Two men wanted for questioning in a recent triple homicide have been captured in Wisconsin. One of those men is also a suspect in a Dec. 28 murder in Forrest City.
A spokesman for the Hudson Police Department said officers there have Kevin Mosby, 30, 214 West Cook St., Forrest City, and Jimmy Mills, 30, 720 North Gorman St., Forrest City, in police custody. The two were captured separately while walking outside an apartment complex in Hudson on Wednesday night, said Sgt. Marty Jensen.
Mosby and Mills have been sought by St. Francis County Sheriff's deputies for questioning in the Dec. 7 murder of three men in Crow Creek. A third suspect, Steven Dewayne Neal, 35, of Marianna, remains at large.
The St. Francis County Sheriff's Department will extradite the two men on charges of theft over $2,500 in connection with the theft of a van from a car rental business in Forrest City on Dec. 7. The van was recovered in Wisconsin on Dec. 26.
Dylan A. Boyd, 31, and Carl Boyd, 21, both of Madison, and Dewayne Stewart, 27, of Forrest City, were found murdered inside the Boyd residence in Crow Creek on Dec. 7 when Dylan Boyd's girlfriend returned home from work. The three had been shot numerous times, police reported.
The Forrest City Police Department this morning obtained a warrant for Mills so that he can be extradited on a capital murder charge in connection with the Dec. 28 death of Voltaurus Parchman, 22, at Parchman's home at 838 Inglewood Drive. He was shot numerous times in what police originally thought may have been a robbery attempt. A second suspect in that murder has not yet been identified.
As for the capture of Mosby and Mills, Jensen said, "We had been tipped off that three men wanted in a triple homicide were staying at an apartment complex here. We knew Mills was in the area because our officers had confronted him during a traffic stop on Sunday, Jan. 6."
Mills was able to avoid capture at that time because, according to Jensen, he gave them a false name at the time of the traffic stop and he was a passenger in the vehicle. "There was no reason to detain him," Jensen said.
According to Jensen, the St. Croix Sheriff's Office had given them a tip that Mills and Mosby were seen going in and out of an apartment in Hudson. "We received word at 2:30 p.m. from them that the two were spotted at the apartment. We put the apartment under surveillance by 3 p.m. I proceeded to get warrants for the apartment, and we were trying to mobilize our Emergency Response Unit team during that time," he said.
Police reported Mills walked out of the apartment about 8:30 p.m., and was immediately captured by the Hudson Police. Mosby reportedly walked out of the apartment about 30 minutes later at which time he was captured. The two suspects reportedly denied who they were. "They said they were not who we were looking for, but we have pictures and fingerprints, so that's not a problem identifying them," he said.
Jensen said there is no information at this time on Neal. "We showed his picture to the occupants of the apartment where Mills and Mosby were captured. They denied ever seeing him and said they didn't know him at all."
St. Francis County Sheriff Dave Parkman today said the department is preparing for extradition process on the two men, but is unsure how long that might take depending on whether or not the two subjects waive extradition or fight it.
By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
Higher standards and more accountability are good ideas, at least on paper, but it will take more to implement proposals made by Gov. Mike Huckabee this week.
That was the reaction of Pat Flanagin, finance director of the Forrest City School District.
"I don't want to throw water on the whole plan," said Flanagin. "I think the plan has a few good things in it, but a few are totally unrealistic."
For one thing, the governor offered no specific means for paying any increased costs.
"From my perspective, before you propose a lot of new programs, you need to pay for the ones you promised last year," Flanagin said. "In other words, there was a $3,000 raise that was promised teachers in the last session, with the first $1,000 supposed to come this year. The state reneged on that commitment, and school districts who (gave the raise) have had to come up with some or all of it out of their own resources."
He continued, "It's a little frustrating for school administrators to say we're going to have all these new programs, when we're at least in the bottom 10 states in funding what we already have."
One of the good points of Huckabee's proposal, according to Flanagin, is for more accountability for scholarship recipients. If a student on a state scholarship does not graduate within six years, Huckabee would have the scholarship converted into a loan.
One proposal with which Flanagin took serious issue was to base a teacher's continued employment and pay increases on student performance. He said it sounds great, but would be difficult to implement fairly.
"It's a concept we were talking about in the early 1970s when I was in graduate school, and it was talked about before then and since then," said Flanagin. "And if you can find a fair and accurate way to do that, it would probably be a wonderful thing. But I would strongly suggest that you find that fair and accurate method before you start implementing it."
He said the fairness issue is obvious.
"A teacher with high-performing, high socio-economic level students is extremely likely to show more student gains than a teacher with a classroom full of disadvantaged students with discipline problems," he said, "even though that second teacher may have done more teaching and gotten more out of what she had to work with.
"We all know of some students who are going to do well, no matter what the teacher does in some cases, and some kids have problems that must be overcome before educational needs are even addressed. It's a very stark contrast, and taking those kinds of things into consideration is something you've got to do if you're going to have a fair system of comparing teacher performance and student performance."
He said if poorly implemented, such a system would have the effect of further segregating poor, disadvantaged students from higher-performing, privileged students, "which will erode whatever progress some of those schools in disadvantaged areas are making."
Flanagin said it was an example of, "If a dog can't do a trick, beat it. But does that make it do the trick?"
He continued, "If public education were as easy as a lot of self-proclaimed experts seem to make it in political speeches, then I probably wouldn't want to be getting out of it this year." Flanagin is leaving his position at the end of June.
"On the one hand, you like to see new ideas being thought up. But on the other hand, you want them to be thorough and fair, and workable and not just dumped on you."
The Forrest City Airport is receiving a matching grant in the amount of $31,550, it was announced.
The 75-25 grant was approved by the Arkansas Aeronautics Commission at its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday Jan. 9.
The money will be used to expand the existing parking ramp for a new hangar area. The total cost of the project is $42,550.
Forrest City Mayor Larry Bryant said the grant is one more way to help improve the safety of the airport.
The Forrest City Little Theatre is holding auditions for its next production, "Once Upon A Time," on Saturday, Jan. 12 at 11 a.m. in the EACC Lecture Hall.
There are parts for children aged 8 and up and adults for this parody of all fairy tales.
There are familiar characters, such as a wicked stepmama, a giant, a fairy godmama, a lovely young girl and a handsome boy. There are difficulties to overcome and amusing antics to go through before the story is through.
In the story, Jonathan, a shepherd, falls in love with Antoinette. However, Stepmama tries to keep them apart until the Fairy Godmama touches Jonathan with her wand, giving him intelligence and courage to outwit Stepmama.
Anyone who cannot attend the auditions may contact Tammy Freligh at EACC, 633-4480. For more information, contact Dustin Lemke at 633-5618.