The
ews
J oumal
Serving Hoke County for 88 years
No. 35 Vol. 89
50 cents
Wednesday, December 3,1997
Alliance
for Mentally III
to meet Dec. 11
BA
Scott to play
softball at UNC-C
7A
New fire chief
named
5A
Hoke Extension
honored
IB
Index
Busjness/Farm 8A
Calendar 2B
Classifieds 9B
Deaths 5A
Editorials 2A
Leg^ls 8B
Public Record 8A
Religion 6A
School 4A
Sports 7A
TV Listings 6B
Weather 3A
Around Town
By Sa\( Morris
Contributing Editor
Maybe the cotton farmers
will get the cotton out of the
fields by Christmas. It rained
again over the weekend and
into Monday rnorning. There
are very few leaves left on the
trees after the wind and rain.
The weather has been any
thing but normal for the past
few weeks.
The forecast for the remain
der of the week, Wednesday
through Saturday, calls for
about the same kind of
weather. Wednesday through
Friday the highs will be in the
50s and the lows in the low
40s or high 30s. Saturday the
high will be i n the 40s and the
lows in the 20s. There is a
chance of rain Wednesday
night until early Friday morn
ing.
There was thunder and
lightning Monday morning
and according to the old say
ing, we could have snow in
nine day. I hope the saying is
wrong!
Don’t forget that the annual
Pancake Supper sponsored by
the Raeford jciwanis Club is
(SeeAROtJND, pageQA)
¥ t-
ri -
Ken MacDonald/News-Joumal
Rescuers work to remove Lillie Frances McNeill from her 1994 Nissan pickup truck on U.S. 401 following
a two-vehicle accident Monday morning near Raeford.
Accident kills 1, injures 2
By Pat Allen Wilson
Staff writer
A woman was killed and two
people were injured in a two-car
accident that occurred on rain-
slick U.S. 401 northeast of
Raeford Monday morning, ac
cording to the state Highway
Patrol.
Carma L. Currie died after her
northeast-bound 1991 Hyundai
ran off the right shoulder then
went back onto the highway out
of control.
The vehicle slid sideways and
crossed the center line, colliding
with a southwest-bound 1994
Nissan pickup driven by Lillie
Frances McNeill.
McNeill, 49, and her passen
ger, husband Alexander McNeill,
46, of Patrick Drive, Fayetteville,
were injured.
Both were transported to Cape
Fear Valley Center, where they
were listed in stable condition
Tuesday.
Currie, a resident of Rex Currie
Rd. of Red Springs, would have
been 24 years old this month.
The accident happened at ap
proximately 7:45 a.m. near Frye
Automotive & Camping Inc.
Both vehicles were declared to
tal losses.
Hoke resident confesses to murder,
tells authorities where to find body
By Pat Allen Wilson
Staff writer
Dean Sheets has lost his best
friend. Billy Joe Melton worked
for him at Montrose Motocross
10 years or more and now he is
dead, the 68-year-old man’s
bloody body found in a field.
Charged with his murder and
held in Hoke County Jail under
no bond is Bobby Hunt, 20, who
lived in a trailer he rented near
Mr. Melton’s tidy white trailer
with blue trim.
According to Chief Deputy
David Newton, on Sunday depu
ties were called to Hunters Run,
an unpaved road which horse
shoes off Poole Rd, which inter
sects with N.C. 211 in western
Hoke County. They checked out
a white Toyota pickup with a
window rolled down and found
blood inside it. Deputies Chris
Fee and Russell Walters called
the N.C. Dept, of Corrections
and asked that a tracking canine
be sent out. The dog took them to
a trailer about 350 yards from the
road where Hunt lived. Inside
the trailer they found Hunt and
also clothing with blood on it.
Hoke County Chief Detective
David Newton and Lt. Joey
Blackburn were called in as well
as State Bureau of Investigation
Agent Erroll Jarmin. They inter
viewed Hunt, who gave officers
the bloody clothing but claimed
he knew nothing about it.
Behind the trailer investiga
tors found hidden in the woods a
1988 Chevrolet Beretta. The ve
hicle had been reported stolen
the Saturday before Thanksgiv
ing, and its owner, Carlos
DeLeon, 36, a resident of Main
St. in Raeford, had been stabbed
with a knife. That incident had
happened on Wallace McLean
Rd.
Officers drew up a warrant for
possession of stolen property.
Hunt requested to speak with
Agent Jarmin and allegedly ad-
News-Journal names editor, reporter
The News-Journal is pleased
to announce the addition of a
new editor and a staff writer to its
editorial staff.
Knight Chamberlain, cur
rently of Lumberton, and Pat
Allen Wilson of Five Points, are
the News-Journal’s editor and
staff writer, respectively.
