Authorities Seek Help To Solve Decades Old Century Murder
January 20, 2012
Authorities are looking for information in a 20-year old unsolved Century murder.
On, Saturday, October 27, 1990, 62-year old white male Dawyan Willie Lee Warrick was found deceased at his residence in the area of Cottage Street and Old Flomaton Road in Century. Investigators determined that Dawyan Willie Lee Warrick, also known as “Doughboy” or “Dawboy” was murdered.
Warrack was seen by a Century police officer about 9:00 the previous night when he responded to a prowler complaint at Warrick’s address.
He was described by family members as a World War II veteran, where he received injuries that led to him being disabled. He enjoyed passing his time at Flomaton Billards, according to family members.
Investigators are still looking for the person or persons responsible for Warrick’s murder. Anyone with any information regarding what might have happened to Dawyan Willie Lee Warrick, or anyone familiar with Dawyan Willie Lee Warrick during the time frame leading up to October 27, 1990, is asked to contact the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office’s Major Crimes Unit at (850) 436-9580, or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Poll Of Republicans: Prison No Longer The Only Criminal Justice Option
January 20, 2012
A poll sponsored by advocates for criminal justice reform found a large number of Florida Republicans appear to agree with them – that it is now OK to talk about getting a little softer on some criminals.
A number of politicians and interest groups have watched as crime has dropped, while the economy has tanked in recent years, leading to a number of discussions about moving away from some of the tougher “lock ‘em up” sentencing practices of the last couple of decades, primarily driven by Republicans.
A poll commissioned by the Florida TaxWatch Center for Smart Justice and Associated Industries of Florida and released Thursday found that more than 8 in 10 GOP voters in the state support additional use of things like work-release and treatment programs. The poll, conducted by Tel Opinion Research, surveyed 800 registered Florida Republicans who said they were likely voters. More than 6 in 10 of the respondents were over 55.
Nearly three-quarters, 73 percent, said they agreed that fewer people convicted of non-violent crimes should be sent to prison, and that the state needs a stronger probation and parole system. The poll also found that 81 percent support certain community-based alternatives to juvenile prisons.
By The News Service of Florida
J.L. (Joe) Watts
January 20, 2012
J.L. (Joe) Watts was called home to be with his heavenly Father on January 19, 2012. He was born to Joseph L. and Annie Watts on March 17, 1920, in Century.
He is preceded in death by brothers Howard and Heron, sisters Olice Sharritt and Mattie Archer.
He is survived by his loving wife of 64 years Jane; sons Joseph L. Watts III (Paula), Michael L. Watts (Linda) and daughter Julia M. Cates; his grandchildren Chad Watts, Les McGee, Brittany and Dakota Eggert, Rachelle (Kevin) Creel, Jennifer (Brad) Salmon. He had seven great grandchildren – Kacey, Tucker, Karagan, Kori Beth, Andrew and Jacob; one sister, Kathleen Broxson of Pace; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Mr. Watts proudly served his country in World War II in the South Pacific. He retired from the Air Force in 1964 and then went on to work for Kmart, Corp. in 1984. Joe loved to fish and hunt. He and his wife, Jane spent many hours out on the water together. Joe and Jane had a long happy journey thru life together. J.L. loved his Lord and was a devoted husband and father. We have so many wonderful memories of him. He will be missed so much.
Special thanks to Pensacola Health Center and Emerald Coast Hospice for their love and care.
Funeral services will be at noon on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at Olive Baptist Church with Dr. Ted Traylor officiating. Interment will follow at Barrancas National Cemetery.
Serving as pallbearers will be Shaun Hall, Timmy Hall, Harold Rich, Cleve Hanks, Steve Hall and Jay Gaines. Honorary pallbearers will be Brad Salmon and Kevin Creel.
The family will receive friends at Faith Chapel Funeral Home North on Monday, January 23, 2012, from 5-7 p.m.
Faith Chapel Funeral Home North, 1000 Highway 29 South, Cantonment is in charge of arrangements.
