Fire & Police Briefs: Medical examiner seeks identity of body found near Belews Lake

CHAPEL HILL -- State investigators are still trying to identify a body that was found Tuesday in a pond next to Belews Lake in northeastern Forsyth County.

Sharon Artis, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill, said that an autopsy would be performed. Dental records may be used for identification, Artis said.

"It takes a couple of days to get things processed," she said.

Forsyth County Sheriff's Maj. Brad Stanley declined yesterday to release any further information about the victim, including the gender.

The case is being investigated as a homicide as a worst-case scenario, Stanley said, but investigators haven't ruled out an accidental drowning or natural causes, he said.

The body was reported to the sheriff's office by witnesses about 2 p.m. Tuesday and was retrieved from the lake about 7 p.m. The body was found in a cove of the lake that was too shallow to access by boat, Stanley said. Investigators used all-terrain vehicles to get to the body, he said.

The part of Belews Lake is near N.C. 65 in the Pine Hall area of the Belews Creek community. Witnesses who reported the body said that the victim appeared to be a woman.

Winston-Salem man killed when car runs off the road

A Winston-Salem man died after his car ran off a road and into a grove of trees.

The wreck happened at 3:17 a.m. on a stretch of Shattalon Drive near Petree Drive in northwestern Winston-Salem.

Police identified the man killed as Steve Jimenez, 31, of 250 Vista Court, Apt. A.

Police said that Jimenez was driving north in a 2003 Nissan, but he misjudged a curve and went off the road, traveling about 150 feet and hitting some trees.

Speed and alcohol appear to be factors in the crash, police said.

The death marks the eighth traffic fatality in the city this year. Last year at this time, there were five, police said.

Three charged in breaking and entering and larceny

The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office has arrested three Winston-Salem men on charges of breaking and entering after a witness reported seeing three men trying to break into a home in Clemmons on Tuesday.

Sheriff's deputies arrested Justin Levon Gales, 18, of 2731 Piedmont Circle, Bryant Keith Stephens Jr., 20, of 409 Tortoise Lane, and Marvin Javon Chambers, 19, of 1612 N. Jackson Ave.

Each man is charged with one count of breaking and entering, one count of larceny after breaking and entering, and one count of attempted breaking and entering. The three charges are felonies.

A witness saw three men trying to get into a home on Bridge Pointe Drive in Clemmons on Tuesday morning, the sheriff's office said.

Deputies broadcast a lookout for the blue Toyota van that the men were seen in, and a Davidson County deputy stopped a van matching that description a few minutes later, the Forsyth sheriff's office said.

Deputies found items inside the van that had been reported stolen during another break-in earlier in the day at a home on River Crest Court in Clemmons, the sheriff's office said.

Stephens is being held in the Forsyth County Jail with bond set at $25,000. Chambers and Gales were released on unsecured bonds of $5,000.

Thomasville man arrested on charges of sexual assault

THOMASVILLE -- Police arrested a man Tuesday on charges that he sexually assaulted a woman.

Thomasville police said in a news release that they received a report about a possible sexual assault on Monday.

After an investigation, police arrested William Patrick Jenkins Jr., 28, of 8525 E. Holly Grove Road on charges of first-degree rape and first-degree statutory rape.

Thomasville Detective Steven Truell said that the woman was sexually assaulted twice, both times this year. He declined to give the woman's age.

Jenkins was being held in the Davidson County Jail with bond set at $500,000. He is scheduled to appear in Thomasville District Court on July 24.

Man charged with shooting at wife, setting house afire

LEXINGTON -- A Davidson County man was arrested Tuesday on charges that he shot at his wife and set fire to his house just before police took him into custody, the Davidson County Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies responded to a call about a domestic dispute at 3:28 p.m. Tuesday at 153 Mockingbird Lane, just south of Thomasville. A woman told deputies that she had gotten into a fight with her husband.

When she tried to leave, she told them, the husband shot at her truck three times, blowing out two tires. Deputies went to the house to arrest the husband and noticed smoke coming out of one of the windows.

Jonathan David Hill, 31, of 153 Mockingbird Lane was charged with assault on a child under 12, discharging a weapon into occupied property, felony fraudulent burning of a dwelling, and assault with a deadly weapon. He is being held in the Davidson County Jail with no bond set.