Soldier arrested on sex charges
LAKE WACCAMAW — A Fort Bragg soldier has been charged with sex crimes against a child less than 13 years of age in Columbus County.
According to reports, Brandon H. Hess, 22, was arrested by Columbus County sheriff’s deputies on Sunday and charged with first-degree sex offense with a child and indecent liberties with a child.
Hess is being held in the Columbus County Jail on a $100,000 secured bond.
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Two are charged with beating death
FAYETTEVILLE (AP) — Authorities say two men have been charged with murder after a 52-year-old man was beaten to death in the parking lot of a Fayetteville sports bar.
Police said in a news release that 37-year-old Hubert Underwood II and 26-year-old Steven Rosser got in a fight with the victim as they left 301 Wingz around 12:25 a.m. Sunday.
Investigators say the men beat Michael Mansfield and left him unconscious in the parking lot as they drove off. Mansfield died a short time later at the hospital.
Underwood and Rosser are both charged with first-degree murder and remain in jail. It wasn’t known if they had lawyers.
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Ambulance service pulls the plug
CLINTON — The abrupt closure of a private ambulance service recently has left Sampson County officials searching for another method by which to provide medical transports for local patients.
Johnston Ambulance Service, known as JAS, was the largest privately-held ambulance service in North Carolina. After more than 40 years in business, during which it served 17 counties in eastern and central North Carolina, the business was suddenly shut down last week.
That meant locations in a dozen counties were closed down — one on Warsaw Road in Clinton among them — ambulances taken off the road and approximately 400 full- and part-time employees laid off.
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Inmate bites off piece of ear
FAYETTEVILLE — An inmate in the Cumberland County Detention Center went Mike Tyson on another inmate and stands accused of biting off part of an ear during a fight Aug. 28.
According to The Fayetteville Observer, Rodney B. Simmons, 43, and Robin T. Applewhite, 39, were fighting for an undisclosed reason when Simmons bit a chunk out of Applewhite’s ear.
Applewhite was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center where doctors failed to reattach the piece of his ear. Simmons was charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury and maiming without malice. His bail was set at $50,000.