Local News
Pope enters guilty plea
James Gardner’s eyes filled with tears and his thin hands gripped the arms of his wheelchair, as he spoke of the neighbor who pleaded guilty Tuesday to shooting him following a fight over a bull in March.
“I wish he would have gotten 20 years,” Gardner said in the lobby of the Limestone County Courthouse, where Jerry Odum Pope, 58, of 19848 East Limestone Road had entered a last-minute plea as his trial was about to begin. “He took everything from me with one single shot. I built houses for 20 years and I taught my kids to build houses. Now I just take it one day at a time.”
Earlier in the morning, a beleaguered Pope hugged family members after entering a blind plea to first-degree assault, which Limestone Circuit Judge Bob Baker accepted. The blind plea means Pope admitted guilt without guarantee of a particular sentence. First-degree assault in connection with a firearm carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years.
Baker said he would sentence Pope after the holidays and following a pre-sentencing investigation. No date is set.
The last-minute plea took Pope’s fate out of the hands of a jury and placed it in the hands of a judge. Pope’s attorney, John Butler of Huntsville, hopes that will result in a combination of prison time and probation for his client.
As the jury pool filed out of the courtroom Tuesday morning — their services never needed — Assistant District Attorney Becky Grimes and Limestone County Sheriff’s Chief Investigator Stanley McNatt gathered up boxes of evidence, including documents, photographs and a branch about 1 1/2 inches in diameter and more than 6 feet long, which Gardner had used on the day of the shooting.
The two men had argued that Sunday afternoon of March 29 about Gardner’s bull escaping and mingling with Pope’s cattle, Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely said at the time. Gardner struck Pope with the branch, and Pope fired a single shot to Gardner’s chest, which traveled down ward and lodged in his spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, officials said.
Gardner said Tuesday he sustained pressure wounds, or bedsores, during initial treatment after the shooting. That led to a systemic infection called sepsis, which he said will eventually kill him.
“I don’t have long to live,” Gardner said.
Pope also is not in good health, according to his sister, June Pope. She said she was satisfied with her brother pleading guilty to assault and with Baker sentencing him.
On the way out of the courthouse, Gardner’s wife, Patricia, handed her husband a frame containing three photographs of better times —when Gardner was able to hunt — so she could push him in his wheelchair to the car. They were about to head back home to Toney, where they moved after the shooting.
But even in the new place, Gardner struggles to find purpose in life aside from his grandchildren.
“What ya had planned — it don’t work out,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pope, who will remain free on bond until sentencing, still lives in the same home on the same road where a dispute over a bull has changed two lives and the lives of their loved ones forever.
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Local woman dies in Friday fire
A woman who was badly burned when she was discovered in her unit at Elmwood Apartments by police and firefighters late Friday night died not long before midnight, authorities said.
Vickie Strasser, 52, was taken by ambulance at about 10:40 p.m. to Athens-Limestone Hospital with second- and third-degree burns over 95 percent of her body. MedFlight was called to rush her to Huntsville Hospital at about 11:30 p.m., but she died before the helicopter arrived. -
Athens Police make 14 arrests in Friday night drug roundup
Friday night was a busy one for Athens Police officers. While several investigators were conducting a roundup that resulted in 14 arrests, other officers responded to a fire call at Elmwood apartments (see story on today’s front page).
Lt. Trevor Harris said officers conducted search warrants at two homes — one at 1210 Plato Jones St. and another at 903 Brownsferry St.
Madison Police Department provided two additional officers and dogs from the K-9 unit to assist. -
Family displaced by fire seeking residence to rent
One family displaced by last Sunday’s fire at Athens Village Apartments is desperately looking for a home or apartment to rent in the area.
Scott Robertson and his wife, Amanda, and four children, daughter Jordan, 16; son Matthew, 14; son Dallas, 9; and daughter Lily, 5, lost everything they owned on Aug. 29 when an early morning fire — sparked by a cigarette thrown on a patio chair outside another apartment — destroyed all eight units in Building D of the apartment complex at 1711 W. Elm St. in Athens. -
TVA ranks in Top 10 for economic development
For the fifth year in a row, the Tennessee Valley Authority has been named by Site Selection magazine as one of the top 10 North American utilities for economic development achievement. -
Bank robbers remain at large in city, county
Athens Police are still searching for a white man who robbed TVA Credit Union on East Hobbs Street in Athens on July 9.
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Woman burned in fire at Elmwood Apartments
A woman who was burned over 95 percent of her body after a fire in her unit at Elmwood Apartments was taken to Athens-Limestone Hospital by ambulance at around 10:45 p.m.
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Trinity reunion parade will be at 10 a.m. Saturday
The Trinity High School Grand Reunion parade will be at 10 a.m. Saturday in Athens.
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Keeping the bees
Limestone County Beekeepers Association received a grant from the Alabama Mountains, Rivers and Valleys district of the RC&D Council.
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Trinity High School had many distinguished graduates
Local resident Lt. Col. James L. Walker gathered biographies of some of these graduates as the school celebrates its annual Grand Reunion today and Saturday in Athens.
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Part of Clinton Street in Athens to be closed at least 2 more weeks
Clinton Street in Athens, between Lee and Forrest streets, will be closed for at least two more weeks while Athens Utilities replaces sewer lines that are up to 75 years old, an official said.
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