were unable to find Hunter. If you know where he can be found, you are asked to call Crimestoppers at 903-586-7867.