Today is
Saturday July 25, 2026
LONGVIEW – A fatal accident in Longview remains under investigation. It happened Shortly before 9:00 Saturday night on West Loop 281. Killed was Wilbert Hawkins 58, of Longview. His vehicle that had become disabled in the inside lane west bound on the loop. Other cars had stopped to avoid hitting his vehicle. A pickup driven by Julio Martinez 38, of Longview, moved into the turning lane to avoid hitting the stopped cars and hit Hawkins. He later died at a Longview hospital.
TYLER – A report of a robbery brought Tyler police to Texas Bank and Trust at South Broadway and Robert E Lee Drive. It was reported around 10:15 Saturday morning. A man entered the bank and handed the teller a note telling her of the robbery. The man got nervous when the clerk started to walk away, he then took the note and ran away without getting any money. He is described as a black male in his late 20’s medium build, wearing a black baseball cap, black shirt and black pants. He got into a gold, early 2000 Chrysler Pacifica, which was parked near, and drove away.
JACKSONVILLE – Two persons have been killed in a two vehicle accident in Cherokee County. The wreck happened just before 4:45 Friday afternoon on Farm Road 177, 7 miles north of Jacksonville. Dead at the scene was Susan Lynnette Baker, 40, of Troup, and a 15 year old girl who was a passenger in her car. The Department of Public Safety says Baker was traveling at an unsafe speed when her car entered a curve and she over corrected. It caused her car skid sideways into the other lane of traffic where it was hit by a pickup. Both vehicles end up in a ditch. The driver of the pickup was not injured. The wreck remains under investigation.
AUSTIN – Texas’s two high courts have appointed 31 members to lead the newly established Judicial Commission on Mental Health. One of them is Hopkins County Judge Robert Newsom of Sulphur Springs. He will serve through August 2020. The commission, the first body jointly created by the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, will examine best practices in the administration of civil and criminal justice for persons with mental illness. The first meeting of the newly-appointed commission is scheduled for Tuesday, May 15 in Austin.
LONGVIEW – Benjamin B. Johnson, 36, of Longview, has been found guilty of two counts of harassment of a public servant. The ruling came Friday in a trial before State District Judge Alfonso Charles. Johnson resisted arrest in October of 2016 when first approached by officers and later at a Longview hospital. He even spit on two officers. A urinalysis showed Johnson to be on PCP, methamphetamine and marijuana. He will be sentenced at a later date.
MARSHALL – Marshall police are looking for two men in a home invasion. It occurred shortly before 9:45 Thursday night on Dean Drive. Two men, one who was armed, forced their way into the home of an elderly woman and demanded firearms. One held her at gunpoint while the other ransacked her house. They stole a crossbow, and then fled on foot. The woman was not injured. They were described as young black males, both with red bandanas over their face. One suspect was said to have been wearing a red hoodie and the other was wearing a dark colored hoodie.
TYLER – A woman wanted for a Dallas County death has been arrested in Tyler. Diem Trinh Nguyen, 29, of Grand Prairie was arrested around 2:30 Thursday morning in a church parking lot on Highway 155. An officer checking on the suspicious vehicle discovered she had been named in a warrant in Dallas County for criminally negligent homicide. She had been wanted in connection with an accident in which she hit and killed a man standing on a sidewalk in April of last year. She is being held in the Smith County jail under a $100,000 bond.
LONGVIEW – Longview Animal Control is reminding residents, be cautious if you find a bat. Bat exposure is a major concern because of the possibility of contracting rabies. So far this year, they have responded to 17 calls about bats. Six were sent in for rabies testing. The other bats had been released by the people who found them. They believe the number of bat exposures may top 17, because others may have released the bats without knowing how harmful the exposure could be. The best advice, if you see a bat, don’t touch it or release it. Instead, call Animal Control or 911. You can go to https://www.longviewtexas.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1404 to get more tips about bats and bat exposure.
WASHINGTON – Tyler congressman Louie Gohmert has been named a recipient of the 2018 Thomas Jefferson Award. The bi-annual award, presented by the International Foodservice Distributors Association, recognizes legislators whose voting record shows strong support of the U.S. foodservice distribution industry. The award was introduced in 1992.
TYLER – A Tyler man is heading to prison for aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault. Last month, a Tyler jury found Freddi Betancourt, 26, guilty. Friday, State District Judge Kerry Russell sentenced him to 30 years in prison. Last June, he met a woman he had a previous relationship with at Noble Young Park. He forced her into his car where he sexually assaulted her before driving off with the victim still in the vehicle. Witnesses helped police find the car on the Frankston Highway, with the woman trying to get out of the vehicle.
