FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 2010 • 50¢
SPORTS
Yorozu building sold Buyer undecided on plans for Ceres spot By Danny Barrett Jr. dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com
RIVAL ROUT WC zaps VHS on softball field
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A pair of local business developers headed by Pete Buford has closed on a purchase of the building formerly occupied by Yorozu Automotive Mississippi,
the developer confirmed Thursday. B P Buford LLC, and Harold May closed the purchase “sometime last week,” he said. Buford said he has no immediate plans in store for the 92,178-square-foot building at Ceres Research
and Industrial Interplex at Flowers, but hinted it would remain industrial. “We have several people interested in buying it or renting it,” Buford said. “I’m trying to get some industry See Yorozu, Page A9.
FILE•THE VICKSBURG POST
The former Yorozu building at Ceres
Wardle found innocent in killing
He’s home
ENTERTAINMENT
FESS PARKER DIES
By Tim Doherty The Hattiesburg American
‘Davy Crockett’ dies at 85 B6
WEATHER Tonight: Partly cloudy; low near 45 Saturday: Partly cloudy; high near 71 Mississippi River:
28.8 feet Rose: 1.7 foot Flood stage: 43 feet
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DEATHS • Kristie Connor Diltz • Darnell Jones • Pauline Smith McAlpin • Geraldine Marshall • Ola B. Sims • Willie Watley • Herschel J. Watson Sr.
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TODAY IN HISTORY 1979: The U.S. House of Representatives begins televising its day-to-day business. 1987: Televangelist Jim Bakker resigns as chairman of his PTL ministry organization amid a sex and money scandal involving Jessica Hahn, a former church secretary. 2003: President George W. Bush orders the start of war against Iraq. (Because of the time difference, it was early March 20th in Iraq.)
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www.vicksburgpost.com VOLUME 128 NUMBER 78 2 SECTIONS
MEREDITH SPENCER•THE VICKSBURG POST
U.S. Marine Sgt. Albert “Bert” Winschel holds his cane as he talks about his road to recovery Thursday at his parents’ home.
Wounded Marine back with parents By Steve Sanoski ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com U.S. Marine Sgt. Albert “Bert” Winschel was out running an errand just 15 minutes after returning to his Bovina home Thursday afternoon — a little more than two weeks since being shot while on a foot patrol in southern Afghanistan.
Video www.vicksburgpost.com “He hasn’t been out of our sight since getting back to the U.S., so I think he’s trying to get away from us,” said Winschel’s mother, Therese. Terry and Therese Winschel
joined their son at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland on March 10, the day the Marine was transferred from a hospital in Germany. They returned home with their son on Thursday, and will have him here for 30 days, after which the 23-year-old will rejoin his unit in Mobile. See Marine, Page A8.
PURVIS —Two families left Gamble Chancery Courthouse in tears late Thursday afternoon after jurors found Jennifer Wardle, now 29, innocent of murder in the 2002 death of her boyfriend, Vicksburg native James Neal May. May’s family walked away in stony silence, declining to speak about the outcome. The others paused just long enough to James Neal express their relief, May while expressing hope that May’s family would some day find peace. Wardle, who had been in a relationship with May and gave birth to his son a few weeks after his death, was found innocent by Jennifer a Lamar County CirWardle cuit Court jury after taking the stand in her own defense and calling May “the love of her life” earlier in the day. The trial began Monday with Judge R.I. Prichard III presiding. Jurors deliberated less than two hours before Circuit Clerk Leslie Wilson read aloud the decision, which set off simultaneous sobs and gasps. Wardle, who lives in Brooklyn, spoke briefly as she left the courthouse, flanked by her parents, Joe and Tammy Lee Wardle. “I’m happy and I’m very glad that it’s over,” Wardle said. “I’m happy the truth came out and I hope that (May’s See Wardle, Page A9.
LUKE WOODHAM, THE CONVICT
Former educator tells Pearl’s story By Pamela Hitchins phitchins@vicksburgpost.com Luke Woodham is a 29-year-old Mississippian who spends much of his time teaching and preaching the word of God. The difference between Woodham and the average young Southern preacher is that Woodham’s is a tier church at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, where for 12 years he has been housed in Unit 32 with the state’s most violent and serious criminals. Woodham was 16 and a sophomore at Pearl High School on Oct. 1, 1997, when he took a .30-06 hunt-
ing rifle to school and opened fire in an area crowded with students gathering before the start of school. He killed two girls, including his former girlfriend, Luke Christina Menefee, Woodham who was 16. Seven others were injured in the attack. It was later learned that Woodham had stabbed and bludgeoned his mother to death before setting off for the school that day in her car. Then-Pearl Public Schools Superintendent Dr. William
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Dodson has visited Woodham twice at Parchman as he has researched and written a book about the shooting, “If Only I Had Known: A True Story,” published in October by International Focus Press. Dodson told the Vicksburg Rotary Club about his book Thursday. “We remember 9/11 in America, but in Pearl we remember 10/1,” he said. A chapter on Woodham is just one of 14 that include details of the shooting, stories from witnesses and survivors and the results of Dodson’s research into See Pearl, Page A8.
Frank J.
FISHER FUNERAL HOME
COLBY HOPKINS•THE VICKSBURG POST
William H. Dodson, author of “If Only I had Known: A True Story,” speaks Thursday.
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