Local News Monday February 13, 2012

A fire has claimed the lives of a teenager and the woman who took care of him in the Whitley City Community of McCreary County.

It started at about 4:15 Sunday morning at a home on Black Walnut Road.

State police say the caregiver lived in the home with the 17-year-old and two adults, who are all mentally disabled.

Police say the wood burning stove is the culprit behind the fire and was a recent addition to the home.

One of the adult men received treatment at the hospital for non-life threatening injuries. The other made it out without any injuries.

Police are not releasing the identities of the victims until their families have been notified.

_____


The third armed robbery in the past six months in the community of Mallie in Knott County occured over the weekend.

It happened at the Electric Beach, a tanning salon off Highway 899 about 5:00pm on Saturday.

In this robbery, like the others, the suspect got away with money. This time, however, the employee involved was scratched with a knife.

The latest robbery suspect is described as a white man about 5'8" with a slender build wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, a brown ski mask, light blue jeans, white shoes, and rubber gloves.

If you have any information, you are asked to contact Kentucky State Police in Hazard at (606) 435-6069.

_____


Arrests are made after an early morning robbery on Friday in Harlan County.

Police say 19 year old Dustin Hensley, 21 year old Edward Farmer and a juvenile walked into the Coldiron BP gas station around 10am Friday morning, pointed a gun at the clerk and demanded money.

The three suspects got away with an undisclosed amount of cash and nobody was hurt.

They were later arrested.

Hensley and Farmer are being held at the Harlan County Detention Center.

_____


An inmate tried to escape while receiving medical attention at Hazard ARH Hospital Saturday afternoon.

Workers at Kentucky River Regional Jail say 20-year-old Anthony Back of Blackey here in Letcher County was only in jail for six days when he tried to escape from jail workers.

Workers say he acted like he was going to the restroom and then ran.

Back was not successful in finding his way out of the hospital and was caught by jail workers in another hospital room.

State police in Hazard were called to the scene and assisted jail workers in the capture.

Back was charged with second degree escape in addition to his previous charges.

He is back in the Kentucky River Regional Jail with a more than 17,000 dollar cash bond.

_____


A mistrial is declared in the Floyd County trial for five inmates accused of severely beating another inmate four years ago.

Chris Newsome, Ivan Gunnels, Stephen Jervis, Matthew Ritchie, and Kevin Woods were all charged with assault.

Police say in August of 2008, they beat accused child molester Terry Fisher nearly to death.

The trial started this week, but ended in a mistrial Thursday.

Officials say a jail guard said something on the stand the jury should not have heard.

A status conference is scheduled for next month and a new trial is planned.

_____


A federal inmate has pulled off a rare feat, suing the federal government and getting a trial date.

Johnny Davis filed suit in 2008 in federal court in Pikeville about complications stemming from eye surgery done while housed at Big Sandy Federal Prison in Inez.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar set a trial for Davis in May in Lexington.

Davis is serving a life sentence for drug offenses.

Right now, he is in a South Carolina federal prison.

_____


The man charged with murder in connection to the death of a Pike County sheriff's deputy pleads not guilty.

David Wayne Childers appeared in Friday afternoon.

Police say on January 23rd, David Wayne Childers crossed the center line on US-460 and hit Thacker's cruiser head on. He died at the scene.

Police say they found drug paraphernalia in Childers' SUV.

A grand jury indicted him on murder and persistent felony offender charges.

Judge Steven Combs said he will consider bond if the defense attorney files a written motion.

A pre-trial conference for the case is scheduled for April 27.