The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/60506
Child abuse case finds Williams guilty A-4 Wednesday, March 14, 2012 The Press-Dispatch By Joe Shouse Seven months after Kyle Humbarger was sentence to 20 years for child abuse, his partner Ashley N. Archer received her sentence in- volving the role she played in the abuse of her son Don- te' Perry. Since the arrest of Ar- cher in early 2011 she mar- ried Westlee Williams on November 10, 2011, Their known residence is Elnora, Indiana. On Tuesday, February 28 in criminal court, Judge Jef- frey L. Biesterveld passed sentence to Williams, re- ceiving a four-year sentence with one year being sus- pended after she pled guilty to neglect of her three-year old son, Donte', a class C fel- ony. Williams will spend her time at the Wabash Valley work release. She was cred- ited for 22 actual days plus 22 good time days. In pronouncing the sen- tence Judge Jeffrey L. Bi- esterveld noted that even though Williams had not abused her child she al- lowed it to happen and con- tinued to allow it for months while doing nothing to pre- vent it. In a series of events that spanned 10 days from Feb- ruary 7 through February 17, 2010 Prosecutor Darrin McDonald drew a time line showing how the alleged inju- ries on the 7th were not con- sistent with what was seen at the hospital on the 17th. In earl ier test imony and interviews with Indi- ana State Police Detec- tives, Williams said she and Humbarger along with Don- te' went on a trip to Florida in February 2010. On their return they stopped in the vicinity of Atlanta at a gas station for fuel. Williams said she discovered Donte' had wet his pants and she took him to the rest room. "I held him under the auto- matic hand dryer and when it came on it caused him to jump out of my arms onto the floor," said Williams. In an interview with De- tective Dave Henderson the State Police veteran said both Humbarger and Wil- liams gave the same story as to how Donte' received his injuries. However, Hender- son was not convinced Wil- liams was telling the truth. There was no paper work from the police department or from the 9-1-1 personnel who were allegedly called. "Her story was so random. She didn't know any de- tails such as where the gas station was or what it was called or anything that was around it. Although I am not a doctor, I felt like the inju- ry received could not come from that type of fall," said Henderson. Two arrested for drunken driving over past week By Andy Heuring Two people were arrest- ed for drunken driving over the last week in Pike Coun- ty, one after she forced a po- liceman off the road, and the other after he left his truck parked in the middle of a state highway to seek help at a nearby house. Brenda Linder, 42, of 9836 E. McKinley St., Otwell, was arrested at about 3 a.m. af- ter she ran a Sheriff's Depu- ty off the road. Deputy Sher- iff Dallas Killian said at 2:50 a.m. Saturday he was driv- ing south on CR850E near Highway 356 when he no- ticed a vehicle driving 19 mph and partially in his lane. Killian said he pulled off the right side of the road. He then turned around and pulled her over. Killian said Linder told him she had two beers and was going to pick up her brother at the Bob Inn. She failed field sobriety tests and was taken to the Pike County Jail, where she tested 0.23 percent for blood alcohol content, according to Deputy Killian. The legal limit in Indiana for blood al- cohol content is 0.08 per- cent. She was preliminarily charged with operating a ve- hicle while intoxicated. A Winslow man was ar- rested last Tuesday night af- ter police were called to the State Forest Road to inves- tigate a report from a resi- dent that a man wearing just one shoe left his truck in the road and came to her door asking for help. State Trooper John Davis said he and Sheriff's Dep- uties Mike Willis and Jeff Boger went to the scene and talked to the resident who said a man came to her door asked for help, then ran into the woods behind her house. Trooper Davis said po- lice got a call from a differ- ent resident reporting a man hiding behind a vehicle. Da- vis said Deputies Boger and Willis found Jeff A. Robert- son, 53, of 3277 E. SR364, Winslow, hiding behind a vehicle and missing both shoes. He was arrested and tak- en to the Pike County Jail, where he failed field sobri- ety tests before testing 0.23 percent for blood alcohol content. He was preliminarily charged with operating a ve- hicle while intoxicated, pub- lic intoxication and obstruct- ing traffic. Glezen couple arrested for dealing synthetic marijuana By Andy Heuring A Glezen couple was ar- rested last Tuesday on charges related to dealing synthetic marijuana after police conducted a search of their home at about 