By DEUCE NIVEN      One person is in custody as police search for the man they believe set a mobile home ablaze late Tuesday, Capt. Greg Sibbett of the Tabor City Police Department said Friday.      Sossity Samantha Pyles, 42, who has been living in the Tabor City and formerly resided in Dunn, was charged Friday afternoon…

By DEUCE NIVEN Thursday evening update      “Gas leaks in the courthouse have been fixed,” Columbus County Clerk of Court Jess Hill said Thursday evening, paving the way for the two-year-old court facility to re-open on schedule Friday morning.      Hill closed the facility Thursday after the odor of gas, coming from a leak in…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Facing a possible life prison sentence after entering a plea to drug and weapons charges in March, a Loris man will instead serve up to six years behind bars.       Norad Arance McCullough, 24, was sentenced to serve 72 months in prison, followed by five years supervised probation, during a hearing before…

By DEUCE NIVEN THURSDAY 11 a.m. UPDATE      An investigation is underway into how Ricky Robinson eluded capture after walking away from a Columbus County prison Tuesday afternoon, NC Department of Public Safety spokesman Jerry Higgins said.      Robinson, 59, was captured about 1 a.m. Thursday in a home not far from the Columbus Correctional…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Trial for a former Columbus County Sheriff’s Office deputy, accused of assaulting a man in handcuffs in January, is scheduled for a special session of District Court in September after a Tabor City setting on Friday was continued.      William Donald Britt, 38, resigned from his job as a patrol deputy at the…