ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY) -- A Bladen County native will be inducted this spring into the US Astronaut Hall of Fame. Curtis Brown of Elizabethtown is one of three astronauts who will be enshrined during a ceremony at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Brown flew on six space shuttle missions. He was commander of Discovery when Sen. John Glenn returned to space on STS-95 in 1998. He joins Eileen Collins and Bonnie Dunbar in this year's Hall of Fame class.

The trio will be inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame April 20. Previous inductees include Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, James Lovell, Sally Ride and Alan Shepard.

ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY) -- Elizabethtown Police say they have identified the suspect in a bank robbery this morning.

Police say they have spent the afternoon searching for Aaron Montrese McDowell, 27. Elizabethtown Police and Bladen County Sheriff's deputies executed a search warrant at McDowell's last known address of 48 Buck Lane Drive in White Oak, but he was not there.

Police say the bank robbery happened around the same time as another major incident in Elizabethtown this morning.

Around 9 a.m. Elizabethtown Primary School got a call about a bomb threat. Police rushed to the scene to ensure the safety of the 550 students and their teachers and evacuated them to the National Guard Armory.

"School staff responded wonderfully," Bladen County Schools spokeswoman Valerie Newton said. "They were able to very quickly get the children evacuated from the school, and in just a matter of a few minutes law enforcement was on the school campus very quickly, and it went so smoothly we couldn't have asked for a better evacuation."

Police say while they were assisting with the evacuation at the Elizabethtown Primary, they received a second call. The First citizens Bank on Broad Street, just blocks away from their station, was being robbed.

"A light-skinned black male walked into the bank and approached the teller. There wasn't any customers in the bank at the time, and he handed the teller a note displayed a handgun and basically demanded money," Elizabethtown Police Chief Robert Kinlaw said. "She gave him the money that she had that he put into a black duffle bag and then he left on foot."

Police say that they cannot tie the two incidents together, but they say the timing of both calls makes it very suspicious.

"We can't verify that the two are related, but it's just awfully coincidental, and we are investigating whether or not there is some relationship there," Chief Kinlaw said. "I have been working here for 30 plus years, and this is, as I recall, the third bank robbery we have had."

If you have any information about either the bomb threat or the bank robbery call police.

ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY) -- A 12 person jury is set to return to court Wednesday in Bladen County to determine the fate of a 19-year-old accused of involuntary manslaughter after her 9-day-old baby was mauled to death by dogs in 2011.

Prosecutors say Chelsea Brigman left the baby alone with a number of dogs. Brigman has been in court since last week. In a note to the judge, the jury said they were split nine to three but did not indicate which direction they were divided.

District Attorney Jon David says a special Grand Jury was called for this case. Now, they must determine if the baby's death was an accident or if Brigman played a role. The judge says deliberation will begin tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.

ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY) -- A Bladen County family can start the healing process after a judge ruled the 2011 death of a nine-day-old girl was an accident.

In August 2011 Addyson Camerino was just nine days old when her mom, 18-year-old Chelsea Brigman, left her sleeping in her carrier while she took a shower. Investigators say that's when the family's five dogs mauled the infant to death. It led investigators to charge Brigman with involuntary manslaughter.

"Any time we have a case involving a child that is so vulnerable, we have pledged to our community that children should grow up in a safe and injury-free environment," Assistant District Attorney Tripp Watson said.

After a week long trial at the Bladen County Courthouse, Judge Ronal Stephens granted a mistrial after jurors could not reach a verdict after six hours of deliberations. Judge Stephens then granted a motion to dismiss all charges in the case. He said that even if jurors had reached a guilty verdict, he would have set aside that verdict and sent the case directly to the appellate court.

"If the judge decides the evidence was just insufficient or perhaps the jury had made an incorrect decision, they can set the verdict aside, but I don't remember the last time that's happened for me in 29 years," Brigman's attorney Butch Pope said.

Prosecutors decided not to appeal the dismissal, which means this case is closed.

What's not closed, though, is a mother's grief.

"Her whole world changed forever," Pope said. "I don't know that any of us can imagine what they have been through, but I don't know that chelsea will ever fully get over the loss of that baby."