TYLER – Tyler police are looking for help in identifying a man involved in a hit an run accident. He was a passenger in the car that caused the crash. It happened on April 13th at West Gentry Parkway and Parkdale. He is said to have got out of the vehicle and pushed to the ground the lady who was driving. He then took her cell phone while she was trying to dial 911. If you can identify him, you are asked to call Tyler police.
EAST TEXAS – Tyler’s Unemployment rate has dropped, while there has been a slight uptick in Longview’s jobless numbers. The report from the Texas Workforce Commission show Tyler’s unemployment rate for march was 3.7%. That is down from 4.1% in February and far better that the 4.3% rate in March of last year. Longview’s March unemployment rate was 4.5%, slightly up from 4.4% in February, but vastly improved from the 5.7% figure last March. The state’s unemployment rate last month was 4%, slightly better than the March jobless figure for the U.S.
ELKHART – One person has been killed and 3 injured in a one vehicle accident in Anderson County. It happened around 4:45 Wednesday morning on U.S. Highway 287, six miles south of Elkhart. Dead at the scene was Autumn A’mari Taylor, 2, of Tyler. In critical condition in a Dallas hospital is a three week old. The DPS says both were unbealted. A teenager is in critical condition in a Tyler hospital. The driver, Tiffany Marie Taylor, 36, of Tyler, is in stable condition in a Tyler. It appears she fell asleep at the wheel. She then overcorrected, went across the highway, overturned and hit a house.
TYLER – UT Health East Texas EMS, formerly ETMC EMS, has rolled out its new ambulance design. The ambulance service began in 1968. Besides Tyler and Smith County, coverage also includes Henderson County, Wood County, most of Cherokee County and the city of Henderson. It employs 116 paramedics and 124 emergency medical technicians. Moody Chisholm, president and CEO of UT Health East Texas said at Thursday’s unveiling, “over the next several months, all 50 ambulances and EMS support vehicles will be branded with the new look.†UT Health East Texas Air 1 also is being rebranded. The new helicopter look will be revealed in June.
LONGVIEW – Longview police say it was a Dallas man who was killed in a Wednesday morning accident. He is John Warren Young, 56. The accident occurred on East Marshall Avenue in front of Jennings Scrap & Salvage. Police investigators say Young got out of his 18-wheeler and the truck and trailer started rolling down the hill. Before he could get back into the vehicle, it ran over him.
TYLER – A Mineola man has been arrested for shooting at a Smith County sheriff’s deputy. The incident happened April 8th when a deputy answered a suspicious persons call on County Road 462, in far northwest Smith County. When the deputy sounded his siren, two shots came from a camper trailer. One hit the rear window of the patrol car. When 35 year old Joshua Forrester came out of the trailer, he was taken to a hospital for evaluation. After further investigation, he was charged with aggravated assault against a public servant. He was booked into the Smith County Jail early Thursday morning under a bond of $1 million.
WASHINGTON – Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn want to honor the Founders of Mercy Ships. The senators have introduced legislation to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Don and Deyon Stephens. They are the founders of the non-profit Mercy Ships of Garden Valley, west of Lindale. The medal is in recognition of their nearly 40 years of service. Mercy Ships transforms retired ocean liners and ferries into hospital ships that provide humanitarian aid across the world. Tyler congressman Louie Gohmert has introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
LONGVIEW – A Longview law firm has been retained by the widow and by a victim with permanent injuries in connection with a murder case against a former East Texas nurse. Our news partner KETK reports The Sloan, Hatcher, Perry, Runge, Robertson & Smith Law Firm has been hired by both the widow of Christopher Greenaway and the man identified by the Tyler Police Department as John Doe 4. They were said to have been killed or injured by former CHRISTUS Mother Frances and Louis and Peaches Owen Heart Hospital nurse, William George Davis. He has been charged in the death of Christopher Greenaway. Tyler Police Jimmy Chief Toler has said Davis is being investigated in six other cases in which patients were injured. He likely will be charged with multiple counts of aggravated assault.
ELKHART – One person has died in a one vehicle accident in Anderson County. Dead at the scene was Bethany Anastasia Dakota Giron, 17, of Elkhart. The Department of Public Safety reports she was traveling at an unsafe speed, around 12:30 Wednesday morning, when her pickup left the road on a curve. The pickup became airborne across Manson Creek and struck a dirt embankment with its front end.
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville police are investigating two shootings. The first occurred shortly before 7:00 Monday evening on Palestine Street. One person received a minor injury and two vehicles were damaged. About seven and a half hours later another shooting was reported on the same street. Hit this time was a house and an unoccupied vehicle. Investigators feel the two cases are related. They have released no further information.
