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Leon & Cindy Wilson
TUESDAY, May 14, 2019 / Vol. 5 Issue 20 / 75 cents
Woman sentenced in 2017 case An Alread woman was sentenced last week in Van Buren County Circuit Court, two years after she was accused of shooting a neighbor. Janet Gail Weaver, 56, was sentenced to 72 months in the Arkansas Department of Corrections in a negotiated plea. She pleaded guilty to battery-second degree, a Class D
felony, in the May 17, 2017, incident. Weaver will be credited with 15 days of jail time she already has served. Two other charges originally filed in the case, terroristic act and terroristic threatening, were nolle prossed. Weaver told investigators two years ago that she drove her lawn mower to the home of neighbor Ed Chalupsky
on Pumpkin Center Road in Alread to return some fishing gear. She said Chalupsky stepped out of the darkness from behind a tree and pointed a firearm at her, according to an affidavit. Weaver said she fired a warning shot from the .38 Special revolver she had with her and Chalupsky retreated into the house,
the document states. She followed him to the doorway and evidence suggests two shots were fired into the house. Weaver claimed she was hit by a gunshot fired from inside the house. She said she returned to her residence on her lawn mower. Then-Sheriff Scott Bradley made contact with Weaver at her res-
idence on Blue Spruce Road that night and Weaver went to the sheriff’s office about 5 a.m. May 18 and was interviewed by investigators. Chalupsky was shot in the chest. He recovered from his injuries. Weaver, represented by Clay Simpson, entered her plea on May 8, 2019.
Weaver
Man pleads guilty to viewing child porn
Highway 95 West closed for several hours Wednesday after an 18-wheeler missed a curve. The accident occurred around the 5400 block of the highway after a semi-truck carrying an oversized load partially left the roadway, according to the Van Buren County sheriff’s office. (Photo from Sheriff’s Office Facebook Page)
A 48-year-old Clinton man has entered a negotiated plea of guilty to four counts of distributing/possessing/viewing matter depicting child sex, a Class C felony. Jason Paul Underwood, 48, was sentenced May 2, 2019, to 60 months on each count to be served consecutively for a total of 20 years. Thirty-six other counts were nolle prossed. Underwood was given credit for 173 days he already has served in jail. On April 15, Circuit Judge H.G. Foster denied defense attorney Angela Byrd’s motion to suppress evidence
Medic One chief questions need for station The president of ambulance service provider Medic One said there was only one issue he needed to bring up at last week’s oversight committee meeting. “Does it make sense to be (stationed) at Shirley?” asked Ryan Kibler. He said he didn’t want to start an issue, but being at Shirley put the ambulance farther from Ozark Health Medical Center in Clinton and increased response time. Kibler said the decision was made when Medic One was named the ambulance provider for Van Buren County because it was thought that would be helpful to Fairfield Bay,
but, he said, the numbers may not be there to support that move. He said it takes an ambulance 25 minutes, or longer if there are traffic issues, to get to the hospital from Shirley, and he wonders if that’s less beneficial to customers. “I can’t fix how fast I can get from Shirley to here,” Kibler told the ambulance committee. There also is a higher cost to Medic One to be in Shirley, he said. “I don’t know if it’s the best outcome for citizens. I don’t know what kind of burden it puts on them if we’re not there (in Shirley).” Almost 40 percent of calls to Medic One are for transports
and there have been 315 such calls so far in 2019, said committee Chairman Brian Tatum. Kibler said the commute to the hospital, the time it takes to load the patient, make the run and unload the patient extends the “out of service time.” He asked the committee’s input, saying he didn’t have the “street cred in your city” to make that judgement. Judy Wells of 911 Dispatch said that it doesn’t really add to response time because when an ambulance in Clinton goes to the hospital for a transfer, the one from Shirley heads to Clinton. Fairfield Bay Mayor Paul Wellenberger said he wanted to let the
committee know that Fairfield Bay EMS is not available for backup as much as it has been in the past because they have fewer volunteers and “we try our best to keep the Bay covered. It’s not that we aren’t wanting to support the county.” County Judge Dale James noted that the original agreement with Medic One stipulates that one ambulance be placed within 5 miles of the Clinton hospital, one be close to Fairfield Bay, and one be on call. He said it would take a vote of the ambulance committee to change that. The committee set its next meeting date for 6 p.m. Aug. 1.
It’s all relative - Five grandchildren of Paul and Oma Dunham are graduating this week from Clinton High School. The cousins are (from left) Megan Ramsey, Cayeleigh Lowder, Jonathan Haines, Alexis Patterson, and Georgia Dunham. The Dunhams also have a sixth grandchild, Xavier Rodriguez, who is graduating this year, but he does not attend school at Clinton.
in the case. Byrd argued that the defendant’s computer was unlawfully seized at his workplace in Shirley. She said a search warrant had already been serve at Underwood’s home and it did not authorize searching other locations. In a separate case in Circuit Court last week, two suspects were ordered extradited to Texas to face charges in an April 1 murder. Casey Wade Hughes, 21, and Justice Allen Stanford, 25, were arrested by Clinton Police outside a convenience store. The two are responsible for the shooting death of
Underwood Preston Jerome Scott, 29, a rapper known as PJ OneEight, according to police in Waco, Texas. Scott was found April 1 near an intersection with a gunshot wound to his back and pronounced dead at a hospital that night.
Sheriff oversees jail changes A few years ago, a man told investigators he decided to commit murder in Van Buren County because doing time in jail here wasn’t as bad as other places. Sometimes drug addicts would purposely get arrested so they could spend a few days eating three meals and getting medical care courtesy of county taxpayers. Those days are over. New Sheriff Lucas Emberton said in a recent interview with The Voice that he doesn’t think jail under his administration is necessarily a more harsh experience, but he doesn’t intend to run a facility that someone wants to come back to. Emberton said he sees the jail now as a more structured environment that leaves no question as to who is in control. The place needed a lot of cleaning and repairs, he said, and new lighting has been installed. The main objective, he said, is employee safety. Among other changes is that the televisions have been removed and there is no longer a trusty program. Emberton said most of the prohibited items, including drugs, that found their
way into the jail were brought in by trusties who often were wellknown in the community. Chores previously performed by them, including cooking and lawn work, are now done by what is called 309 inmates, who are state inmates. Asked if food is used as a disciplinary measure, Emberton said it is not, except for the “loaf.” If inmates are misbehaving, he said, meals for everyone are blended together and baked in a loaf. Emberton and Chief Deputy Randy Churches said a typical day’s menu might be rice and bread for breakfast, bologna sandwiches and cookies for lunch and beans and cornbread for supper. The sheriff said a dietitian in Harrison oversees the menus, and he said the jail is saving money now by shopping locally. Visiting hours at the jail are 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Thursdays. He said he is not trying to keep visitors away but must operate “within our means.” Emberton was sworn in as Van Buren County sheriff on Jan. 1, 2019. Michael Shamoon is the jail administrator.