Prosecutors have also dropped involuntary manslaughter charges against Brigman's father-in-law and co-defendant Nelson Camerino.

Brigman left court quickly after the judge's ruling. Her family did not want to comment.

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- A Bladen County woman says her husband is fighting for his life tonight after being beaten while in jail. And making the whole thing even more upsetting is that Joshua Ward maybe should not have even been behind bars in the first place.

Around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Ward was arrested on a warrant for failure to appear in court on a traffic infraction. He was booked in the Bladen County Jail. By 5:30 p.m., he was severely beaten by inmates.

"They put a sheet over the camera and beat him within an inch of his life," Ward's wife Amanda said.

Amanda says her husband suffered three broken ribs, a broken nose, 12 stitches to his face and head and bleeding in his brain. She says he should not have been arrested in the first place.

"He had already went to court, and the lawyer told him it had been continued, go on home," she said.

She's also outraged, because she says she learned of her husband's beating from a friend and that the jail has not given her any information.

"They don't want to talk," Amanda said. "They don't want to say anything. They're sorry."

Bladen County Sheriff's Department spokesman Capt. Rodney Hester said in a statement, "We understand Mr. Ward was severely beaten last night. An investigation is underway, and charges will be filed."

Amanda Ward says she wants answers.

"Sorry is not fixing it," she said. "Sorry is not making it better. Nobody is fessing up. Nobody is standing up to say, 'Hey, we're responsible for this. What can we do to help?'"

At last check, Ward is listed in serious condition at New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY) -- Police are still searching for a man they say robbed a bank in Elizabethtown Friday, and they're wondering if he's connected to a bomb threat at a nearby school around the same time.

Police say two crimes like this around the same time is very suspicious for the usually quiet town.

We now have the 911 call someone at the school from the bomb threat:

"They said that, the man said that they won't let him have his kids, whoever has his child, he's mad. And he says you think that Connecticut was something, he's gonna blow all these f'ing kids here at this school up. He says there's a bomb, he's going to put a bomb in this school."

Police think the bank robber is Aaron Montrese McDowell, 27. They still are not sure if he is also the person that called in the bomb threat.

If you have any information contact Elizabethtown Police.

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- Yesterday, we told you about a Bladen County man severely beaten in the county jail. Today, we spoke with Joshua Ward, 30, who is recovering from gashes to his head and three broken ribs.

"After that first or second hit to my face, I just curled up in a ball," Ward said in his room at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington.

Ward is feeling the sting of pain. His chest and sides are intensely aching from several broken ribs after being beaten in the Bladen County Jail Tuesday afternoon. Although he decided to tell his side of what happened, it hurt him to even move his mouth after he took many blows to his jaw.

"I just went to sleep, and the next I know, they started beating me," he said.

Ward says after being arrested on a failure to appear warrant, deputies placed him in a cell with about seven other men. He said he kept to himself and told the other guys he was going to sleep. Ward remembers suddenly being awakened by two black men and a white man punching and dragging him.

"They drug me off the bunk," Ward said. "They continued to beat me. I remember hollering help and I just blacked out."

Investigators say those three men are Matthew Johnson, Twasjay Brown and Darryl Simmons. They are each charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury and second degree kidnapping.

"This is very unfortunate," Bladen County Sheriff Prentis Benston said. "We are taking this incident very seriously to make sure it does not happen again. We are conducting an internal investigation to see what changes need to be made."

Meanwhile, Ward maintains that he should not have been arrested in the first place for failure to appear in court on a traffic infraction.

"When I was arrested, it was shocking, because I had been in court," he said.

Sheriff Benston says security has been increased at the jail and an internal investigation is underway to look into what jail staff could have done to help avoid the beating.

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- Three days after 30-year-old Joshua Ward was beaten by several inmates, a former jailer says he saw similar violence first-hand.

"I have seen many cases where inmates will assault another inmate," Marcus Hubbard said.

Tuesday afternoon, three men pulled a sleeping Ward from his bunk and started beating him. Hubbard says one of the men accused in the beating has a history of violence towards other inmates.

