The state/region in brief

Youth pastor given 9 years on sex crime

MARION - A Crittenden County jury convicted a former Marion youth pastor of second-degree sexual assault of a minor Thursday, 2nd Judicial Circuit Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said.

Circuit Judge John Fogleman sentenced Arnold Lamont Parks, 29, to nine years in the Arkansas Department of Correction after a twoday trial in Marion.

Deputy prosecutor Tom Young accused Parks of assaulting a 10-year-old girl while she spent the night at his home. Ellington said Parks admitted the assault to investigators, saying he “needed to get something off his chest.”

Parks was also an employee of a Marion day-care center, Ellington said.

“We are grateful for the jury’s verdict, that the community will not tolerate this type of behavior,” Ellington said in a news release.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEMan ejected, dies in 1-vehicle crash

A man was killed and two people were injured Tuesday in a single-vehicle crash in Arkansas County, state police reported Wednesday.

Deshaun Gaither, 35, was a passenger in a Chevrolet pickup traveling north on Arkansas 11 south of Stuttgart. About 8:20 p.m., the vehicle ran a stop sign at Arkansas 165 and the driver lost control, sending the truck into a ditch off South Yoder Road. The truck rolled over, and its three occupants were ejected.

Gaither was taken to St.

Vincent Infirmary Medical Center in Little Rock, where he died Wednesday. The driver of the truck, 27-yearold Terrance Harris, and passenger Shawn Lane, 36, were also taken to the hospital for treatment.

Conditions were clear and dry when the crash occurred, according to state police.

  • ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTELawyer: Suppress slaying comments

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - An attorney for a Springfield man suspected of kidnapping and killing a 10-year-old girl wants statements he made to police after his arrest to be suppressed.

Attorney Patrick Berrigan wrote in court documents that Craig Michael Wood was suffering from intoxication, emotional turmoil and psychological instability when he was arrested in February in the death of Hailey Owens.

The girl was abducted from her neighborhood and found dead hours later in the basement of Wood’s house. Wood is charged with murder, armed criminal action and child kidnapping.

The Springfield News-Leader reported that Berrigan contends Wood repeatedly asked police to stop questioning him so he could consult with an attorney.

Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said motions to suppress are routine and he would have no further comment.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSState salamander called new species

TULSA - A salamander first discovered by a University of Tulsa doctoral student in 2011 is being hailed as a newspecies in an international journal for animal taxonomy.

Doctoral student Michael Steffen and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission herpetologist Kelly Irwin discovered the new species in May 2011 while studying genetic diversity of other salamanders in Lake Catherine State Park near Hot Springs.

The university said the latest issue of Zootaxa will feature the paper and provide details on the Ouachita Streambed Salamander. The school said the amphibian is one of the most “genetically distinct” species of salamander to be identified in the United States in the past 70 years.

This species currently has the smallest known range of any other amphibian in the country.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJoplin safe rooms to open across city

JOPLIN, Mo. - Joplin residents soon will be able to seek shelter from storms in safe rooms across the city, school district officials said.

Inspections are expected to be completed in the next few days on safe rooms at four elementary schools and a high school football field, while shelters at six other elementary schools and Joplin High School will be ready in the fall, said Mike Johnson, the school district’s director of construction.

Most of the safe rooms will double as school gymnasiums and will be open to residents who live within a five-minute walk and a halfmile drive, said Jason Cravens, executive director of secondary education. They will have an average capacity of 1,000 to 1,500 people, The Joplin Globe reported.

The safe rooms meet Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines and are designed to withstand winds of 250 mph - the highest category of tornado is an EF-5 with winds exceeding 200 mph.

The rooms will be open to the public whenever the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning or severe thunderstorm warning with winds exceeding 75 mph, or whenever a tornado watch has been issued.

The rooms are equipped with backup generators, emergency and first-aid supplies, and restrooms.

FEMA funds paid for 75 percent of the cost, with the school district covering the rest.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSSaving Kerr Mansion

intent of nonprofit

POTEAU, Okla. - A nonprofit group has been formed in eastern Oklahoma to save Kerr Mansion near Poteau.

Friends of the Kerr Mansion Inc. has been meeting for the past few months to come up with ideas to save the mansion, which once served as home to U.S. Sen.

Robert Kerr.

Kerr died of a heart attack in 1963. His family donated the 11,000-square-foot home and 40-acre property to the Oklahoma State board of regents in 1978, and Carl Albert State College took over operations and maintenance a year later.

Last year, the property closed to the public after Carl Albert regents voted to not assume ownership.

The Southwest Times Record reported that the nonprofit group plans to hold fundraisers and apply for grants to restore and update the property.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/19/2014

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