CMYK Sony Ericsson closes N.C. site
Civilian courts fight terrorists, too
Northern, Southern swimmers open season
Business & Farm, Page 5A
Opinion, Page 8A
Sports, Page 1B THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 271
(252) 436-2700
Fields’ funeral today
www.hendersondispatch.com
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Husband charged with murder Scott Morris held without bond in wife’s death, burning of their home By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
OXFORD — Scott Morris is jailed without bond on a charge of first-degree murder and on a charge of He was a founding burning of a dwelling member of The Blind the house, both in connection Boys of Alabama with the September 2008 disappearance of his wife, By DAVID IRVINE Kelly Currin Morris. Daily Dispatch Writer Granville County Sheriff Brin Wilkins, at a Henderson lost one of its brief news shining stars when Johnny conference on Fields died on Nov. 12. Al- Wednesday afternoon, though he lived his life in said Scott the dark, he brought light Morris was into the lives of countless arrested on others. Tuesday Fields was a founding evening after Scott Morris member of the singing law enforcegroup, Blind Boys of Alabama, formed ment on Monday received in 1939 when information leading to skeletal remains being he and four discovered in a wooded friends were area off Sam Moss Hayes attending Road in the southern part the Alabama of the county. Institute for The N.C. Office of the Deaf and Fields Chief Medical Examiner Blind in Tal- identified the remains ladega. What began as an found as those of Kelly informal group became a Currin Morris through mainstay in gospel music, dental records, Wilkins culminating in a Lifetime said. Achievement Award durScott Morris, 35, of 113 ing the Grammy Awards ceremony last February. In between those landmark years, the group had performed throughout the United States, in Canada and overseas. They recorded more than 60 albums and sang at the White House six times. They were inducted into the Gospel Hall of Fame in 2003. Among their most popular numbers were “Didn’t It Rain,” “Hush, Somebody’s Callin’ My Name” and
W. Church St., Creedmoor, is scheduled to be in court at 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 2, documents show. Wilkins thanked everyone for their dedication and determination in assisting his office in finding Kelly Currin Morris. And Wilkins added, “I hope that this arrest will bring some closure to Kelly’s family.” The sheriff, flanked by law enforcement officers and investigators and standing before camera crews, journalists and residents in the County Commission meeting room, spent approximately two minutes reading from a prepared statement, then left, saying he could not provide more information because of the ongoing probe. Meantime, an emergency order signed by Chief District Judge Daniel Finch granted temporary custody of Kelly Currin Morris’ and Scott Morris’ 6-year-old daughter, Carolyn Haley Morris, to Kelly Currin Morris’ father, Pat Currin, and stepmother, Juanita Currin. A custody hearing is
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins addresses the media during a press conference Wednesday afternoon to announce the finding of Kelly Currin Morris’ remains and the arrest of her husband, William Scott Morris, for first degree murder and fradulently burning a dwelling. set for 9:30 a.m. Friday. Carolyn Haley Morris had been in the custody of Scott Morris. The judge, in signing the documents, said the findings of fact included that false statements by Scott Morris to investiga-
tors “were made with the intent to deceive them.” And the findings of fact included that there is a “high probability” that Scott Morris’ father, Jimmy Morris, “was also involved in the coverup” of the homicide.
