Man Stabbed, Drugs Believed to be Involved

Wilkes County Sheriff Deputies are working the scene of what appears to have been a drug deal gone sour. From what we've been able to learn so far, one man was stabbed by another along Germantown Road about 9:25 last night. The stabbing victim, a Hispanic male, was airlifted to Charlotte for treatment of his injuries, reported to be wounds to the head. Deputies have been at the scene much of the night, and are looking for a 6-foot tall black male wearing a bandanna seen leaving the area on foot a short time after the stabbing. We expect to have more information on this developing story later today.

Stolen? Well, Not Really

It started innocently enough. A Wilkesboro woman tells sheriff deputies a man came by to return a lug wrench he'd borrowed from her. He asked for the keys so he could tuck the wrench away in the cab of the pickup. She gave them to him, and that's the last she's seen of her pickup. Right now, deputies stop short of calling it a stolen vehicle, filing the report as "unauthorized use of a vehicle" instead. They are looking for the 22-year old man, and a white 2003 Ford Ranger pickup, license number VTB-5354. Deanna Santos, the victim, tells deputies she has some ideas where he may be, and will file charges against him herself when she locates him.

Suspect Name Mentioned in Car Theft Is Familiar to Deputies

A Roaring River man has implicated someone in the theft of a couple of items from two vehicles on his property -- and the name is one sheriff deputies have heard before. A crime report does not list the name of the suspect, because he hasn't been arrested yet, but it does state the person has been mentioned in connection with other similar crimes in the area. In the most recent car break-in, Daryl Blackburn says a cell phone was stolen from the cab of one of his pickups and a chain saw was stolen from the bed of the other. Total loss is just less than 400-dollars. Interestingly, a number of other valuable items were left in the cab of the truck where the cell phone was stolen, untouched by the burglar.

Local Unit Neutralizes Alexander Co. Dynamite

Wilkes county's Hazardous Devices Unit was called out earlier this week, to help deputies in Alexander county. A report released yesterday says the local team received a call from Alexander County Fire Marshal Russell Greene Sunday afternoon concerning several sticks of decaying dynamite that had been found. When the bomb unit arrived on Vastha Road in Alexander county, they confirmed there were a couple of dozen sticks of dynamite in various states of decomposition, located in an outbuilding on the property. Technicians sprayed a neutralizing chemical onto the dynamite before moving it, and a blast-suited tech removed the sticks one-by-one to the bomb trailer. In the course of the cleanup, technicians had to stop several times and spray more neutralizing chemical to stabilize other sticks of dynamite that were found. In all, they recovered 44 sticks, and removed them safely to the Wilkes Fire Training grounds, where they were scheduled to be detonated yesterday as part of a scheduled training exercise.

Son Rips Off Mom for $6K

She's trusted him for years, but a mother's trust may be hard to regain after her son stole 6-thousand dollars. The boomer woman tells sheriff deputies her son had been doing some remodeling work for her -- fixing up the bathroom. Friday morning, an envelope with 6-thousand ollars in 100-dollar bills had disappeared. The son and girlfriend have skipped town in her car, and were last known to be headed for Virginia or Florida.

Stolen Stuff Found

Several thousand dollars of property stolen, then located -- it turned out family members were responsible. Samuel Davis reported the theft, from his basement, early Friday morning. He hadn't realized the basement had been broken into until his sister told him she'd seen her ex-husband, Dennis Henry Huffman, wearing a watch and cap she knew to be her brother's. When Davis checked his basement, he found a variety of items stolen, including two DVD players, two shotguns, a muzzle loader, a play station, jewelry, and three blankets. Total value was over 3-thousand dollars, plus about 350 dollars damage to the back door, which had been kicked in.



When deputies went to Huttman's house, they found the stuff. They arrested Huffman and his girlfriend, Ashley Lovette. Each faces charges of breaking and entering, theft, and possession of stolen property.

Laptop Stolen from NWHS

Wilkes county sheriff deputies have been working for a couple of months to locate a laptop computer stolen out of a local high school. The laptop disappeared just before Christmas break, on December 19th. It wasn't reported until the break was over in early January, and the report was released last week. A teacher at North Wilkes High School reported she had left her laptop in a classroom that another teacher was borrowing during finals week. She came back to find the computer gone. Deputies pulled a list of all the students who were through the classroom, interviewed several, and have turned up nothing. The computer has been entered into the national crime database, and deputies are watching local pawn tickets to see if it turns up.

Gun Stolen, Thieves Admit It

The three people arrested after a police chase in Wilkes Thursday allegedly started their crime spree a day earlier by stealing a gun and a tool that would hep them stay a step ahead of the law -- a police scanner. Eddie Settle, Melissa Huffman, and Ronald Anglin face a number of charges in the several related cases. The break-in that netted the three the gun and scanner happened sometime Wednesday and wasn't reported until after the chase Thursday. When Kenneth Minton called to report the theft, a deputy immediately keyed on the 30-06 rifle that had been stolen as possibly being the one recovered at the end of the chase. Settle, Huffman, and Anglin admitted they'd broken in and stolen the rifle and the scanner Wednesday, as they were planning and preparing for their robbery spree Thursday.

More Men Implicated in Fall Break-In Spree

Wilkes County deputies have charged two new suspects in connection with the large amount of stolen property seized during a raid on a North WIlkesboro man's home late last year. At the time they raided Gene Haymond's home with the help of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro Police, deputies said the arrest would solve more than a dozen break-ins and burglaries that had happened in the previous weeks. As Haymond's scheduled trial date nears, he is implicating others in some of the break-ins and in what was done with the property that was stolen.



For instance, Haymond has implicated Daniel Wayne Richter, a 32-year old local man, in several of the crimes, and 36-year old Jeremy Lee Ebersole in several other burglaries, along with helping him get rid of some of the stolen property. In one case, Haymond says Ebersole drove with him to Maryland the day after a business break-in, to get rid of a stolen Kubota tractor. According to supplements filed in most of the cases this week, Haymond has implicated Richter or Ebersole for a role in nearly all of the crimes for which he stands charged. Both are in jail on other charges, and will now face additional charges related ot his series of crimes.

Robberies, Chase, Wrecks -- Now Jail

At least two break-ins, a chase, and several people captured. That's the result of a wild period yesterday afternoon in North Wilkesboro and the county. The report filed by sheriffs deputies indicates the original incident was an armed robbery at a home on Old Highway 60 in Millers Creek. In that robbery, an elderly woman had a number of prescription pain killers stolen at gunpoint. Shortly after that, a report went out of an armed robbery at a location in North Wilkesboro, not identified in the sheriff's report, but w understand that tho be Brame-Huie Pharmacy. The robbers sped off from there and were involved in two hit and run accidents, then abandoned the car in the 700 block of Friendship Cross street. Deputies and officers fanned out in the area, and located the group of thieves in the area of 268 Spainhouder.



Upon arresting the three suspects, officers recovered a pistol, which turned out to have been taken in yet another break-in, and numerous pills of methadone and oxycodone that one of the suspects, Eddie Settle, had tried to stuff in his pants. The other two suspects are identified as 38-year old Ronald Eugene Anglin Junior and 31 year old Melissa Kay Huffman.



Settle was charged with 9 counts ranging from trafficking in controlled substances to armed robbery; Anglin and Huffman were each charged with four crimes. This is only the count from the sheriff's office; as of news time, we had not received a count from North Wilkesboro Police. All three are jailed at this time.