RELIGION: In a world filled with technology, have we lost the ability to show mercy? A6 AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL
THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014
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Florence defeats Sumter for state championship B1
Wanted man speaks out Fugitive fears arrest will keep him from fiancee’s funeral
BY BRADEN BUNCH braden@theitem.com (803) 774-1201
for his own health as well as not being able to make the necessary funeral arrangements. Both 41-year-old Charles Yingling and 32-year-old JenAs authorities continue to in- nifer Lynn Sharp-Adams, who vestigate the Tuesday death of a died while in custody Tuesday, have been accused of assault female inmate at Sumter-Lee and battery of a high and agRegional Detention Center, her gravated nature after a June fiance, wanted on the same charges, says he is now worried 27 incident on U.S. 15 South. According to law enforcement about turning himself in, both
reports, both Yingling and SharpAdams are accused of pinning a pedestrian between their two cars and dragging YINGLING him a short distance down U.S. 15 South near the intersection with Beulah Cuttino Road before veering away and releas-
ing him into traffic. Both Sharp-Adams and Yingling were named to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office’s Most Wanted List two weeks after the incident, which declared them fugitives, and it wasn’t until Monday that Sharp-Adams turned herself in to authorities to face the charges. A bond hearing was held Tuesday morning at the jail,
and Sharp-Adams was awaiting her release on bail when she was discovered unconscious by guards in her cell. Speaking via telephone Wednesday, Yingling said neither he nor his fiancee were attempting to elude law enforcement and that they were not aware of the charges
SEE YINGLING, PAGE A8
At the scene of the crime Students head out into field for final exam at mock scene BY RAYTEVIA EVANS ray@theitem.com (803) 774-1214 Central Carolina Technical College student Michelle Light has never been on the scene of a crime. She has never observed and collected evidence from a real crime scene or held back the media as it probed her for information for the next big story. But on Tuesday evening, Light, along with 10 of her classmates, got up close and personal during her final exam with a mock crime scene set up at Patriot Park by adjunct professor and former Sumter County deputy Tony Horton and officers with the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. Horton said the students in the criminalistics/forensics review class have been learning about how a crime-scene unit operates when collecting and handling evidence and the procedures they need to follow to properly process a scene. They have also learned about keeping the media and the public out of the crime-scene area and how to properly brief the media on the occurrence. So Tuesday, the classroom text, Horton’s lectures and presentations all came to life in a woodMATT WALSH / THE SUMTER ITEM ed area in the local park. A Central Carolina Technical College student in the criminalistics/forensics review class learns how to in“I told them, you’ve been lisvestigate a crime during a mock crime-scene investigation at Patriot Park on Tuesday. The hands-on projtening to me flap my gums for a while now, so it’s time to see ect served as the students’ final exam.
MORE INSIDE Local officers help during mock crime-scene investigation A4
who has been paying attention,” Horton said jokingly. “They haven’t been told what the scenario is, but they were told to choose a team leader and figure out who would do what job on the scene.” With the help of the sheriff’s office, Horton set up a scene and came up with a story that the students would eventually need to piece together as they collected evidence on the scene in the allotted two hours given to complete the final exam. Here’s the scenario: Brothers John and Jason Dickson, 38 and 29 years old, respectively, have been missing for 18 months. An officer patrolling the park, which has been closed for two years after the city could no longer keep it up, found what looked like a body and asked for a crime-scene unit to report to the park. The body seems to have three gunshot wounds, and the students should find a second skull once they observe the scene. Further investigation from the students led to the location of the murder weapon, which
SEE MOCK CRIME SCENE, PAGE A8
Ophelia Spencer, a grandmother of three, says that tax-free weekend helps her prepare her grandchildren for the school year. She has already begun her shopping at Walmart.
Tax-free weekend starts Friday BY CATHERINE FOLEY reporter@theitem.com (803) 774-1295 One of South Carolina’s busiest shopping weekends will begin just after midnight. The 14th-annual tax-free weekend starts Friday at 12:01 a.m. and will last until Sunday, Aug. 3, at midnight. During these three days, the state
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sales tax of 6 percent as well as additional local taxes, such as those in Sumter, will not be applied to various consumer products, many of which are needed to prepare for the upcoming school year. Families will be able to purchase the majority of their school supplies, which will be exempt this weekend. Some of these items include comput-
ers, printers and printer supplies, pens, pencils, notebooks, backpacks and calculators. This tax break will also be applied to clothes, bed linens, blankets, pillows and other home items, many of which students leaving for college may need for their dorms. However, not everything for
CATHERINE FOLEY / THE SUMTER ITEM
SEE TAX-FREE, PAGE A4
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WEATHER, A10 SUN AND CLOUDS
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INSIDE
2 SECTIONS, 18 PAGES VOL. 119, NO. 245
Classifieds B7 Comics B6 Lotteries A10
Opinion A9 Television A5