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Henderson County News

Local man jailed after claw hammer attack

Henderson County sheriff’s deputies charged a 19-year-old Hendersonville man with a felony assault after he allegedly attacked a 55-year-old woman with a hammer. Deputies and medical responders were called to a Hendersonville home on Friday afternoon where the woman was badly injured after being attacked with a claw hammer. Suffering from serious head injuries, the victim was transported to Mission Hospital. Charged was John Ferry Jr. He was booked at the Henderson County Jail under a $150,000 bond and scheduled to appear in court on Monday.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Apple growers honor Don Justus

Even if he doesn’t move as fast as he once did, Don Justus remains at the front of the pack in Henderson County apple farming.One of a handful of growers to pioneer a large U-Pick operation, Justus operates the family-owned orchard on Garren Road in Fruitland. Diagnosed with ALS in 2012, he continues to work, using his upper body strength to pull himself on to a tractor seat and to direct an operation that’s a model of direct-marketing and crop diversity.The Blue Ridge Apple Growers last week honored Justus as its grower of the year not only for his strength and perseverance today but for his innovations over the years. Besides 19 varieties of apples, Justus and his family grow pumpkins and blackberries, sell their famous fried apple pies and apple cider donuts, cider slushies, caramel apples, apple bread, jams, jellies and preserves.“I grew up on the farm,” Justus said as his fellow growers walked up to shake his hand and his family gathered around. “I’m the third generation. These guys (his sons) will be the fourth generation and he’s representing the fifth generation” pointing to his 18-month-old grandson Mason.Justus is among the progressive farmers in the county who have put in trellis systems that increase production and make pruning and picking easier. Although a late frost last spring hurt the 2016 crop, the orchard’s Mutsus, a midseason variety, survived.“That’s our bread and butter,” Justus said. “We’ve been selling pick-your-own for so long that we’ve got the second and third generation coming back (to pick).”His mother, Glenda, discovered U-Pick marketing by accident when she opened a travel trailer park across the road from the family orchard. Tourists asked if they could come over and pick apples.“They’d never heard of anybody wanting to pay to pick apples,” he said.Chris Justus, a meteorologist with WYFF-Ch. 4 in Greenville, S.C., and Cory Justus, a Henderson County sheriff’s deputy, help on the farm when they’re not on duty in their day jobs. Each is married with a toddler son, giving Don and his wife, Margo, confidence that the family farm will continue.While Chris, a 2005 graduate of North Henderson High School, and Cory, NHHS ’07, help on the farm, Don still comes up with the dreams and ideas, Margo says.“They can help with the brawn,” she says. “He’s still the brains.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Rep. Meadows honors Mickey Marvin

Inez Taylor and Jonathan Marvin share a light moment with U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, who presented them with a copy of a Congressional Record tribute to Mickey Marvin, the Henderson County native who went on to football stardom with the University of Tennessee and the Oakland Raiders. Taylor, Mickey’s mother, and Jonathan, his son, accepted a plaque containing the tribute. After playing at West Henderson and Brevard high schools, Marvin won All-America honors at Tennessee and was drafted by the Oakland Raiders. He played for the Raiders for 10 years, winning two Super Bowl championships as the starting right guard. A devout Christian, Marvin came home and had a second career speaking at churches and youth conferences and leading football camps for young players. The first Mickey Marvin Scholarship Fund golf tournament last October raised $46,000. ‘Mickey Marvin is held in high esteem by the citizens in Henderson County and across Western North Carolina,’ the citation said. ‘Even in the midst of his struggle with ALS, Marvin continues to be a man of exemplary character, faith and kindness.’ Jonathan Marvin said his father, who is homebound and under nursing care, was touched by the tribute. ‘When I read it to him, he started to cry,’ Jonathan said. ‘You can tell him I cried, too,’ Meadows said.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

