Daily Egyptian DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015
VOL. 99 ISSUE 79
SINCE 1916
Saluki Startup
B raden B arton | Daily Egyptian SIU alumnus and announcer Steve Falat directs the freshman class for their group photo. To see more pictures from Saluki Startup, see pages 6 and 7 or go to www.dailyegyptian.com.
Chicago man admits making bomb threats against SIUC roBert patrick | St. louiS poSt-diSpatch
A Chicago man has pleaded guilty to four federal charges and admitted making bomb threats in his “war on SIU,” prosecutors said Thursday. Derrick Dawon Burns, 22, admitted sending four letters
threatening Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, students, staff, campus police and the FBI between Oct. 10, 2012 and Oct. 1, 2013, prosecutors said. Three letters were titled “The War on SIU,” authorities said. One was placed in a mail collection box on
Rauner vetoes student vote bill luke nozicka | @LukeNozicka
Gov. Bruce Rauner vetoed a bill on Friday that would have allowed both student representatives on the SIU Board of Trustees to vote. Every year two students — one from the Carbondale campus and one from the Edwardsville campus — are elected to the nine-person board. One of the two is allowed to vote on university business or policy, a power solely awarded by the
governor, usually in July. The bill would have allowed both to vote. Neither Adrian Miller, Carbondale’s last student representative, nor Mitch Morecraft, Edwardsville’s most recent representative, were able to vote during their time as student representatives. “Disappointed the Governor vetoed the student backed trustee bill,” Miller tweeted today. “While I respect the decision, I don’t believe it was right @dailyegyptian.”
@dailyegyptian
campus and the others were discovered in mail sorting machines in the area, his plea says. The original charging documents say Burns threatened to blow up buildings and rape and decapitate female students, among other threats. One letter prompted the university to
evacuate three dorms. Another said, “Give me $50 million or SIU is history,” court documents say. After a psychiatric exam, Burns was found competent to stand trial. Burns’ lawyer, Thomas Keefe III, declined to comment and said he could not provide any reason why the letters were sent.
In a statement announcing the plea, prosecutors also provided no reason. Burns pleaded guilty Wednesday to four counts of willfully making a bomb threat and could face two years or less in prison under federal sentencing guidelines at a Dec. 8 hearing.
Man pleads guilty to charges connected to death of former SIU student luke nozicka | @LukeNozicka A man pled guilty to charges connected to the death of a former SIU student who was struck by a vehicle in November, Jackson County State’s Attorney Michael Carr announced Tuesday. Seth Loyd, 23, pled guilty to one count of aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol involving the death of SIU student Matthew Dierker, who died from injuries he suffered after being struck by a 1997 green Ford Escort that Loyd was driving at 3:20 p.m. on Nov. 14, 2014. Dierker, whose heart stopped at the scene but was revived, was taken to the Memorial Hospital of Carbondale. There, they determined he had a broken neck and back, severe head trauma and multiple
fractures in his ribs. He was air lifted to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where he died at 7:55 a.m. on Nov. 15, according to a Jackson County state’s attorney’s office news release. Carbondale police received a call of an accident involving a bicyclist and a vehicle at the intersection of Old Highway 13 and Bigler Road, where they found Dierker, a 33-year-old Carbondale resident, lying unconscious on the left side of Old Highway 13, the Jackson County state’s attorney’s office said. At the scene, police say Loyd told officers that “he was not going to lie, and that he was guilty of a DUI right now,” according to the Jackson County state’s attorney’s office. He also told police he was texting his
mother when he struck Dierker, who the Southern Illinoisan described in November as “a veteran of half a dozen local punk bands and an avid runner and cyclist.” Loyd also told police he was drinking the night before and had a couple more drinks when he woke up that day, according to the news release. A blood sample, which Loyd gave voluntarily at the Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, was tested by the Illinois State Police Crime Lab and revealed he had a blood alcohol content of .207. Later, a breath sample revealed he had a blood alcohol content of .174. Two witnesses told police they saw the vehicle strike Dierker. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5.