Monday news: Mom indicted, death of WCU student investigated

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Mom indicted in death of three daughters
WLOSers said a Rutherford County grand jury had indicted a Rutherford County mother on three counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of her three daughters back in November.

We had a hot spell and the three toddlers weren’t being watched and got into a car and couldn’t get out. Police say the three died of heat exposure. Latrice Miller will face the charges.

WCU students shot?
WLOSers said the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department is still investigating the shooting death of a Western Carolina University student. Andrew Sides died Dec. 2.

WLOsers said police at first thought Sides died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But Sheriff Jimmy Ashe said he sent off gunshot residue tests to a state lab, indicating that they’re looking at somebody who may have been with Sides.

WLOSers said Sides had stayed out late the night of Dec.1 and early Dec. 2 to celebrate his birthday, which was Dec. 2. They got the standard “He always had a smile on his face” quote and talked to some friends who knew him and are sad that he’s gone. Little other detail.

Jay and Sheraldo on the health beat
How many times can WLOSers show us nasty-looking feet while reading us health news? An endless number of ways, apparently, because Jay Seltzerwater was doing yet another story on wound care. Ugh.

Meantime, Sheraldo was at a mission in Henderson County looking at how they cook food. This is important, Sheraldo said, as we face another e coli scare, this one pinned to scallions from Taco Bell.

Le, in search of ‘Tickle Me’
You can tell that John “Punnyman” Le lives for the holidays. This is his time. And he’s making the most of it. The Search for Tickle Me Elmo story that Le did on Monday was just a warm-up, we think. He’s working on bringing us a true masterpiece of schlock. But the Monday effort was good for, well, a Monday.

Le called up Target in search of Elmo. Target said yeah, we got nine left. So Le and a cameraman rushed out to try and find one. But when he got there, none could be found. So Le got Target staff to use their little headsets and radios to try to track ’em down. Le pawed through other people’s carts in search of Elmo. All to no avail.

Finally, somebody realized that the way to get rid of Le was to tell him that the last Elmo was sold shortly after noon. So Le hammed it up even more by talking into some kind of Elmo toy cell phone. Yeah, Le phoned it in.

But that didn’t stop Pat “Simple” Simon from fake-laughing it up like Le was the funniest thing he’d every seen. Simon guffawed, leaning way forward over the anchor desk as he did so. That Le is so funny, said Smirkin’ Simon. So, so funny. Funny! Whatever, Simon.

Remember that tater?
Remember that smiling spud that a local church group was auctioning off on ebay? Well, that sucker sold for $151.15. Members of the church choir bought it. But all the publicity that the tater received helped the group raise some $800, which they’ll give to Darfur relief.

Grove Park Inn traffic
Speaking of Simple Simon, he went out and did a lame report on how Ashvegas City Council is studying “traffic calming” measures such as speed humps and traffic islands on Macon Avenue and other roads around the Grove Park Inn because residents there are complaining about traffic. And Simon says the inn is planning on expanding in the next few years, so residents are even more pissed about the traffic. The city is also looking at building more sidewalks along the roads in the area.

There are public input sessions tonight and Wednesday at the city’s public works building.

In other news…
The little baby bitten more than 100 times by rats died last week and was buried on Monday. Cherub Charu tried to cover the funeral, but family said stay away… Big Brothers and Big Sisters of WNC got a $12,000 award from the Annie E. Casey Foundation… The Grove Arcade in downtown Ashvegas will bring back the Jazz After Five series starting Jan. 19. The music runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and there’s food and drink… The Friends of the Smokies settled a civil lawsuit and got $780,000. WLOSers didn’t explain it… The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians got a $425,000 federal grant from HUD. Like they need more money?… There’s going to be a fundraiser for the French Broad Rafting folks who lost everything in a fire recently.

In still other news…
WLOSers, for the third or fourth day in a row, repeated the story about the one hunter who mistook his hunting partner for a deer and shot shot him down in Polk County. Neither was wearing blaze orange… A brush fire in Madison County damaged a trailer. The trailer owner started the fire by burning some trash, and the fire got out of hand… A new apartment building called The Griffin was unveiled Monday. It was built by Mountain Housing Opportunities and features low rent and 15 units set aside for homeless people… Ashvegas City Council on Tuesday night will consider banning sex offenders from public parks… And the Ingles Giving Tree has collected more than 30,000 lbs of food but is aiming for 80,000 lbs.