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Fire & Police Briefs: Surry County man charged with multiple offenses in fatal car wreck
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Published: November 11, 2009
Updated: 11/11/2009 12:30 am
A Surry County man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, felony death by motor vehicle and driving while impaired in connection with a fatal wreck that occurred in April, authorities said yesterday.
Joshua Dale Hembree, 19, of Ararat was charged by N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement agents and the N.C. Highway Patrol, according to the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.
The charges follow an investigation into the death of Michael Dehart, 19, of Mount Airy, a passenger in Hembree's vehicle.
Hembree was driving a car April 18 when it ran off Ararat Road, overcorrected as it came back onto the pavement, crossed the center line and hit a tree, state troopers said.
The wreck occurred eight miles northwest of Pilot Mountain.
Dehart died at the scene. Hembree was taken to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where he was treated for his injuries.
Before the wreck, Hembree and Dehart had been at a party in a cabin in Thurmond, state investigators said.
Hembree was released Oct. 28 from Surry County Jail in Dobson. His bond is set at $50,000.
He is scheduled to appear Dec. 1 in Surry Superior Court.
Fugitive awaits extradition hearing
Winston-Salem police arrested a Newark, N.J., man Monday on a fugitive warrant that charges him with felony murder, conspiracy to commit murder and unlawful possession of a weapon, court records show.
Omar S. Jackson, 30, is accused of trying to rob a liquor store in Newark with another man on Feb. 23, 2006, when a store employee, Ramon Lopez, 41, began pulling Jackson inside a gap in a security window within the store, said Harry Moskowitz, an assistant homicide prosecutor in Essex County, N.J.
The other man then shot and killed Lopez with a handgun, Moskowitz said yesterday.
Jackson and the other man were wearing ski masks, but investigators identified Jackson through DNA found on clothes left at the scene.
The gunman remains at large.
Newark investigators don't know why Jackson came to Winston-Salem, Moskowitz said.
Jackson was being held yesterday in the Forsyth County Jail, with no bond allowed. He is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 4 for an extradition hearing.
22 car tires cut on West End street
Winston-Salem police said that someone slashed 22 tires on 12 cars parked in the West End neighborhood early yesterday morning.
The incident took place in the 100 block of Westdale Avenue just before 2, police said.
Damage is estimated at $2,200.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 727-2800.
Henderson house fire kills 2 children
HENDERSON -- Two children have died in a house fire in Vance County in north-central North Carolina.
A 12-year-old girl and her 1-year old brother died in the fire Monday night in Henderson.
The children were trapped in the bedroom where the fire started, and firefighters were unable to reach them.
Their 16-year-old brother who was looking after them was able to escape and ran for help.
Authorities have not released the names of the victims.
Fire officials did not know where the parents were at the time of the fire.
Fire Chief Danny Wilkerson says that the cause is under investigation, but that damage was mostly limited to the bedroom.
Big drug raid nets at least 50 in N.C.
GREENVILLE -- Authorities say they arrested more than 50 North Carolina residents as part of drug raids that resulted in hundreds of arrests across the country.
The federal Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday that those arrested in October and November were part of the La Familia Michoacana drug organization, which is based in Mexico.
Officials say that La Familia is responsible for the distribution of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into central and Eastern North Carolina.
Federal drug raids in October resulted more than 300 suspects across the country.
Law-enforcement officials said that "Project Coronado" is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel in the United States.
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