LONGVIEW – A man has been killed in Longview when his vehicle rolled over him. The accident happened Wednesday morning on East Marshall Avenue in front of Jennings Scrap & Salvage. Police investigators say the man got out of his 18-wheeler and the vehicle started rolling down the hill. Before he could get back into the vehicle, it ran over him. His name has not been released.
LONGVIEW – A Longview man has plead guilty to two aggravated robbery charges and one engaging in organized criminal activity charge. Kaleb Bush, 19, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. In August, 2016, He and his uncle were accused of robbing people at a family barbecue. After bonding out of jail, Bush and four others are said to have robbed a man at the Tree House Apartments. Then, several days later, Bush and three men are said to have robbed a man in the parking lot of the Summer Brook Apartments.
LONGVIEW – A Longview man is free on a $25,000 bond following his arrest on drug charges. Daquayivious Dejuan Fowlkes, 23, was arrested after officers served a search warrant at a home on Hubbard Drive. In the home, officers found crack cocaine, ecstacy powder, ecstacy and hydrocodone pills, and a small amount of marijuana. Fowlkes was charged with manufacture/delivery of a controlled substance.
TYLER – The Alamo is on the road and you will be able to see it. The Alamo Roadshow will be in Tyler on Wednesday. The road show gives you a chance to learn about ongoing preservation work happening at the state’s most well-known historic site. They are also bringing several artifacts from the Alamo and General Land Office Archives that will someday appear in exhibits in the planned Alamo Museum and Visitor’s Center. The roadshow opens Wednesday evening at 6:00 at the TISD Career & Technology Center on Earl Campbell Parkway.
LINDEN – A former state trooper in east Texas has been indicted for sexual abuse of a child. The Longview News Journal reports Louis Paul Weems, 33, of Marshall, has been indicted by the Cass County grand jury. He is charged with the continuous sexual abuse of a child, indecency with a child by contact and indecency with a child by exposure. Weems, who was arrested last week, is currently free on a $450,000 bond. He was suspended by the DPS when the allegations surfaced last November. He was fired in January.
EAST TEXAS – Medical facilities in 19 east Texas counties, including Smith and Gregg counties, will be taking part in a mass exercise on Wednesday on moving a large number of patients across the region. They will be practicing handling a large group of patients following a hit by a tornado. The medical facilities will be simulating the actual process of receiving the patients, assessing their condition and treatment plans. They will also work on admitting the patient to their facility or to evacuate existing patients due to extensive damage. While hospitals and EMS agencies handle emergencies each day, there is a different process when they are moving several hundred patients at a time. Around 250 students will act as tornado victims for the exercise.
TYLER – Heritage Land Bank is reporting a possible security breach. In a news release, the bank says the breach involves the lockbox payment processing service, provided by third-party vendor, Frost Bank. Frost Bank has stopped the unauthorized access and secured its software. Heritage Land Bank is taking the necessary steps to transfer its lockbox payment services to another financial institution. Anyone who has mailed checks to the San Antonio address are encouraged to monitor their accounts for any unauthorized or suspect activity and report such activity to their bank. The FBI and U.S. Secret Service are leading the investigation.
COFFEE CITY – One person has been killed in a one vehicle accident in Henderson County. It happened Monday night around 8:45 on Farm Road 314, just over 6 miles southwest of Coffee City. Killed was 58 year old Caesar Samuel Smith, of LaRue. The Department of Public Safety says his pickup drifted off the road. The driver over steered and the pickup crossed the road, where it struck a tree and overturned. Smith later died at a Tyler hospital.
SMITH COUNTY – A fatal vehicle/pedestrian accident in Smith County remains under investigation. It happened around 9:45 Monday night on Farm road 2661 just south of County Road 1130. Killed was 39 year old Alan Cleaver of Flint. Had had parked in a private drive and waked across the farm road to get his mail. A northbound driver was unable to see him and hit hit him. Cleaver was taken to a Tyler hospital where he later died.
LONGVIEW – In state district court in Longview Monday, Aaron Castile Bowling, 28, of Longview, pleaded guilty to the murder of his 2 year old daughter. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison by District Judge Alfonso Charles. Alanis Bowling was taken by her mother, Jamie Lee Nelson, 26, to the hospital in December, 2015. Because of the severity of her injuries, she was later flown to a Dallas hospital, where she died. As officers began to investigate the case, the parents provided a story that was not consistent with the child’s injuries. Her mother is charged with negligence and endangering a child. The case against her is still pending.