County eyes marketing of new training center

By BILL MOSSLightning EditorAlthough Henderson County’s $20 million law enforcement training center doesn’t open until late 2018, county officials are already mulling ideas to offset the operating cost.Sheriff Charlie McDonald and his chief deputy, Jason Brown, said architect Clark Nexsen has not yet given them a final cost projection for operating the center. County Manager Steve Wyatt said the cost has been projected at around $200,000 a year, not counting personnel. The center will have a powerful exhaust system to remove the discharge from firearms that officers will be shooting at two firing ranges.County commissioners have suggested that law enforcement outside Henderson County may rent the facility or pay to train there.“We would actually market it,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said. “You’d be able to market to agencies within a two- or three-hour drive because of the capacity we’re going to have. You can drive a vehicle into this thing and put on scenario training. We’ve got to figure what the market is.”“As we go forward we’ll need to figure out how to maximize and it may likely be that it will take a year of operation” to ascertain how much capacity is available.The sheriff and county commissioners emphasize that local agencies will be able to use the training center and the firing ranges at no cost.“Their people are taxpayers,” Wyatt said of the three municipal police departments in the county. “They’ll be scheduled. So then we talked about, let’s say if you’re a Highway Patrol trooper and you’re assigned to Henderson County. If you’re say, the Haywood County sheriff’s department you’re a customer and you’ll fit under that fee schedule. It’s notgoing to be cheap but it’ll be a tremendous value.”State Rep. Chuck McGrady was in the audience at a budget workshop when county commissioners talked about asking the state to offset the cost of the training center.“Assuming area agencies commit, they would come back to the state and say this is a regional facility,”McGrady said. “I don’t want to prejudge it but I’m not wildly excited about it.”Besides training his own deputies, Sheriff McDonald says the training center offers great benefits to the cadets in the basic law enforcement training program at Blue Ridge Community College. The center will be built on the BRCC campus on the site of the now abandoned baseball field.“We will provide them first pick,” he said. “We work very well together. We take their recruits, the ones that qualify, so it’s an opportunity for partnership anyway. It’s certainly more convenient for them.”The center will provide space to state standards for physical training.“What they would be coming to us for is POPAT (police officer physical abilities test),” said Brown, the chief deputy who is closely involved in planning the training center. “This will give them access to shower facilities.” BRCC offers physical training classes at night “because state standard says if you’re going to do PT in the morning you have to have access to shower facilities. They don’t have shower facilities.”McDonald has not set an operations budget either but says the personnel who would oversee training are already on the payroll. He has a fulltime training officer and firearms instructor.“Any time’s it’s operational we will have somebody there,” he said. “It certainly will involve one person full time and probably some others from here. I’ll need one person to be kind of the range/training center guru.”Commissioners would like to see the state and law enforcement agencies west of I-77 offset operating costs. McDonald sounds less enthusiastic.“Honestly, as a sheriff I want it to be affordable for those outside of Henderson County because really for me the biggest thing is training, giving these folks the training they need,” he said. “We’ve gotten several emails from other sheriffs and chiefs saying, ‘Let us know when it comes on line. We’d be very interested,’ and they understand it would be at some cost to them to help offset the operating cost. If you ask me straight up is it ever going to be a money maker for us I don’t see that happening.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Probe of woman's death upholds suicide finding

