STARKVILLE — Jacorey Williams was asleep in the front seat of his grandmother’s car the afternoon of June 14, 2006, when he awoke with a start.

A 2005 Chevrolet pickup truck driven by 18-year-old Timothy Nootbaar, of Starkville, had just crossed the median of Highway 82 near the Oktibbeha-Lowndes County line, flipped and collided head-on with the 2005 Nissan Altima driven by his grandmother, Bonita Jordan.

“I heard yelling, and I woke up and saw glass and blood,” Williams, now 16, said Wednesday from the witness stand in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court.

Nootbaar died as a result of the accident while Jordan, Jacorey Williams and his sister, Brittany Williams, who was in the back seat, were seriously injured and have since incurred “substantial” expenses for hospital visits, doctor appointments, drugs and other medical needs, according to a lawsuit the family filed in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court against Nootbaar’s estate and Hayes Hunt Logging Inc., of Sturgis. Nootbaar was working for Hayes Hunt Logging at the time of the accident.

The family, which has been in court all week and testified individually on Wednesday, filed for damages on account of personal injuries and other damages “sustained as a result of the negligence of the defendants, Hayes Hunt Logging and the Estate of Timothy B. Nootbaar,” the lawsuit alleges.

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TIM PRATT

STARKVILLE — A Starkville woman accused of killing a Mathiston man in 2008 was arraigned Monday in Oktibbeha County Circuit Court on one count of murder.

Leslie Sharp, now 20, was charged with manslaughter shortly after the shooting death of 20-year-old Christopher Cole on Nov. 10, 2008, near the corner of Rockhill Road and Kelly Road in northeastern Oktibbeha County. However, an Oktibbeha County grand jury was impaneled last year and reconvened earlier this month, then issued a murder indictment against Sharp, said Assistant District Attorney Rhonda Hayes-Ellis, who is representing the state in the case. The state is no longer pursuing manslaughter, though Hayes-Ellis would not go into detail when asked about the switch to a murder charge.

“All I can really say is that new evidence was presented to the grand jury,” Hayes-Ellis said Tuesday at the Oktibbeha County Courthouse.

The grand jury looks at the state’s evidence and determines if there is enough for a trial.

According to court documents, the incident between Sharp and Cole stemmed from a relationship, and subsequent conflict, the victim had with two of Sharp’s friends.

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TIM PRATT

STARKVILLE — The Starkville Board of Aldermen is making progress on its quest to build a new municipal complex in the city.

During a lengthy weekend work session, the board set an unofficial timeline for how to proceed with a municipal complex project.

By the end of February, the board hopes to determine a potential site and the feasibility of that site, Mayor Parker Wiseman said. March through July is a “little more open-ended,” but the city hopes to hire a consultant or an expert, such as an architect, to perform additional work on the project, Wiseman said.

“We’d like somebody who can work through more than just broad concepts so, essentially, you can put space dimensions, particular types of buildings and layouts on the particular site you have identified, and what the cost of those different options will be,” Wiseman said.

Another open-ended issue is whether or not the board forms a committee to work with the consultant, which would provide feedback so the city can have a “pretty firm proposal” by the end of July, Wiseman said. The committee, which is still in the theoretical stage, potentially could have representatives from each of the city’s seven wards, plus experts in planning, architecture and other fields.

Wiseman hopes the board can hold a series of public forums from July through September, where the city can take a concept and receive additional public feedback.

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TIM PRATT

Sudduth Elementary is a school that has been marred by tragedy this winter.

A fire Dec. 28 at Academy Crossing Apartments killed nine people, including two Sudduth students, brothers Jacorian Vasser, 6, and Richard Vasser Jr., 5. Jacorian was in first grade and Richard, also known as “R.J.,” was in kindergarten.

A fire earlier this month at a motel in Hoover, Ala., killed four Mississippi University for Women students, one of whom was the niece of a Sudduth employee. Additionally, three other fires this winter have affected Sudduth students, Principal Elizabeth Mosley said Monday night.

“We decided to do something to really try to prevent this from happening again,” Mosley said.

The Starkville Fire Department held a fire-prevention workshop at Sudduth Monday night with more than 200 parents, students and teachers in attendance. The city’s firefighters hold workshops and visit schools regularly, but the rash of fires this winter has the Starkville Fire Department and the Starkville School District eager to impart fire-prevention tips to the entire community.

“With the events we’ve had recently, one positive event is you have more awareness and hopefully tonight we’re able to get the message out (about fire prevention) so something like this won’t happen again,” Starkville Fire Marshal Mark McCurdy said.

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DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

A Mississippi State University student is still missing today, nearly two weeks after he disappeared during a trip to Jackson, police said.

Lester R. Jones Jr., of Tupelo, was last seen Jan. 12 at a gas station in Flowood, said Starkville Police Department Detective Landon Stamps. His image was captured on a security camera and his cell phone was found in the gas station bathroom, Stamps said.

No foul play is suspected at this point, Stamps said.

Jones, 26, was on his way to visit some friends in Jackson. He was driving a blue 2002 Ford Expedition with a Mississippi license plate reading KTW 714.

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DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

Starkville Academy interim baseball coach and former Major League Baseball draftee Shane Bazzell was weeks away from being arrested on drug charges when he was picked up Jan. 15 by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office.

Bazzell, 30, of 801 Remunda Drive in Columbus, was arrested on charges of grand larceny for allegedly stealing a four-wheeler. He had been under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics for a year for acquiring a controlled substance by fraud.

Mike Perkins, lieutenant colonel of enforcement with the MBN, reports Bazzell visited 13 doctors in Pontotoc, Chickasaw, Lowndes, Union and Clay counties over the past year to acquire Adderall.

Adderall is prescribed to treat attention deficit disorder, narcolepsy and severe obesity and has been associated with amphetamine abuse.

Health Canada in 2005 suspended marketing of Adderall products due to concern about reports of sudden unexplained death in children taking Adderall and Adderall XR, according to the FDA Web site. It has since returned to the market.

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