"Nothing ever really happened to Twasjay Brown. It's like a slap on the wrist, don't do it no more," Hubbard said.

Hubbard says such random acts of violence were a normal thing when he was working in the jail as they are often times overlooked.

"The aggressor goes unpunished at the jail," Hubbard said. I was told it's up to the victim to file charges, but then that victim has to go back living with the aggressor."

Hubbard was hired as a jailer in December 2011. He says he observed other jailers being lax on the job, not checking cells and at times allowing inmates to break the rules. "Elizabethtown is a small town. They know the jailers and sometimes the jailers are more easy when dealing with those people because they know their mother, their father, their sisters and brothers."

Hubbard has kept numerous papers for his records, which he says are reports of inmate violence that he filed with his supervisor. He says when he would file a report, Chief Herman Dunn would say he was conducting an internal investigation, but Hubbard says Chief Dunn can't be trusted. "Chief Deputy Herman Dunn has a tendency to keep valuable information from the sheriff."

Hubbard says he feels his complaints of inmate violence and jailers not doing their jobs continued to fall on deaf ears. He resigned in June of last year.

BLADEN COUNTY (NC) -- Last week, WWAY broke the story of Joshua Ward, who was badly beaten in the Bladen county jail.

Former jailer Marcus Hubbard told us that kind of violence is nothing new at the Bladen county jail. He said his complaints would often times fall on deaf ears.

District Attorney Jon David told WWAY that won't be the case this time.

"It is not up to my office to deal with staffing issues at the sheriff's office," David said. "I am concerned about the inmate who was injured, and I will vigorously prosecute the perpetrators. Currently there is no indication of criminal wrongdoing by jail staff, but I am monitoring the situation should new information become available."

BLADEN CO., NC (WWAY) -- The man severely beaten in the Bladen county jail last week is back in the hospital.

Joshua Ward's wife, Amanda, tells us he was showing signs of improvement, but after being released from the hospital Friday, he suffered a chronic headache.

Doctors say he has a blood clot between his brain and skull. They hope medication will take care of the clot to avoid surgery.

Ward suffered a gash to his face, several broken ribs and two black eyes after being beaten up by three fellow inmates last Tuesday.

ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY) -- A man wanted for a bank robbery in Bladen County earlier this month has been arrested in California.

Elizabethtown Police Chief Bobby Kinlaw says Aaron Montrice McDowell, 27, was arrested last night in Los Angeles. Kinlaw says the details of the arrest are sketchy, but he says McDowell's arrest came after cooperation of local, state and federal investigators.

McDowell is suspected in the Jan. 18 robbery of the First Citizens Bank in Elizabethtown. Around the same time someone called in a bomb threat to Elizabethtown Primary School. Investigators have not yet said if the two events are connected, but they say two incidents of that nature at the same time is suspicious.

McDowell is in the Los Angeles County Jail without bail. There is no word on if he will fight extradition to North Carolina.

BLADENBORO, NC (WWAY) -- Emergency crews received calls about a train derailment in Bladenboro around 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Residents were worried.

"Basically I was on my way down to the supermarket and one of the firemen stopped me. He told me to go back to my house, that we were being evacuated," said Bladenboro resident Rocky Edwards.

"I heard this loud boom," said Dianne McDuffey. "I thought to myself that if it is the train, it must be carrying a mighty heavy load to bump that loud."

About ten cars overturned in the derailment. One of the cars was carrying ammonia, a hazardous chemical.

"I was told it was a trainwreck," said Edwards. "And that there were some chemicals, and the wind was blowing in our direction so we needed to get out."

According to Capt. Rodney Hester, as a precaution, homes between Seaboard Street and Village Street were evacuated. Residents took shelter at Bladenboro Middle School while the Hazmat team investigated the train.

"We did not know for sure what chemicals we were going to be dealing with at that time," said Hester. "So we did evacuate a couple hundred residents."

Families were not allowed home until the team confirmed there was no leakage of harmful chemicals. Hester says it appears as if a trestle gave way under the moving train. The axels then separated from the cars…causing the derailment.

There were no leaks, and no one was injured.

