Area News

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…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Efforts by the U.S. Marshal’s Service Fugitive Task Force have put the last two of four suspects in a May 3 gun battle that injured three behind bars, Capt. Greg Sibbett of the Tabor City Police Department said Tuesday.      D’Angelo Deran Lewis, 30, of Queen Street, Tabor City; and Maecas Chatell Mitchell,…

     Aerial crop dusting, which began over a field near Dayton Ohio in 1921, continues in the Tabor-Loris Community.      One field off of Fowler School Road in northern Horry County had the attention of this aerial acrobat Friday morning, and provided some entertaining views from motorists on nearby U.S. 701. (Deuce Niven, TLT)

By DEUCE NIVEN      Gunfire outside a local convenience store with the potential for catastrophic results has resulted in the arrest for one man charged with attempted murder and more, police working to identify a second suspect, Chief Donald Dowless of the Tabor City Police Department said Tuesday.      Patrick Wesley Brown Jr., 26, who has addresses…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Nearly 30 cats were removed from an area around a West 8th Street home in Tabor City Friday, with traps set for at least seven more, Columbus County Animal Control Director Joey Prince said.      Vernadine Quest said she contacted Animal Control because she was being forced to move from the home, and…

By DEUCE NIVEN      A retired deputy who once lead the Detective Division at the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office is accused of stealing cash held as evidence by that agency.      David Gerald Nobles Jr., 51, was arrested Thursday, charged with embezzlement by a public official, Columbus County Detention Center records show.      Nobles is accused of taking…

     It took the jury just an hour Monday to find Derick Devon Pierce guilty in the New Year’s 2014 murder of Keisha April Ward in her Hallsboro home, and a host or related crimes.      Pierce sentences include a mandatory life in prison on the first degree murder charge, Assistant District Attorney Heath Nance said.      Jurors…

By DEUCE NIVEN      Felony animal abuse charges will be sought following the discovery near Tabor City this weekend of a dog with injuries and signs of being beaten, Columbus County Animal Control Director Joey Prince said.      Now receiving treatment, the dog was found with its collar embedded, a large mass on hits hindquarters, and other…