Public Safety

  Three men were shot to death and another seriously injured Monday in Clarkton, according to the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office. Greg Dennis, Randy Benton and Phillip Palmer were reported shot to death in a home off East Roberts Street. Kevin Musser was airlifted to Chapel Hill. Bladen Sheriff Jim McVicker said Musser has been released and is being interviewed by investigators. He is considered a “person of...

The man who shot at and threatened a repo truck driver will serve 84-113 months in prison. Ronald Allan Keaton was convicted March 12 in Columbus County Superior Court on charges of possession of a firearm by a felon, armed robbery and discharging a firearm during a crime, according to a release from the District Attorney’s Office. On May 28, 2020, Daniel Merenda, a town truck and repossession...

After six weeks of testimony, including Darieus Rashad Washington spending hours on the stand in his own defense, a Columbus County jury returned with a guilty verdict in around an hour Monday. Washington, 23, was found guilty in the first degree murders of Alexis Ciprian Trujillo, age 5; the child’s mother, Nancy Trujillo Espinoza; and Leonel Ciprian Noyola; the attempted murder of Rafaela Noyola Jaramillo; assault with a...