Chamberlain,41,isaBrevard,
N.C. native who graduated from
St. Andrews Presbyterian Col
lege in 1978 with a degree in
Political Science. He began his
journalism career with The
Robesonian that same year as a
county reporter before moving
on to The Laurinburg Exchange
as its sports editor.
After a five-year absence,
Chamberlain returned to jour
nalism in 1984, working for a
variety of newspapers in South
eastern North Carolina before
returning to The Robesonian as
News Editor in 1990. In April
1995 he left The Robesonian to
help News-Journal publisher
Robert Dickson start The Fort
Bragg POST in Fayetteville be
fore leaving to try his hand at
freelance journalism, corre
sponding for The Raleigh News
& Observer, Atlanta Journal-
Constitution, New York Times,
Washington Post, Reuters
America and Associated Press.
(See EDITOR, page 9A)
Hoke County: A most
giving place to live
Knight Chamberlain
Editor
On November 19 The
News-Journal made an appeal
for individuals and businesses
to support Nettie McDuffie’s
efforts to feed the less fortu
nate for Thanksgiving.
We are pleased to report
that you, our readers, came
through in a big way, and
helped make Thanksgiving
dinner a reality for more than
250 people last Thursday.
Members of the Hoke
Emergency Liaison Program
(H.E.L.P .) were kind enough
to collect the donations.
Nettie’s church. Freedom
Chapel AME Zion, offered the
use of its kitchen and dining
room facilities as a base of
operations.
Nettie, who started cook
ing on the Monday before
Thanksgiving, said a core of
10 volunteers helped her pre
pare the feast of turkey, ham,
string beans, candied yams,
sweet peas, dressing, gravy,
hot rolls and several kinds of
cake. Many more volunteers
came from across the county
to pick up and deliverthe plates
of food.
Because there were so many
people involved in the effort,
Nettie was afraid to name in
dividual volunteers for fear of
leaving someone out.
This is the message she
asked us to convey for her:
“We, the willing workers
of Hoke County, want to thank
everyone for our most suc
cessful Thanksgiving dinner
project ever for the sick and
shut-ins, senior citizens, and
the needy.
“We went into the back
woods, homes, and any place
where people were hungry and
served them a delicious meal.
“Hoke County is a most
giving place to live.”
We couldn’t have said it
better ourselves.
Ferguson awaits sentence
mitted he had killed Melton. He
told them they could find his
body in a field off Blue Springs
Rd. — 12 miles away.
Melton’s body was sent to
Chapel Hill for an autopsy, and
Hunt was charged with murder.
Officers believe Melton was
killed around midnight Saturday.
His pickup was found not far
from his home on Hunters Run.
Melton had been alone this week
end. His wife had gone to visit
her folks in the Philippines.
Sheets said Melton, who was
Hunt’s landlord, had gone to meet
him to collect rent. Sheets said
Melton had befriended Hunt. “He
helped that boy, took him places,
helped him with the water. He
would have let the rent slide.”
A next door neighbor said
about Melton, “He was a nice
person. 1 couldn’t have asked for
a better neighbor.”
“What can I say?” said Sheets,
“Honesty, loyalty, integrity —
Bill was all of those.”
Knight Chamberlain
Editor
ELIZABETHTOWN — A
Bladen County jury is preparing
to decide if Rodriguez Ferguson
should be sentenced to death, or
life in prison without parole. Ju
rors are hearing closing argu
ments today and may begin their
deliberations this afternoon or
Thursday morning.
Ferguson, 20, was found guilty
of first-degree murder on Thurs
day, Nov. 20, in the shooting
deaths of five Hoke County resi
dents, and the wounding of a
sixth almost three years ago.
During the sentencing phase
of the trial a psychologist and a
social scientist testified that
Ferguson has suffered from post-
traumatic stress disorder and a
borderline personality disorder,
and has abused alcohol and mari
juana.
On Monday,
Dr. Richard
Dudley Jr., a
psychiatrist
who examined
Ferguson, told
jurors how
those problems
affected
Ferguson
Ferguson, particularly on the
night he shot five people to death
and left another paralyzed.
It took the nine-woman, three-
man jury six-and-a-half hours
spread over two days to find that
Ferguson caused the deaths of
Jamie Hunter, 38, his wife,
(See FERGUSON, page 9A)
1
,•4''
Chamberlain
Kristin Oulhric/Ncws-Joumal
Hospice Tree decorated
Last Tuesday, Hospice of Hoke County volunteers and Raeford City
employees decorated a Christmas tree on Main Street in preparation
for the Love Light Ceremony that took place Monday. The lights were
placed on the tree by donations from members of the community in
memory or in honor of a loved one. The tree was planted seven years
ago by Betsy Ann McNeill in memory of her late husband Ken who died
of cancer. George Balch topped the tree with the traditional star.