The first signs of trouble surfaced shortly before 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2008, when a caller to Emergency 911 reported a fire at Kelly Currin Morris’ residence off Tump Wilkins Please see MURDER, page 3A
‘I felt like I was being violated’ By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
OXFORD — The mother of deceased Granville County woman Kelly Currin Morris said she was relieved when she heard Scott Morris had been taken into custody by the Sheriff’s Department. Wanda Hollis was in the Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE Please see FIELDS, page 4A audience Wednesday afternoon when Sheriff Brin Wanda Hollis, mother of Kelly Currin Morris, fights back tears Wilkins conducted a brief while talking to members of the media Wednesday afternoon news conference announcafter Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins’ press confering the findings of the ence. remains of Kelly Currin Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Light Side . . . . . . . . . 6A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 8A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 5B graphic area are grouped commander. Midyette lives Classifieds. . . . . . . 6-8B into divisions. The Piedin Manson and has been mont Division includes flo- active in the Lake Gaston tillas based in Burlington, Flotilla. Today Cary, Chapel Hill, Lake An informational meetGaston and Raleigh. ing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Piedmont Division Com- on Nov. 24 at the HenderT-storms By DAVID IRVINE mander Russell Chafin son VFW headquarters, High: 66 Daily Dispatch Writer Low: 53 visited the Daily Dispatch located at 2915 on U.S. 1/ recently to discuss plans Highway 158 north. The U.S. Coast Guard for organizing a local The Auxiliary is made Auxiliary is organizing a Friday flotilla. Chafin said the up of civilian volunteers. flotilla to serve Kerr Lake division has applied to the Prior service in the miliby promoting boating eduCoast Guard for a charter tary or naval forces of the cation and safety. Some sun High: 66 for the Kerr Lake Flotilla. country is not necessary, A flotilla is the local Low: 45 He was accompanied by although approximately 50 organizational unit of the Gene Midyette, who will Coast Guard Auxiliary. Please see FLOTILLA, page 4A serve initially as flotilla Details, 3A Flotillas within a geo-
Index
Morris, who had been missing since September 2008. Scott Morris is charged with first-degree Kelly Morris murder and with burning a dwelling house. Hollis, speaking with reporters afterward, was asked her feelings about no longer having to go through an endless search to find her daughter. “It’s like a brick lifted off your
chest. It’s unbelievable. You just don’t know until you go through it. It goes unbelievably deep,” Hollis said. A reporter asked Hollis about the past 14 months of Scott Morris not cooperating yet still having been able to walk around and still having had custody of one of Kelly Currin Morris’ two daughters before being arrested Tuesday evening. “I felt like I was being violated,” Hollis said. Please see VIOILATED, page 3A
Flotilla to serve Kerr Lake
Weather
Deaths
U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary organizing safe boating effort
Counterfeit bills showing up Crime tips needed
Submitted
Mechanicsville, Va. Janice C. Wehry, 67 Mt. Pleasant, S.C. Benjamin F. Knott, 84 Oxford Lewis G. Byrd, 82 Alexine T. Dawson, 75 Warren County Maggie Powell, 78 Warrenton Burnell B. Jordan, 83
From STAFF REPORTS
The Henderson Police Department has issued a counerfeit bill alert. Fake $100 and $50 bills have shown up this week, and police ask businesses and banks to be on the Obituaries, 4A lookout. Police said the counterfeiters are using chemicals to “wash” all of the printing off $5 bills and are printing $100 faces and backs on them. When held
up to the light, Abraham Lincoln’s face can be seen in the watermark, not Benjamin Franklin’s. The “USA Five” on the strip inside the bill on the lefthand side also can be seen. The color shifting ink at the lower right will not change colors on the fake bills when twisted in the light. Since the fake bills are printed on real money paper, the commonly used detection pens will show it
to be good when marked. Police advise anyone who receives a counterfeit bill to follow these instructions: • Do not return it to the passer. • Delay the passer if possible. • Observe the passer’s description, as well as that of any companions and the license numbers of any vehicle used.
Please see BILLS, page 4A
The Vance County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help in solving two crimes. On Nov. 9 about 3 a.m., a black male, seen at top in a security camera photo, broke into Cruizers 220 on U.S. 1/158 North in Middleburg by using a sledgehammer to break the glass door. The suspect wore light colored pants, a dark blue or black long sleeve shirt over a white t-shirt anda white golves. He was driving a green late 1990s model Ford Taurus, above. In the other crime, two white males robbed the College Station Convenience Store around 11 p.m. One wore a full leafy camouflage hunting suit and a mask and carried a long gun. The other wore blue jeans, a Carhartstyle brown jacket and mask and carried a pistol.Anyone with information about either of the crimes should call the sheriff’s office at (252) 738-2200 or Henderson-Vance Crime Stoppers at (252) 492-1925.