The state/region in brief

Crane accident

victim identified

MOUNTAIN PINE - Authorities have identified the victim of Wednesday’s fatal crane accident at the Ouachita Water Treatment Plant as Roy Case, owner of Roy Case Construction Co.

of Little Rock.

Emergency crews spent nearly 12 hours late Wednesday and early Thursday recovering Case’s body from the accident scene, according to a Hot Springs Fire Department news release.

Emergency crews were dispatched about 2:30 p.m.

Wednesday to the treatment plant about 8 miles northwest of Hot Springs. They were responding to a report of a man trapped inside the cab of a large crane that had overturned.

“Mr. Case’s condition was such that he was obviously dead upon the arrival of the first-responders,” according to the news release.

Witnesses at the scene said that Case was using a crane to move a forklift into a water-treatment basin that was being renovated. The crane tumbled over into a wall and became wedged, the release states.

Emergency crews from the Hot Springs and Mountain Pine fire departments, the Garland County sheriff’s office and LifeNet responded to the accident.

- THE SENTINEL-RECORD

Road rage driver

pleads innocent

CONWAY - A Vilonia man who was seriously injured in a wreck that authorities said was caused by road rage pleaded innocent Friday to first-degree murder charges in the deaths of four people.

Russell Johnston, 29, appeared in a wheelchair in Faulkner County Circuit Court where Judge Charles E. Clawson Jr. set a $100,000 surety bail. Under that kind of bail, a defendant can put up property such as a house as collateral as long as the collateral meets with the county sheriff’s approval.

Clawson also ordered that Johnston be held under house arrest when such bond is posted and be on a global positioning system monitor so that authorities will know his whereabouts.

Johnston’s co-defendant James Holian, 38, of Cabot remained in the Faulkner County jail Friday with his bail set at $500,000.

Prosecuting Attorney Marcus Vaden said in an interview that he had been told that Johnston “has at least some type of paralysis from the waist down” and therefore is not a flight risk.

Holian, however, “is very able-bodied,” Vaden said.

The Sept. 12 wreck on U.S. 64 in Vilonia killed Frank San Felippo, 67, and Judith Ellen San Felippo, 66, both of Sun City, Ariz.; their son John N. San Felippo, 35, of Vilonia; and their grandson Jersey Lee San Felippo, 10, of Vilonia. Marilyn San Felippo, who was John San Felippo’s wife and Jersey’s mother, survived.

Vaden has said the San Felippo car was not involved in the road rage but that the other two vehicles’ drivers - Johnston and Holian - were.

- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Police: 3 killings tied to drugs

TULSA - An affidavit filed by police says one of the victims in a triple homicide in Tulsa this month may have owed a drug supplier $20,000.

The Tulsa World reported that according to the search warrant affidavit filed in Oklahoma County District Court, Joey Mike, 23, of Oklahoma City was connected with an unidentified drug dealer and possibly owed him the money.

Mike, Jermiko Thomas, 19, and Toni Ruff, 20, each were shot in the head Oct. 7 in a Tulsa hotel room in what police have said was “a style consistent with an execution.”

Mike and Thomas died at the scene, while Ruff died two days later.

- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASU presidency

attracts 2 more

The Arkansas State University System presidential search has attracted two more applicants, but one of them pulled out days after applying.

The latest applicants are: m James K. Nelson Jr. of Tyler, Texas, dean of engineering and computer science, University of Texas at Tyler, since 2006.

m Joe M. King, provost and vice chancellor of academic and student affairs, University of New Orleans, since 2009. He submitted a letter and resume last week, the ASU System said, but withdrew from consideration Friday. King could not be reached for comment Friday or Saturday.

So far, 21 people have applied.

The ASU board of trustees is looking for a replacement for J. Leslie Wyatt, who resigned effective June 30.

Wyatt is now a professor at ASU-Jonesboro. Robert L. Potts, chancellor of the Jonesboro campus, is filling in as system president. He has said he plans to retire after trustees hire a new president and the transition is made from his administration to a new one.

The ASU System, the second largest in Arkansas, has campuses in Jonesboro, Beebe, Mountain Home and Newport. The system also holds classes in Heber Springs and Searcy as part of ASU-Beebe; ASU technical centers in Marked Tree and Jonesboro; and instructional sites in Paragould and at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville.

- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 18 on 10/24/2010

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