10 p.m. Pike County Deputy Sher- iffs Dallas Killian and Chad Tharp obtained a search warrant and conducted a search of Chris and Tracy Jenkins' residence at 1261 Elm St., Glezen, Petersburg. Deputy Killian said the Police Special Response Team served the warrant and executed the search. According to Killian, when police entered the house, Jenkins showed them a pipe he had in his pocket and synthetic marijuana hid- den in his underwear. "He stated he thought he was doing everything legal- ly and did not understand what was going on," stated Killian's report. It also stat- ed Jenkins said, "He had quit selling it, anyway." Eventually police located a set of digital scales, a one- hitter pipe, $1,580 in cash, a plastic bag containing a pink/greenish leafy mate- rial, $298 in Chris Jenkins' wallet and a whipped top- ping container with a green leafy substance. Killian's report said dur- ing a taped interview both Jenkinses went "into details about the amount of dealing that has taken place and the amount of money they have spent and made...Chris did state he charges his custom- ers enough to cover a tax, but did not pay taxes on his profit..." Christopher W. Jenkins, 40, of 1261 W. Elm St., Glezen, Petersburg, was preliminarily charged with failure of retail merchant or employee to remit taxes to state, a class D felony; main- taining a common nuisance, a class D felony; dealing in synthetic cannabinoid, a class A misdemeanor; pos- session of synthetic can- nabinoid, a class A misde- meanor and possession of paraphernalia, a class A mis- demeanor. Tracy M. Jenkins, 42, same address, was prelim- inarily charged with fail- ure of retail merchant or employee to remit taxes to state, a class D felony; main- taining a common nuisance, a class D felony; dealing in synthetic cannabinoid, a class A misdemeanor; and possession of synthetic can- nabinoid, a class A misde- meanor. Card shower for Violet Burkhart A card shower is planned for Violet Burkhart who will celebrate her 99th birthday On or near February 17, Donte' was again physical- ly mistreated and was tak- en to Jasper Memorial Hos- pital by Humbarger and Wil- liams. During the exami- nation Humbarger felt the youngster was not being properly cared for by med- ical personnel. At that point he grabbed him out of the ER and proceeded to leave. The three of them returned home when Ashley decid- ed to take Donte' to Daviess County Hospital. She said, "at this point I was afraid and so I quickly left and went to the hospi- tal knowing he (Humbarg- er) would try to find me so I went a different way." At the hospital in Washing- ton, while Donte' was being checked out Humbarger ar- rives and was very upset and was threatening Williams. After examining the three year old it was decided to airlift him to Indianapolis due to the nature of his in- juries. McDonald claimed although Ashley knew her son had been abused by Kyle Humbarger for sever- al months she allowed him to accompany Donte' on the flight. When questioned by McDonald on why she did not go with her son and al- lowed the one who abused him to go she said, "when Kyle arrived he threatened me and told me not to talk to the police or to investigators and then people at the hospi- tal told me to let him (Hum- barger) go and when he gets off the helicopter they will take him into question." Representing the state of Indiana, Pike County Pros- ecutor Darrin McDonald called on Dr. Antoinette Las- key, MD at the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis to de- scribe the type injuries Don- te' received. Laskey special- izes in Pediatrics and Child Abuse and she was first to examined the victim after he was airlifted to Indianap- olis on February 17, 2010. Laskey was shown eight pictures of the victim and how he looked when she first saw him. She explained, "he had a swollen head and cheek area and the top of his head had a "squishy" feel to it." Along with the head trauma Las- key pointed out how the vic- tim showed signs of multiple bruising on his back and ab- domen. "When I first examined him he was in distress and tried to crawl away from me." Laskey also explained how in her examination she discovered the most pain- ful injury called a subgalea hemorrhage. "This kind of injury is when blood vessels are de- formed causing fluid to pool in certain areas causing the squishy feel to the brain," said Dr. Laskey. In greater detail, Las- key, a board certified pedi- atrician since 2001 said, "in a scalping injury, the skin is intact but the blood flow from the brain causes mul- tiple trauma." It was also ex- plained by the medical pro- fessional how new blood was found on top of old blood leaving reason to believe ad- ditional injury occurred pri- or to the 17th. When Dr. Laskey