A homicide task force that was looking into the August 2015 death of Felicia Reeves of Hendersonville has told her family that the case has been closed, according to Reeves’ sister Suzan Bayorgeon.“A thorough review of Felicia’s death was conducted,” Sgt. Joe Vendas of the Union County, New Jersey, Prosecutor’s Office wrote Thursday in an email to Bayorgeon. “(The review) involved identifying and interviewing witnesses, re-examining photographs of the scene and a review of the autopsy by the medical examiner as well as other investigative tools. The investigation that was conducted supported the Elizabeth (N.J.) Police Department’s assessment, as well as the medical examiner’s conclusion that Felicia’s death was a suicide. Nothing was found that would support anyone else being involved in her death.” Vendas’ remarks came in response to the sister’s request for an update on the probe, announced in August 2016. It was unclear how long ago the probe ended. An initial death investigation by Elizabeth police ended quickly in fall 2015. In response to an inquiry from Carolina Public Press later Thursday, Vendas apologized but said he could not comment. CPP has identified several irregularities and unexplained discrepancies with the original case, most of which appear not to have been part of the review that Vendas described to Bayorgeon. The sister said nothing about the New Jersey decision surprises her. Nor does it change her belief that Reeves was murdered, with her death made to look like a suicide. The trail of evidence in New Jersey was very cold by the time the task force reexamined it, but Bayorgeon believes that evidence could still come to light in North Carolina that would reveal what actually happened. Reeves disappeared from Hendersonville in August 2016. An Elizabeth, N.J., motel maid reported finding her body a week later hanging from a shower curtain rod. Carolina Public Press has reported extensively on the case since February 2015, following months of investigation, with multiple updates through October 2016. The announcement that the homicide task force would take the case followed both CPP’s reports and a letter-writing campaign by Bayorgeon. One theory of how Reeves could have been killed is that someone incapacitated her, possibly with a drug that was not part of the toxicology screening done post mortem, then placed her into the noose on the shower curtain rod, causing her death by hanging. Vendas’ email appears to indicate the review turned up no evidence of another party’s involvement, but not that such involvement was clearly excluded from possibility.Unresolved questions Among the problem issues that CPP has identified with Reeves’ disappearance and death: Financial records and other evidence suggests that Reeves left the Henderson motel where she had living for some time without formally checking out on Aug. 19, then traveled Aug. 20 to the Buncombe County airport, where she took a ground shuttle service to Charlotte. She can be placed at several locations in Manhattan and Queens on Aug. 21, including putting down a $140 deposit for eyeware at a high-end boutique. Later on Aug. 21, she checked into a motel room in nearby Elizabeth, New Jersey. How she traveled from North Carolina to the northeast and whether she was alone is unknown. Why these movements and a purchase of expensive items that she never picked up if she was only going to a motel to kill herself? Reeves’ parents received a phone call from a man asking for their credit card information to cover incidentals on a motel stay for Reeves. They declined to do this. But staff members at the New Jersey motel where she was staying and later found dead have said that she checked in alone and no male employee was on duty when she checked in. So who made this call? Elizabeth Police originally said surveillance footage showed no one entering or leaving Reeves’ room from the time she checked in until a week later when the maid cleaned the room and found her. But credit card information and receipts show that Reeves was in Manhattan during that time period. At Penn Station she purchased a possibly never-used train ticket to Philadelphia. If she didn’t leave the room, then how could she have been in Manhattan making purchases? And what was she doing making those types of purchases if she went there to kill herself? Elizabeth Police have never responded to CPP’s requests to talk with them about the case and never officially addressed the problem with Reeves’ leaving her room. They did talk with a local newspaper in New Jersey in March 2016, a few days after CPP’s initial article appeared, but officers did not address these objections regarding the case. However, Bayorgeon received an anonymous call in summer 2016 warning her to stop pushing for a new investigation and claiming that police had always meant that no one other than Reeves entered or left the room. If that’s the correct explanation for that issue, why didn’t police just say so when repeatedly given the opportunity? And what was someone making a harassing phone call doing with that sort of information? For that matter, why was someone making a harassing call? The original autopsy described aspects of Reeves’ anatomy inaccurately, such as saying her reproductive organs appeared normal when in fact she was missing an ovary due to a previous surgery. The autopsy also described one tattoo in detail but failed to note several other tattoos. How thorough was the autopsy if it missed these things? Suspicions Reeves’ family has told CPP that they believe someone killed her for reasons connected to her life prior to arriving in New Jersey.Reeves had been residing in North Carolina through most of the summer of 2015 after spending several months in Kentucky. Prior to that she had lived in Transylvania, Henderson, Buncombe and Rowan counties at different times over the previous decade. In the months just before her death, Reeves posted to social media that she had been acting as an informant. She also predicted that someone would attempt to kill her. Although the information is unclear, some evidence has suggested Reeves was in contact with people engaged in human and drug trafficking. She may have been acting as some sort of interstate courier, making sudden and otherwise unexplained trips to Ohio, Texas and ultimately the New York City area. If her associates believed she was informing on them – regardless of whether she actually was – they might have had motive and means to silence her. It’s not clear whether one of the people on whom she was threatening to “inform” was her ex-husband Titus Boley. Reeves had told many people that she feared he would try to kill her, just as he had done before. Boley served several months in prison in 2009 after attempting to strangle her. On another occasion he held a glass shard to her throat, according to court records from Transylvania County were the couple resided, part of a long history of violent abuse. Family members have told CPP that the physical abuse and psychological intimidation continued long after their marriage and relationship were over, including after he left prison. They said Reeves stopped believing that the law enforcement system was able to protect her. She and her family feared that he would injure Reeves or her children. According to the family, Boley contacted them the same day they learned of Reeves’ death to express his condolences – before that information went public. They said he told them that he learned about her death from social media. But no one who knew that she was dead had posted anything to social media at the time, the family says. Boley has a lengthy history of conflict with the law. Most recently, Polk County authorities arrested him in May 2016 for trying to sell drugs to an undercover officer near the South Carolina state line. A grand jury indicted him on four counts, including two felonies, in November. He faces trial on those charges on March 1.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Local climber competing in bouldering nationals

