Today is
Sunday November 24, 2024
LONGVIEW – It is a long prison sentence for a Longview man. A Longview jury on Thursday found Michael Fred Houston, 38, guilty of aggravated robbery. Due to two prior felony convictions, and other acts against elderly persons, the jury sentenced him to life in prison. In early May of last year, police were called to the Dollar General on Judson Road for a robbery in the parking lot. An elderly woman told officers a man opened the passenger door of her car, grabbed her purse, which had her cell phone, and then fled. Houston will have to serve 30 years before becoming eligible for parole.
AUSTIN – Unemployment in Tyler and Longview continues to run low. The Texas Workforce commission reports Tyler’s unemployment figure in March was 3.4%. That is down from the 3.7% figure in February. In March of last year, it was also 3.7% Longview’s March unemployment was 3.4%. It was 4.1% in February and 4.3% in March of last year. The Texas unemployment figure for March was unchanged, a 3.8%.
PALESTINE – Palestine is coping with severe damage around the city following Wednesday night’s storms. The Palestine water treatment plant is back online as of Friday morning after being knocked out during this week’s storms, but the boil water notice continues. Officials said residents must boil water at least three minutes before drinking it. Officials still strongly encourage you to conserve water as much as possible — i.e., no watering yards, limited showers, etc.
FLINT – An attempt to serve a warrant in the Flint area resulted in a standoff with law officers Thursday afternoon. The warrant was for Gregory Colin Morrison, 44, of Flint. He was wanted on a forfeiture warrant with an original charge of possession of a controlled substance. A woman, Rachel Gutierrez, 26, of Tyler, talked with deputies through the door of a metal building, with Morrison inside. But the door was slammed shut and deputies could hear a large tractor started up inside the building. It was driven to the door and used as a barricade. That’s when the deputies called in the department’s SWAT unit. The couple finally came out when SWAT team members entered the building through a window. Morrison was booked into jail on the warrant and a charge of evading arrest. Gutierrez was charged with hindering apprehension.
EAST TEXAS – The storms that moved through overnight Wednesday and Thursday brought over an inch of rain to Tyler. The National Weather Service reports the two day total for downtown Tyler is 1.50 inches. At the Tyler airport, the two day total was 1.88 inches. The Longview airport recorded 1.31 inches. The storms produced gusty winds. The highest wind gust at the Tyler airport was 46 mph at 2:58 Thursday morning. The Longview airport reported its highest wind gust Thursday morning at 3:56 when it hit 56 mph.
TYLER – State District Judge Jack Skeen has granted a defense motion for more DNA testing in the capital murder case against Gustavo Zavala-Garcia. He appeared in court Thursday morning for a pretrial hearing. Both the prosecution and the defense agreed there needed to be testing of additional small hairs found on the victim’s T-shirt and skirt. This would have to be done at a private lab or the University of North Texas lab. Zavala-Garcia is charged with capital murder in the November, 2016 death of Kayla Gomez-Orozco. She was abducted from a Bullard church. Her body was found days later inside a well on the suspect’s property.
TYLER – All non-emergency Smith County offices will be closed for business on Friday, for Good Friday. Offices will reopen for normal business hours on Monday. But, even with Smith County offices closed, the county elections office at 302 East Ferguson will open from 9:00am to noon. The Texas Secretary of State’s Office is requiring the elections office to open for three hours on the holiday to give people a chance to turn in their applications for a mail ballot for the May 4 city and school elections. Friday is the deadline to turn in the applications. Early voting begins next Monday and runs through Tuesday, April 30.
TYLER – Three Tyler residents have been indicted by a federal grand jury in a counterfeit immigration documents conspiracy. The indictment against Jose Luis Marquez Rodriguez, 53; Eleazar Juarez Juarez, 45; and Virginia Colis Rodriguez, 52, was returned on Wednesday. The three are said to have produced phony United States Permanent Residence Cards, United States Social Security Cards, and driver’s licenses. They are said to have sold them for around $200 apiece. Rodriguez is to to have kept detailed records of their distribution efforts and last month alone, recorded 90 sales of counterfeit U.S. identification documents. If convicted, the defendants each face up to 15 years in federal prison.
ALTO – Cherokee County will not be getting any help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of the tornadoes last weekend. That is what County Judge Chris Davis told our news partner KETK. The reason that FEMA will not help is because the damage does not meet the threshold necessary to receive federal disaster assistance. FEMA told KETK that the state had not requested help from them.
HENDERSON – The Rusk County Sheriff’s Department is seeking the public’s help in solving some theft cases. They say that the car pictured here has been involved in numerous thefts and burglaries in the Tatum area. The suspect has been stealing from carports and inside homes. If you can provide any information, you are asked to contact Investigator Wright or Investigator Perrault at 903-657-3581.
TYLER – A 33-year-old Salvadoran citizen has been indicted by a Tyler federal grand jury for immigration violations. Jose Eduardo Melara-Carcamo was named in an indictment returned on Wednesday. He was arrested in March for public intoxication in Athens. The deportation officer who interviewed him was the same one who processed him for deportation last year. A check of records confirmed that Melara had been previously removed to El Salvador in 2007, 2013, and 2018. Each time he reentered the United States without consent. If convicted, he faces up to 2 years in federal prison and deportation.
AUSTIN – As the result of last weekend’s storms, several area counties are under a state disaster declaration. Nine counties are contained in the declaration, including Cherokee and Nacogdoches. The Governor has authorized the use of all available resources of state government and of political subdivisions to aid in response efforts. The governor said his action is to ensure those impacted have the resources they need to recover as quickly as possible. And, he added, “Working together, we will ensure that these East Texas communities are rebuilt stronger than ever before.”
KILGORE – The East Texas Council of Governments has received a $375,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration. It will be used to help in the development of a regional broadband strategic plan for 14 counties in East Texas. They applied for the grant in December. They proposed to develop a strategic plan that will help identify and address existing gaps in broadband access for businesses across the region. The grant is issued to the East Texas Economic Development District, which is administered by ETCOG. With this grant, ETCOG and its local economic development partner agencies have committed to an additional investment of $161,000 in local matching funds. This bring the total project funding of $536,000. Read the rest of this entry »
GILMER – A Longview man has pleaded guilty in Upshur County to evading arrest with a vehicle. And, being a habitual offender, Daniel Eugene Smith, 47, was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison. Back in January, Smith fled from a Longview traffic stop. Later a state trooper saw him just, before 11:30 that night, without a working headlight traveling over 100 miles an hour in a 50 mile per hour zone. He chased the car until Smith wrecked it near Union Grove. He then fled on foot and jumped into a lake to swim away. He was identified through papers found in his car. Smith had previously been sentenced to prison in 1991 and 2003 out of Harrison County for burglaries.
ALTO – The tornado that hit Alto Saturday caused major damage to the Caddo Mounds State Historical Site. Mark Wolfe, executive director of the Texas Historical Commission was among those who toured the site to assess the damage. Roughly 50% of the visitors’ center building was demolished by the storm. They are working to obtain a structural assessment of what remains. The estimate to rebuild the visitors’ center, to replace vehicles and equipment, and to make other necessary repairs, is $2.5 million. Read the rest of this entry »