was asked by McDonald if the kind of injuries the young- ster received at the gas sta- tion were consistent to what she saw on the 17th, her re- sponse was —"no." Following the state tes- timony, Attorney Thomas Dysert, representing Wil- liams built his case based on how Humbarger contin- ually threatened Williams by hitting her, splitting her lip, bruising her, and chas- ing her around the house with a shot gun. Several witnesses were called including family ac- quaintance Dave Fleming from the Daviess Coun- ty Sherif fs Department and Chief Probation Offi- cer Chris Yon. Two friends along with Williams' hus- band Westlee testified how Ashley was a good mother. When Williams was ques- tioned by Dysert, he asked her how all this made her feel and with tears stream- ing down her face and with a broken voice she said, "terri- ble." Dysert then asked her if she loved her son and her quick response was, "with all my heart." Finally, McDonald ap- proached Williams one last time by playing a tape of one of the interviews state police detectives had where she admitted seeing Kyle abus- ing her son over a three to four month period of time. It wasn't until that final inter- view she admitted how she was terrified of Kyle. Mc- Donald then reminded Ash- ley as he placed before her eyes a picture of her abused son, "no one was with Donte' on that flight to Indianapolis but Kyle," and as she looked ahead she broke down. Kyle Humbarger plead- ed guilty to severely beat- ing the three year old child, a class B felony charge for aggravated battery. In July 2011 Humbarger received a 20-year sentence. The first 12 years being spent at the Department of Corrections. He will then spend four years in Wabash Valley work release and four years will be suspended. He will then spend four years on proba- tion. Humbarger was cred- ited with 486 days for time served. Pinewood derby Above: Pinewood derby winners on Saturday at the First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall were first place Bryce Garland, second place Tyler Gray, third place Cameron Smith and Zeke Yon with the Best of Show car. Left: Ryan Williams and Trypton Lee anxiously watch their cars cross the finish line in a tight race as Trenton Mann and Benny Hess watch from a distance. Pamida to change-over to Shopko Petersburg's Pamida store will be one of 15 stores that will be liquidated dur- ing the next few weeks to make way for the change- over to a Shopko store. This comes on the heels of an- nouncing the finalization of the merger of Shopko with Pamida. Shopko today an- nounced that the first phase of Pamida store conversions will begin with liquidation sales at 15 stores. "These liquidation sales on March 30. Cards may be sent to 5475 E. 950 N., Ha- zleton, Indiana 47640. are the first step in the con- version process from Pami- da to Shopko Hometown and this means great deals for our customers as we look to clear out the existing mer- chandise to make way for Shopko Hometown's en- hanced merchandising mix," said Paul Jones, Shop- ko President, Chairman and CEO. "We are eager to be one step closer to bringing the Shopko Hometown expe- rience to these 15 communi- ties. The Shopko Hometown format has been overwhelm- ingly embraced by custom- ers in seven markets where we have already converted stores." Jones said, Shopko Home- town combines Shopko's strong reputation of health services and customer ser- vice with a broad and dy- namic offering of strong na- tional brands and high-val- ue private label brands of apparel, home furnishings, toys, consumer electronics, seasonal items, and lawn and garden products—all in attractive, well laid out, easy-to-shop store formats that range from 15,000 to 35,000-square-feet. Liquidation sales began last week at the Petersburg store Shopko will invest about $80 million into Pamida store conversions which oc- cur in phases through the end of the year. Once the liquidation sale is complete, each individual store con- version will take about five to six weeks from start to finish and will include new interior and exterior sig- nage, updated and supple- mented fixtures, improved store design and layout, as well as an expanded mer- chandise mix. Company of- ficials said the Petersburg store will stay open through- out the process. Shopko is owned by affili- ates of Sun Capital Partners, Inc., a leading private invest- ment firm focused on lever- age buyouts, equity, debt, and other investments in market-leading companies. It was founded in 1962 and headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC is a $3 billion retailer that operates almost 350 stores in 22 states throughout the Midwest, Mountain, North Central and Pacific North- west regions. Retail formats include 134 Shopko stores.