For most people, “climbing the walls” connotes anxiety. For Dawson Jacobs, climbing the walls comes naturally. By age 7, he had already developed a talent for the Spider-man behavior.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

CITY COUNCIL BOOTS TEST VOTE ON HHS PROJECT

The fate of Hendersonville High School will remain in limbo for at least three more months after the Hendersonville City Council voted on Thursday to postpone a decision on a road closing that's a crucial piece of the plan for a new HHS campus. The request to close Ninth Avenue West was made by the Henderson County Board of Commissioners after the Henderson County School Board voted in December to endorse plans for a new school on the old Boyd dealership property north of the current campus. Mayor Barbara Volk and council members Jeff Miller and Steve Caraker voted in favor of the postponement, saying they wanted give the Board of Commissioners enough time to come up with a site-specific plan that would answer questions they still have about the proposed new school. Ron Stephens and Jerry Smith, a teacher at Henderson High, voted against the postponement. The vote on the street closing was widely viewed as a critical test vote on the council's ultimate decision on the HHS plans, which have been hotly debated for the past year. Besides the road closing, the council still has the authority to say yes or no to a development permit. The council also wants time to decide whether a special use permit and a rezoning request should be submitted and approved before a vote is taken on whether to close off a portion of Ninth Avenue West between U.S. 25 and Oakland Street. Miller said after the council adjourned that the earliest the council could receive an acceptable site plan would be in May. “I am totally not comfortable with closing the road,” Miller said. “There’s a real lack of information. We’ve got the cart in front of the horse right now. Let’s get the rest of the information and go from there.” Stephens said he believes the council was being asked to “do something we’ve never done before” in voting to close a road before zoning change is in place. “It’s not sound reasoning,” Stephens said. “I think we should abandon this decision tonight.” All eight people who spoke during a public hearing before the council’s vote opposed construction of the new school, including Henderson County school board chairwoman Amy Lynn Holt. Holt said after the meeting that she wouldn’t mind continuing to seek other options for the fate of the 91-year-old school. “I would like to work with the commissioners and us to develop a plan that works for everybody,” she said. “It’s been so disheartening on our community.” David Rhode, a student at Western Carolina University, questioned whether the planned 4 acres of property on which the new school would be built is adequate. “Sixty acres is recommended for a school this size,” Rhode said. “This project is costly and nobody has supported it. It’s been a resounding ‘No.’”The future of HHS — whether to build an all-new school north of Ninth Avenue or to preserve the original classroom building and auditorium while bulldozing the gyms, band room, cafeteria and vocational ed wing — has been the subject of a drawn-out battle that has pitted the School Board, HHS alumni, the current students and faculty against the Board of Commissioners. After commissioners issued a public warning that the project would be dead if the School Board voted no, the School Board voted 4-2 on Dec. 12 to endorse the all-new construction plan. Similarly, commissioners warned that if the City Council failed to OK the rezoning, the county would drop the project indefinitely and potentially put the Boyd lot on the market.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Performers, songs announced for HHS's senior play tribute

