WCBI News at Six - Thursday, July 16th, 2020

WCBI News at Six - Thursday, July 16th, 2020

Thank you for joining us// a body in a shallow grave - that's what choctaw county investigators found when they went to execute a search warrant in the northern part of the county// wcbi's bobby martinez was at the scene today and has more on this story... it was this morning at this home behind me here on hebron road in choctaw county.

Where choctaw county sheriff department executed a search warrant.

And inside this home... drugs, money and a dead body inside a shallow grave were discovered... atf also arrived to the scene for possible explosives inside the home.

Now at this time, the identity of the body has yet to be released.

And according to sheriff busby, no arrests have been at this time..

But numerous misdemeanor and felony charges are expected to be filed against the suspect connected to this incident... sheriff busby says they are continuing to gather more information as to what exactly happened inside this home.

On cam and as soon as more details become available.

We will make sure to pass that along to you.

Reporting in choctaw county.

Bobby martinez wcbi news.

Choctaw county coroner keith coleman tells wcbi the body has been sent to the state crime lab for official identification.

Some cross county cooperation leads to an arrest and a murder charge..

Sheriff eddie hawkins says donta kirby is the suspect in the death of a man found two weeks ago on burns road.

Lorenze halthon of columbus was shot to death.

A passerby discovered his body.

Kirby was stopped in webster county by the mhp.

He was captured and originally charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.

The murder charge was added late yesterday.

Sheriff eddie hawkins says getting a suspect in this case was a classic example of good police work// "this was a case that we didn't have a suspect identified.

We started developing information and developed a person of interest.

Working together and sharing information between agencies and divisions with the lowndes county sheriff's department, we were able to get information and actually obtain physical evidence linking this suspect to the crime."

Sheriff hawkins says the motive behind the crime is still under investigation// investigators did say kirby and the victim were friends.

Kirby's bond was set at half a million dollars this afternoon.

Wipe to gfx vo a woman is charged with attempted murder in the shooting of a noxubee county man.

27-year-old jeraldine campbell is also facing an attempted robbery charge.

She remains in the noxubee county jail.

Bond is set at one hundred thousand dollars.

Noxubee county sheriff tommy roby says deputies were called to grissom road early monday morning.

Roby tells wcbi the victim was shot in the head.

Deputies are still trying to determine what led to the gunfire.

The victim is still in a jackson hospital// a former priest at churches in starkville and macon has been indicted on wire fraud.

Lenin vargas is facing 10 counts of wire fraud in northern district federal court of mississippi.

In court documents, vargas is accused of lying about a cancer diagnosis, using schemes to bilk money from people in the parish at st.

Joseph's in starkville..

The affidavit also accuses vargas of spending of thousands of dollars in donated money for personal use.

It states that vargas does not, and has never had cancer.

But he is hiv positive.

The document also states that corpus christi catholic church in macon also donated more than 20 thousand dollars to vargas under false pretense.

Five confidential informants worked with homeland security on the investigation.

Thousands of dollars in donations for cancer treatment, an orphanage in mexico and a chapel in mexico were allegedly transferred to vargas.

The investigation could not find proof of either the orphanage or chapel.

Federal court documents allege the catholic diocese in jackson was aware parishioners were being defrauded.

The us attorneys office and the jackson diocese have entered into a deferred prosecution deal.

That means the diocese must fulfill certain requirements set out by the judge or the criminal case against them will continue.

A recent graduate of shannon high school is killed in a one car wreck.

Nineteen year old jeremy clippard died wednesday afternoon when his vehicle ran off of a county road.

The lee county sheriff's department said clippard's vehicle department said clippard's vehicle was heading east on county road 300, when he lost control .

The vehicle left the road and flipped.

Clippard was pronounced dead at the scene.

He was not wearing a seatbelt.

Clippard played on the red raiders baseball team and was planning to join the u s army.

Was planning to join the u s army.

Wipe to gfx a reform alabama man is killed in a fayette county crash// 21-year-old austin oglesby was killed after the dodge ram his was driving hit a tree// the alabama law enforcement agency says the vehicle was going at a high rate of speed while trying to go around a curve then hit a tree// oglesby was pronounced dead on scene// the accident happened on al-159 around 5:25// first look stinger first look summary: hot and humid conditions will persist through the weekend and next week.

Storms are possible each and every day primarily during the daytime heating hours.

Heat indices are going to be generally in the 100-110 range for the next 7 days.

