DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

The Oktibbeha County Circuit Court term is in recess until Monday, but judges Jim Kitchens and Lee Howard issued a handful of sentences earlier this week.

Kitchens sentenced Sarita Alred to 20 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, but suspended 10 years, for the manufacture of methamphetamine. Alred also faces five years of post-release supervision and a $5,000 fine.
Howard sentenced John Lucas to eight years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, but suspended the sentence, for possession of cocaine more than .1 gram but less than 2 grams. Howard gave Lucas five years of probation and ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine.
Howard sentenced Mark Enis to eight years in the MDOC, but suspended the sentence, for possession of cocaine greater than 0.1 gram but less than 2 grams. Enis faces five years of probation and a $1,000 fine.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

TIM PRATT

The National Weather Service today confirmed tornadoes touched down Saturday afternoon in Oktibbeha and Clay counties as part of a violent line of thunderstorms.

Based on preliminary ground surveys, the National Weather Service believes the tornado that touched down outside of Tallulah, La., crossed into Mississippi and caused devastation throughout the state made it all the way to Oktibbeha County.

The twister caused deaths in Yazoo, Holmes and Choctaw counties before it reached western Oktibbeha County as an EF3, with winds between 136 and 165 miles per hour, National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Fairly said. The tornado then “rapidly” weakened and dissipated in Oktibbeha County, Fairly said.

The same storm system produced two additional tornadoes in the area.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

DISPATCH STAFF REPORT

The first week of the Oktibbeha County Circuit Court term wrapped up Friday.

Judge Lee Howard sentenced Ashley Garriga to 15 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections, although Howard suspended all but five, for the sale of amphetamine. Garriga also received five years of post-release supervision and a $5,000 fine. Howard also sentenced Garriga to three years in the MDOC for the sale of marijuana less than 30 grams.
Judge Jim Kitchens sentenced Damian Potter to three years in the MDOC for felony fleeing a law enforcement officer. Potter also faces a $500 fine and two years of post-release supervision.
Kitchens sentenced Sam Stockstill to three years probation, although Stockstill must serve six months in Oktibbeha County Jail as a condition of the probation, for the sale of marijuana less than 30 grams. Stockstill also must pay a $200 fine.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

TIM PRATT

The National Weather Service today confirmed tornadoes touched down Saturday afternoon in Oktibbeha and Clay counties as part of a violent line of thunderstorms.

Based on preliminary ground surveys, the National Weather Service believes the tornado that touched down outside of Tallulah, La., crossed into Mississippi and caused devastation throughout the state made it all the way to Oktibbeha County.

The twister caused deaths in Yazoo, Holmes and Choctaw counties before it reached western Oktibbeha County as an EF3, with winds between 136 and 165 miles per hour, National Weather Service meteorologist Jim Fairly said. The tornado then “rapidly” weakened and dissipated in Oktibbeha County, Fairly said.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.

TIM PRATT

Roy and Doris Sagely were in their mobile home near the corner of Highway 389 and Sun Creek Road Saturday afternoon when they heard what sounded like a tornado approaching from the southwest.

But the storm didn’t pack the sound of a freight train, as many tornado survivors describe it. All the Sagelys could hear were high winds, heavy rain and the clamor of debris hitting the side of their trailer.

The couple of 36 years hunkered down and waited for the storm to pass, but listened as the roof of their well house was blown off, a storage shed was destroyed and the mobile home on a family member’s property about 100 yards across the field was flipped off its foundation and crashed into a row of trees. The trailer was for rent and uninhabited at the time.

Mike Edmonston, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, this morning said the agency still hadn’t confirmed whether it was a tornado that tore through the Sagelys’ property and continued northeast into Clay County, but believes it could have been the same cell which produced a tornado and destroyed homes in Yazoo City and Choctaw County. A twister was reported by a pilot northeast of West Point, as well, Edmonston said, but it is unclear if it was the same tornado.

“It looks like Clay and Oktibbeha are all in the line of that particular (tornado) that went through Yazoo City, but we haven’t had an aerial survey to link it all together yet,” Edmonston said of the storm that began in Louisiana and continued across Mississippi into Alabama. “If it was, it would be close to 180 miles long.”

Surveyors were on their way to Oktibbeha and Clay counties this morning, Edmonston said.

As the Sagelys stood in the maze of roofing and debris in their back yard Sunday, they recalled the ordeal vividly, although they didn’t see the suspected tornado that damaged their property.

“The wind just started blowing and it was raining, but it was no worse to me than when the hurricane came through,” Doris Sagely said in reference to Hurricane Katrina. “It was just high winds and stuff. I heard stuff hitting the back of the trailer, so I was going to see what it was because I thought it was hail, and then I got about halfway and decided that it wasn’t hail. That was stuff hitting the trailer.”

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.