Principal Bobby Wilkins says the Hendersonville High School’s tribute to 90 years of senior plays will be the type of show townsfolk will regret missing if they fail to show up for the one-time only performance.“They’re going well,” Bobby Wilkins said of ticket sales. Tickets are still available at the school. “Excitement is a key word. People are going to miss out if they don’t see it. We’re afraid they’ll talk about it after they missed it but that’s OK.”With the likelihood that HHS will stage a senior play for the last time at the historic auditorium in the spring of 2020, theater teacher Todd Weakley and Wilkins, HHS class of ‘75, decided to put on a tribute to musicals. Weakley recruited singers and musicians from past shows and together the director and performers planned 14 songs and dance numbers for the show. The show is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18.Here’s the lineup:• Richard Cagle: “Some Enchanted Evening” from the class of 1986 production of South Pacific.• Caroline Ryan and Hunter Warwick: “How the Other Half Lives” from the class of 2015 production of Thoroughly Modern Millie.• Bart Salvaggio: “When You’re a Jet” from the class of 1987 production of West Side Story.• Don Munson (voice of the Clemson Tigers): “(Doing it For) Sugar” from the class of 1980 production of Sugar.• Kelsey Stout: “Home” from the class of 2007 production of Beauty and the Beast• John Strickland: “People” from the class of 1983 production of Funny Girl.• Frances Zogzas and Carson Calton: “All or Nuthin” from the class of 1976 production of Oklahoma.• Shelley Briggs: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from the class of 2006 production ofThe Wizard of Oz.• Lane Cooper: “Trouble” from the class of 1994 production of The Music Man.• Cathey Gilbert: “Sun in the Morning” from the class of 1992 production of Annie Get Your Gun.• Austin Blythe: “What’s Good for General Bullmoose” from the class of 2010 production of Lil Abner.• A special dancing number directed by Sher Shepherd, class of 2003, featuring an all-male group of parents and alumni dancing to “Greased Lightning.”• Aaron Burdett: “Beauty School Dropout” from the class of 1993 production of Grease.• Heather Durall: “Memories,” which is from Cats but was included in the class of 1990s original production White Gloves, Top Hat, and No Tails. * * * * * * Tickets, which are $5, are available at the main office of Hendersonville High School (828-697-4802). Seating is limited. Proceeds will fund scholarships for HHS students.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Hendersonville police now carry drug overdose antidote

Hendersonville police officers are joining more than 130 law enforcement agencies across the state in partnership with the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition to carry naloxone, a drug overdose antidote. Here is Chief Herbert Blake statements about the use of the naloxone, which has a brand name Narcan: "We were prudent and deliberate in our research before deploying Narcan. We came to the conclusion that we can positively serve our community and potentially save lives by having our police officers equipped with naloxone. Our officers are at times, the first to arrive on the scene of an overdose. We owe it to our citizens to ensure our officers have the training and the necessary tools - naloxone, to make a difference when it matters the most. According to the NCHRC, as of last August service providers that have Narcan kits have successfully administered naloxone more than 3,750 times. The number of reversals for North Carolina responders have been responsible for is substantial — 312 as of Dec. 1, 2016. So adding naloxone as an option is a positive step. This is a chance to save lives. Moreover, very recently there was a story about a life being saved by reversing an overdose because an upstate South Carolina police department had their officers equipped and trained to administer Narcan. All of this said, as of the release of this information, a concrete policy to include a detailed naloxone reporting form have been adopted by us. Hendersonville Police Officers have been duly trained to administer Narcan and are ready to execute if needed. I would like to thank Lieutenant Mike Vesely for taking the lead in this affirmative endeavor and assuming the task of Narcan Coordinator for our agency. Mike has made this implementation smooth and cost effective. I would also like to acknowledge the support and the encouragement we received from city leadership in regards to this endeavor. To end, we encourage our citizens to contact us if they have questions or concerns about the Hendersonville Police Department’s narcan initiative.”     Read Story »

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