Be sure to stay in air conditioning as much as possible and drink plenty of water if you'll be spending time outdoooors.

Thursday night: a another record day for the number of covid-19 cases and patients across mississippi.

The mississippi state department of health is reporting one thousand 230 new cases today.

18 new deaths were also reported.

That brings the state's death toll up to just over 13 hundred.

The number of hospitalized patients also continues to climb to one thousand 117 // 247 people are in intensive care with 125 of those on ventilators// there are 130 long- term care facility outbreaks.

In our area today, lee county had the highest amount of new cases with 33.

Pontotoc had 29, lowndes had 28, monroe is reporting 22, and chickasaw had 18.

Law enforcement officers are being put in a unique situation when it comes to patrolling their beat during a pandemic balancing keeping themselves and their communities safe.

Our quentin smith speaks with two sheriff departments and has more on how what it's like to police the community during this covid-19 pandemic.

To protect and serve.....those are the duties given to law enforcement officers.... but clay county sheriff eddie scott says covid-19 is making those responsibilities become challenging.

"the officers are putting themselves at risk.

The individual you're dealing with, you have no idea if they could be positive, they could have a stomach bug or a flu we don't know, all we know is that we've got a job to do and we've got to do it."

Scott says his deputies are wearing masks and gloves whenever they respond to call..

But even with the extra gear, it can sometimes hinder them from doing their job.

"the guidelines, the social distancing, the gloves, the masks, those are guidelines for us, in reality, it's not going to always pan out."

Despite their best efforts, the virus has found its way inside the department.

"a month ago i had one of my deputies test positive and i just recently had three of my correctional officers at the jail test positive."

But it's not only the clay county sheriff's department that's being impacted.... if you head south... the winston county sheriff's department is also facing similar issues..

"we've had a few of our guards who've tested positive, they had to be quarantined and re-tested, and then we've had some inmates."

Winston county chief deputy keith alexander says the pandemic is forcing them to switch up their response once they arrive on scene..

"if we have to go in a house we wear a mask and gloves, if it's possible, we try to get the victims to step outside and talk to us instead of going in their house.

We don't want to carry something into their house and contaminate them and affect them if we happen to have it."

Deputies are constantly having to clean and sanitize their vehicles whenever they're transporting an inmate..

Alexander says they have all of these guidelines in place because he knows how much of a burden it'll be on the department if a deputy were to contract the virus..

"we only have eight full time officers county me and the sheriff, so it does put a big burden on us if someone gets sick.

If it we're for our part time and reserve deputies it would be tough to handle it, but we would handle it."

With both departments being small..

The say they would rely on help from neighboring counties to assist them, should any of their deputies contract the virus stinger construction begins on a career and technical education center for lee county schools.

We tell you what it can mean for the future of the region.

We'll have that story coming up educators break ground on a career and technical education center for lee county schools.

Allie martin tells us about the project and how its location can help build bridges between education and industry.

Planning to get the career and technical education center under one roof for lee county schools has been going on for years.

Now, work has started on the project.

Nats ground breaking the new facility means students won't have to travel to other districts for cte classes.

The 34 thousand 500 square foot building will have separate spaces for shop classes, classrooms, and a culinary program.

It is centrally located from the district's three high schools and is in the hive industrial park.

That community development foundation project is targeting advanced manufacturing industries to the site.

"once these industries start coming in they can use our facilities for training, come in and work with our students and maybe provide opportunity for our students to get hands-on training in their industries."

Lee county schools superintendent coke magee believes having a dedicated cte center prepares students for the ever-changing and competitive workforce in the region.

"northeast mississippi provides tremendous opportunity for our students, we need to prepare them for job skills training they need, if they want to continue job skills training at icc or another technical school, we want to train them to go there, but if it's the workforce, we want to make sure they're ready, that's part of our mission."

The seven million dollar project is funded primarily through a bond issue voters approved earlier this year.

The state and county also chipped in.

District 16 state representative rickey thompson says the building will train students and keep them in the area's workforce.

"this is how we make sure we have a stable community, this makes sure we have economic empowerment that when you stay in the community, you survive and do better for your family."

Construction should take about a year.

In lee county, allie martin, wcbi news the career and technical education center is the first building in the hive industrial park.

It could be thanksgiving before traffic is flowing normally again in downtown columbus.

Construction will begin monday on a roundabout project at main and second street.

