Fisherman drowns
in Lake Ouachita
Dive crews pulled the body of a Louisiana man from Lake Ouachita on Saturday afternoon after he apparently drowned while fishing, according to a Garland County sheriff’s office news release.
About 11:30 a.m., deputies were called to an area south of Point 50 on the lake near Crawdad Island where they were told Phillip Aguillard, 31, was missing and feared drowned, the release said.
The man’s family told deputies that he was last seen fishing on the bank earlier in the day while vacationing at Lake Ouachita State Park, the release said.
When family members returned later in the morning, they only found his fishing pole and sunglasses, the release said.
A volunteer dive team from Monroe, La., that was near the lake assisted deputies in recovering Aguillard’s body about 1 p.m., the release said.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTETech names business dean
RUSSELLVILLE - Ed Bashaw has been named the new dean for the Arkansas Tech University College of Business.
Bashaw, dean of the Texas A&M University-Texarkana College of Business since 2006, formerly worked in Arkansas. He was a faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock from 1994-2004 and director of executive education at UALR from 2004-06.
He will assume his duties as Arkansas Tech dean and professor of marketing on Aug. 16. He succeeds Tom Tyler, who retired June 30 after 43 years with Arkansas Tech.
Bashaw has a bachelor of science degree and a master of science degree in education from Baylor University.
He received a master of business administration degree from Baylor in 1991 and a Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Memphis in 1995. He has also taught at Christian Brothers University and the University of Memphis.
Bashaw is a member of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Society for Marketing Advances and the Academy of Management.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEMotorcyclist wins
suit against city
A Pulaski County jury has awarded a Little Rock motorcyclist a $224,000 judgment against Little Rock over an April 2007 collision with a city garbage truck.
James Lee Elliott Jr., 53, accrued $48,000 in medical bills for his severely fractured left leg from the collision near Base Line Road and Arch Street, five days before his 50th birthday.
He had to have surgery to implant a rod in his leg, said his attorney, Hugh Crisp.
Monday’s verdict before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan cameafter about 70 minutes of jury deliberation, with a 10-member majority of the 12-person jury ruling in Elliott’s favor for his injuries, missed work and pain and suffering, Crisp said.
Elliott was southbound on Arch Street, Crisp said, when the truck, southbound in the adjacent lane, moved into his lane, its right rear tires catching Elliott’s leg, he said.
“It spun him right off his motorcycle,” Crisp said.
Elliott is glad to be alive after the crash and hasn’t given up riding motorcycles, his preferred means of transportation for more than 30 years, Crisp said. He said the city maintained that Elliott disregarded a yield sign at the intersection and pulled in front of the truck, which was driven by Stephen C. Adkins. But the jury sided with Elliott.
“It was his word against two city employees’ word,” Crisp said.
Elliott was ticketed over the failure-to-yield allegation but was acquitted in traffic court, court records show. He filed suit in February 2008.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Man sentenced in brother’s death
MONTICELLO - A Drew County man pleaded guilty Friday to killing his brother over a dispute involving a woman and was sentenced to 46 years in prison.
Duane Gonder, 25, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to furnish prohibited articles into jail, officials in the 10th Judicial District prosecuting attorney’s office said.
Judge Don Glover, ruling in Drew County Circuit Court, sentenced Gonder to 30 years on first-degree murder, six years on the assault and 10 years on the criminal-attempt charges, the officials said.
The judge ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
Gonder was accused of shooting his brother Marcus Gonder, 28, either late June 30, 2009, or early July 1, 2009, at Marcus Gonder’s home at 638 Plantersville Road west of Montongo.
After the shooting, Gonder drove to his home next door, jumped out of the car, got in his truck and fled.
When the truck got stuck in a ravine on a rural, muddy road, he fled on foot. Authorities, dogs and men on horseback searched for hours in a 2-mile-long woods that separated U.S.
425 and Plantersville Road.
In the evening of July 1, 2009, Gonder phoned authorities and directed them to a home off U.S. 425 in Lincoln County where he was hiding.
He was taken into custody there.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 22 on 07/25/2010