3 escape from 2 Mississippi prisons; 2 ‘armed, dangerous'
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi authorities are looking for three escaped inmates. They say two should be considered armed and dangerous.
News agencies identify those two as 31-year-old Jonathan Blankenship and 28-year-old Christopher Benson High, who were in Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Rankin County. The third is 57-year-old Benny Ray Blansett, escaped from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. All were missing at Friday morning head counts. Blankenship was serving five years for conspiracy and aggravated assault on a police officer in Alcorn County. He has a heavily tattooed forehead and throat, and smaller cheek tattoos.
High was serving 12 years for burglary of an unoccupied dwelling in Carroll County.
Blansett was sentenced to life for forgery, aggravated assault on a police officer, burglary, and escape from the Marion and Sunflower county jails.
Thousands expected on Mississippi beaches despite closing
BILOXI, Miss. (AP) — Thousands of people are expected on Mississippi's beaches for the July Fourth holiday even though they can't go into the water because toxic bacteria are flourishing along the coast.
The president of the Harrison County Board of Supervisors, Beverly Martin, told the Sun Herald of Biloxi that crews prepared for more than 25,000 holiday beachgoers.
She said visitors are still welcome on the sand, just not in the water, on a day with temperatures peaking at 93 degrees.
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has warned that polluted Midwest floodwaters have fed an outbreak of cyanobacterium. Popularly known as bluegreen algae, it can cause rashes, diarrhea and vomiting. It's blooming from the Louisiana state line to Ocean Springs, and is spreading eastward as Mississippi River water pours into the Gulf.
Bond denied for man held in slaying of pregnant woman
LEXINGTON, Miss. (AP) — A
court is refusing bond for a man charged with murder in the slaying of a Mississippi woman and her unborn child.
The Clarion Ledger reports that a judge refused to set bond Wednesday for 33-yearold Terrence K. Sample. He is charged in the death of Makayla Winston, whose body was found earlier this week on a deserted road in Holmes County.
District Attorney Akille Malone-oliver says a specially appointed judge considered the request because Sample is the son of Rosie Sample, who's a justice court judge in Attala County.
The prosecutor says other judges knew the suspect's mother.
Oliver says Sample is charged with two counts of murder and one count of kidnapping involving Winston and her unborn child.
Sample hasn't entered a plea to the charges.
2 Mississippi men die in head-on allterrain vehicle wreck
BYHALIA, Miss. (AP) — Two north Mississippi men have died after they crashed into each other while riding allterrain vehicles.
Local news outlets report the headon crash happened Thursday evening near Byhalia.
Dead are 23-year-old Tevin Hardin and 29-year-old Denorris Robinson.
The Marshall County sheriff's office says the men were not wearing helmets. Relatives say the two men are friends and neighbors who had long ridden ATVS together.
Both men died before they could be taken to a hospital. Relatives say no one witnessed the collision, making it hard to determine what happened.
Hardin's uncle, Sammie Phillips, says another relative who was riding an ATV found the pair dead in the road. There's no evidence any other vehicle was involved.
WOODVILLE, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi police chief says a man shot multiple times by a Mississippi officer is improving.
Woodville Police Chief Jessie Stewart tells The Natchez Democrat that 28-yearold Gerry Byrd is breathing on his own in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, hospital.
Byrd is accused of shooting a woman in Baton Rouge early Tuesday, stealing her car and leaving her wounded beside Interstate 10. Stewart says Byrd drove to a Woodville convenience store, entered holding two guns and "slapped around" a clerk. Byrd says a Woodville officer shot Byrd when Byrd moved toward the officer.
Stewart says the store will close between midnight and 4 a.m. and have two clerks at all times.
The Woodville officer remains on leave as the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation examines the shooting.
Pilot injured as plane crashes short of grass airstrip
VAIDEN, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man was injured Thursday after the plane he was piloting crashed.
Carroll County Emergency Management Director Ken Strachan tells The Greenwood Commonwealth that Walter J. Mitchell of Vaiden was flying the single-engine Beechcraft B23 Musketeer with three passengers — another man and two children — when it crashed about 50 yards from a grassy airstrip near Vaiden.
Strachan says Mitchell, a Democrat seeking election as a Carroll County supervisor, remained alert but was pinned in the aircraft. Strachan says emergency workers had to remove Mitchell's seat to get him out. Mitchell was taken by helicopter to a Jackson hospital. Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker says Mitchell's injuries were not life-threatening.
The other three passengers, whom Walker didn't name, were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.