RALEIGH, NC (NEWS RELEASE) -– Mary Sinkler, a resident of Elizabethtown, plans to pay bills after winning the first $150,000 top prize in the new Hot Streak game.

Sinkler was visiting her daughter in Raleigh when she scratched off the $5 game’s top prize.

“I didn’t believe it,” Sinkler said. “I had to get my daughter to look at it before I thought it was real.”

After state and federal taxes were withheld, Sinkler received a check worth $102,001. She purchased her lucky ticket at the Poole Road BP on Poole Road in Raleigh.

As of Monday afternoon, three top prizes of $150,000 and many other prizes remain unclaimed in the game.

Ticket sales for games such as instant scratch-offs have enabled the lottery to raise more than $2.6 billion for education initiatives statewide. Since the lottery began through June 30, 2012, Bladen County education programs received more than $11 million in lottery funds. By law, those funds pay for teachers’ salaries in grades K-3, school construction, prekindergarten programs for at-risk four-year-olds, and need-based college scholarships and financial aid.

OCEAN ISLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) -- She’s a grief counselor turned author. Katherine Roberts Moore of Ocean Isle Beach turned her words of healing into poetic prose.

In the world of words, Katherine finds herself right at home. Influenced by her mother's love for vocabulary, ideas and imagination run wildly through Katherine’s head and flow straight to her pen. It lights a fire in her soul.

"One of my poems is the blue bird show where there was this explosion of blue birds in my backyard and it was really amazing,” Katherine said.

But the verses she scribbles didn't start from the happiest of places. It was during Katherine’s time as a grief counselor that she felt compelled to write. The flood of emotions she helped people work through, from doubt to anger to deep sorrow is what connected each letter. Her writings then were rich with words of comfort for those who had lost their dearest ones. "I found that I could personalize with names and feelings and experiences and share them with the individual and it became a very healing thing."

Now retired, Katherine found that she too needed an outlet for her own emotions so she began journaling, which started to take on a poetic form. "I discovered this wonder of being able to take a thought or a sense or capture something, a feeling, an emotion or even a scene out of the window and in poetic form, i could put in a few words."

Katherine has written her way to becoming a published author having three books behind her belt. The latest of her creations is called “Holy Scribbling: Looking at Life Through a Sacred Window.”

Katherine says solitude is her best friend when thinking up her next creation. Nature, life experiences and even simple things, like coffee, inspire her.

And so her pen flows, what she'll write next...nobody knows.

If you know of somebody with an extraordinary story, please send cacky an email at ccatlett@wwaytv3.com

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- A fourth inmate has been charged with the assault of a fellow inmate last month at the Bladen County Jail.

David Wilson Gilchrist, 18, of Elizabethtown, is charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury and second degree kidnapping.

Gilchrist and three other inmates are accused of beating Joshua Ward while he was in custody in the jail January 22.
Here is his information:

Gilchrist is currently in the Bladen County Jail under a $75,000 secured bond.

ELIZABETHTOWN, NC (WWAY) -- Bladen county commissioners met for the first time Monday night since an inmate was beaten in the county jail.

Commissioners said the recent case of violence would not be added to the agenda but would be discussed in a private session. County Attorney Leslie Johnson says the Sheriff's Office is still gathering details as to what led to several inmates severely beating fellow inmate Joshua Ward. "It’s not a hate crime that the SBI is involved in. The sheriff's department and the sheriff himself are very sincerely doing everything they can do to make sure this does not happen again."

Joshua Ward, 30, was arrested almost two weeks ago for failure to appear on a traffic infraction. Within two hours of being behind bars, at least four other inmates beat him so severely, he was hospitalized in critical condition. He suffered broken ribs, two black eyes, gashes to his face and a blood clot between his brain and skull.

Just days later, former Bladen County Jailer Marcus Hubbard contacted WWAY. In an exclusive interview, Hubbard told WWAY's Cacky Catlett he witnessed extreme violence among inmates and his reports of the violence yielded no further action. He also said he observed jailers being lax on the job. "They sleep on the job. I even complained about that but that fell on deaf ears," Hubbard said.