A city spokesman says work at the intersection is expected to continue until at least late november.

Drivers exiting highway 82 onto main street will be detoured to second avenue north and then onto 5th street north.

Stinger wx open summary: unsettled weather will remain in place through tuesday night with scattered rain and storm chances.

A cold front will sweep out the rain and humidity by mid morning wednesday leaving us with sunny and warm weather for the rest of the week and upcoming weekend.

Monday night: areas of showers will continue but gradually diminish in size and scope.

The threat of an isolated tornado should gradually end during the evening hours but we'll just have to monitor radar trends.

Look for a mild night with lows in the mid 70s.

Breezy se winds between 10 and 25 mph.

Tuesday: mostly cloudy with showers lingering first thing in the day.

A mix of sun and clouds is expected to develop as time goes on but that could lead to a few more showers or storms. highs are going to push 90?

With higher heat indices at times.

Winds ssw 10-20 mph.

Tuesday night: a cold front may spark a line of showers and storms after midnight.

While we can't rule out a few isolated strong storms most spots will not experience anything too rough.

Lows will be in the low to mid 70s.

Wednesday: any rain chance should move east by mid morning allowing sunnier and less humid conditions to build in on the heels of westerly winds.

Highs top out in the mid 80s.

Wednesday night: ear and refreshing.

Lows in the low 60s.

Thursday-monday: mostly sunny to partly cloudy, warm, and dry.

Highs in the upper stinger alabama week continues on the high school football tour...stop number 25 previews gordo, when we come back spx open alabama week continues as we check in with the alabama week continues as we check in with the gordo green wave.

Head coach ryan lolley leads a team that believes it has what it takes to finish the season with a state title.

Gordo is stop number 25 on the high school football tour.

"business."

"business."

"we treat this like it's business like."

Back to business for the gordo green wave as they prepare for the 2020 season.

Coming off an undefeated regular season and 3rd round playoff exit, gordo has its sight set on not only another region championship, but a state title.

"i grew up here since i was in preschool and ever since they been winning, winning, winning.

We just try to keep that going and keep the same mentality and tradition going."

"when you don't get what you're trying to do the year before, it just makes you want to work even harder.

I feel like we all have that mindset this year."

"do bigger and better things than last year.

We put that in the past.

We just want to get back on the same track and have another undefeated season."

"i think we have a big group of motivated guys and we have some new guys coming in, but everyone is on the same page.

We have a strong feeling that we can win it this year so i think that's going to be our main goal."

The green wave bring back a strong core of skill position players on the outside that the team has full faith in.

"it's great to have skill players back.

They're hard workers and will go do their thing."

"getting some of our best guys back.

It makes getting a year or two years of experience under your belt makes it better for us."

Leading the charge to spread the ball around to those guys is junior quarterback and field general, tanner bailey.

"tanner is a great guy.

He's great to be around.

Definitely going to do big things this year.

The offensive line is definitely going to block for him."

Keeping bailey upright will be an offensive line that'll feature 4 new faces starting, but the team is confident that they have what it takes to dominate up front.

"we always say with whatever we're doing we'll have new faces all the time but the standard never changes and it doesn't change right now.

We're going to be the best that we possibly be and dominate our space every single day."

"where we are now i think they're in a really good position.

I got full faith in them, and they have full faith in me.

I think they have full faith in me.

Everyone has faith in each other.

It's just a brotherhood.

It really is so i'm really excited to see what we do this year."

The green wave believe the chemistry they've developed on and off the field is going to be key in their success.

"the chemistry in the locker room is great.

We love on each other, but when we come out here, we know it's business.

It's a great group.

I'm glad to be a part of it."

"off the field, on the field, we all hangout.

Everyday.

We all grew up together."

"every time we call each other at night we just tell us what we got.

We look at film.

We watch film every night so that's why we just keep on doing what we got to do."

All of gordo's hard work will be on full display with a home opener against oakman august 21st.

With the green wave on the high school football tour, chris bolton, wcbi sports.

Here's a look at the upcoming stops for any stops that you may have missed along the way you can always check out our website, wcbi.com our website, wcbi.com a very warm july day in the 90s across most of mississippi and alabama to marlin and cooler right along the gulf coast if you going down there but we caroline isolates our storm here tomorrow be limited this weekend though so that bodes well outworked it easier to warm and steamy joe is a good from the speaker good time to do this out your activity as early or late not necessarily a part of the