Public Safety

Lukim Lamont Pittman will serve 81 months in federal prison for selling drugs and a Glock handgun to undercover informants. Eastern District U.S. Attorney G. Norman Acker announced this morning (Friday) that Pittman received the sentence for possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime . The plea came in U.S. District Court in Raleigh. Pittman was one...

William Dewayne Simmons will go to trial next month for the 2018 murder of an Evergreen man. Carlos David Alfonso Jr. was found in a ditch along N.C. 410 near the Bladen County line at the height of Hurricane Florence. Simmons was arrested a month later on charges that he killed Alfonso with a shotgun and dumped his body just before the storm. Defense Attorney Harold “Butch” Pope...

Narcotics, a stolen firearm, a stolen vehicle and more felonies sent a Clarkton man to jail Tuesday after a pursuit that ended in Pender County. Deron Dewitt Blanks, 39, of 6504 Hallsboro Road North, was arrested after a pursuit along Old Lake Road, according to sheriff’s reports. His bond was set at $5,160,000 secured. Blanks was charged with four counts of sale and delivery or heroin, two counts...