Johnson says fights are to be expected. "Nobody wants anybody to get injured in jail," Johnson said. "It’s not a pleasant thing at any time but fights happen all the time. This isn't the first one across the state."

The sheriff's office is still conducting an internal investigation.

"Let it run its course. Just give us an opportunity. It’s just been two weeks," Johnson said.

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- Tempers flared at tonight's Bladen County Commissioners' meeting after commissioner Charles Peterson showed his disapproval of the board's no-vote in naming the emergency services building after former county Deputy Fire Marshall John Hall.

Hall died last November from a heart issue after getting sick while responding to a fire call.

Commissioner Delila Blanks said she was not familiar with Hall and wanted to consider other names for the building.

The measure failed in a 5-4 vote.

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- More than three weeks after a man was severely beaten inside the Bladen County Jail, the sheriff is finally speaking out.

Today Sheriff Prentis Benston issued the following statement:

"The assault of Joshua Ward has been thoroughly investigated by criminal investigators of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Bladen County Sheriff's Office, and it has been determined that at least four subjects have culpability in the act. Those individuals, Mathue Johnson, David Gilchrist, Twasjay Brown and Darryl Simmons, each have been subsequently charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury and second-degree kidnapping. We look forward to an expedient resolution of these cases in the criminal justice system.

"In response to a recent request under the North Carolina Open Records Act we are providing jail incident reports for the years 2009 thru (sic) 2012.

"Bladen County Jail reports show that Bladen County's jail instances are commensurate with county jail facilities of similar size, age and physical layout within the State of North Carolina.

"It is important to note that of the total number of assaults that have occurred inside the Bladen County Jail, all did not involve prisoners against prisoners but these numbers also reflect assaults of prisoners on jail staff and personnel.

"Bladen County Sheriff's Office will continue to make every effort to operate a safe environment for inmates that are incarcerated.

"The Bladen County Jail uses sanctions as one of its tools to maintain order in the facility. Sanctions can include restrictions and or elimination of privileges for a few days to several weeks, a prisoner being moved to another call, or the moving of a prisoner to safekeeping.

"There have been increases in jail populations in recent years due to a multitude of factors; some of these factors are: the state misdemeanor housing requirements, issues with the current mental health system, proliferation of gang activity, and lengthy wait times for trials."

While the county sent Benston's statement via e-mail as a PDF file, the county attorney told WWAY the county would fulfill our request for the jail incident reports by sending them via the Postal Service.

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- Records WWAY requested through the Freedom of Information Act from Bladen County show that eight inmates had to be taken to the hospital after jail fights in 2012. That's compared to six over the previous three years combined.

The records also show that there were 12 assaults with minor injures in the jail in 2012, and 38 prisoners were punished or "given sanctions."

WWAY requested the information after four inmates were charged with beating Joshua Ward in the jail last month. Ward went to the hospital with major head trauma.

In a statement released Thursday, Sheriff Prentis Benston said, "The Bladen County Jail uses sanctions as one of its tools to maintain order in the facility. Sanctions can include restrictions and or elimination of privileges for a few days to several weeks, a prisoner being moved to another call, or the moving of a prisoner to safekeeping."

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) -- A Bladenboro man is dead, and his wife is charged with his murder after a morning shooting. Investigators are now trying to piece together what happened.

The Bladen County Sheriff's Office says violent crimes rarely happen in the county, but around 6:30 a.m. they received a call that a man had been murdered just outside of Bladenboro.

Deputies responded to a home on NC 410 after Becky Johnson Nance, 53, called 9-1-1 saying her husband, Dewey Franklin Nance, 55, had been shot. Investigators say when dispatch asked Mrs. Nance how her husband had been shot, she admitted she had pulled the trigger.

When officers arrived, they say Becky Nance calmly walked outside and let them arrest her. She is charged with first degree murder.

"I'm familiar with the family, and I've never known of any types of conflicts that they had," Bladen County Sheriff's Spokesman Capt. Rodney Hester said. "I knew the couple, and I thought they always got along fine, because you always saw them together. It was just shocking to see and hear what happened this morning."

Deputies took Becky Nance to a facility in Raleigh after she told officers she may harm herself. She does not have a bond.