Reported Chemical Exposure Shuts Down Escambia River Bridge
January 20, 2012
Concerns over a possible chemical exposure shut down the Escambia River Bridge on Highway 4 between Century and Jay Thursday morning.
A female reported about11:30 a.m. that she was overcome by some sort of chemical smell in her vehicle which prompted her to stop at the Santa Rosa County end of the bridge. The Jay Fire Department, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, Escambia County EMS and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded.
The woman was transported by private vehicle to Jay Hospital in good condition.
Authorities were not able to pinpoint the alleged smell and quickly determined that there was no danger to the public before re– opening the bridge to traffic.
Further details were not available.
Pictured: The Escambia River Bridge on Highway 4 was shut down for a short time Thursday morning after a woman reported a possible chemical exposure in her car. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Escambia Academy Names New Head Coach
January 20, 2012
Escambia Academy has hired a new head football coach and athletic director who is no stranger to coaching.
Veteran coach Hugh Fountain is now on the job for the Cougars. For the last 6-years, he coached at Charles Henderson High School in Troy with a 106-67 overall record and 10 playoff trips in the last dozen years. He has also coached at W.S. Neal, Flomaton and Hillcrest Evergreen.
Fountain replaces Heath Gibson who stepped down after nine seasons with the cougars. During those nine season, Gibson led EA to the playoffs five times.
Elizabeth Dally Bazo
January 20, 2012
Mrs. Elizabeth Dally Boutwell Bazo, went to meet her Savior face to face on Wednesday January 18, 2012. Elizabeth was born to James and Liney Cobb in Northern Escambia County.
At a very young age, she was adopted by Clarence and Bessie Dally of St. Petersburg, FL. She graduated in the class of 1940 from St. Pete High School. She moved to Pensacola to join the Cadet Nurse Corps, graduating in 1944 as an RN. After a brief marriage to James Adams, she met and married Norman Boutwell. After the death of Norman, she married Ben Bazo.
Elizabeth was preceded in death by late husband, Ben Bazo; bother of her natural and adoptive parents; two brothers, John Hendley and Wes Cobb, as well as her adoptive brother, Ralph Dally and his daughter, Jeannie.
Left to miss her and to cherish her memories are her two sisters, Betty (herb) and Emma; her son, Michael (Hazel); two grandchildren, Trisha (Chuck) and Toby (Jamie); seven great-grandchildren, Kevin, Athena, Jordyn, Courtney, Hannah, Ezra and Elijah; also several nieces and nephews and a special Latina sister, Lolli.
She wished to thank all the staff at Specialty Center of Pensacola.
Funeral Services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, January 21, 2012 at Lutheran Church of the Resurrection Church with Reverend David Robatzen officiating. Interment will follow at Bellview Baptist Church Cemetery.
The family will receive friends at Faith CHapel Funeral Home South on Friday, January 20, 2012, from 5-6:30 p.m.
Early Morning Fire Destroys Highway 97 Home
January 19, 2012
There were no injuries reported in early Thursday morning fire that destroyed a home in Walnut Hill.
The fire at 9661 Highway 97, next door to Tichi’s Garage, was spotted by a passerby just before 2 a.m. The occupants were not at home at the time of the fire in the 2,000 square foot concrete block home.
For a photo gallery from the scene, click here.
The house was well involved when the first firefighters arrived on the scene, with flames shooting from roof and rear of the home. It took about 45 minutes to bring the fire under control.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office.
The Walnut Hill, McDavid, Century and Molino stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, Atmore Fire Department, Atmore Ambulance and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the fire.
Pictured: A fire about 2 a.m. Thursday destroyed this home on Highway97 in Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com exclusive photos, click to enlarge.
Property Bordering Two Century Parks Could Be Contaminated
January 19, 2012
Escambia County is working to determine if there is any danger from environmental contamination on a parcel of land in Century that borders two of the town’s parks.
The county will use an EPA grant to conduct an environmental site assessment on a mostly vacant lot at 300 East Highway 4 to determine what level of contamination, if any, exists. The 23.87 acre property, which includes a vacant house, was home to B&B Enterprises from late 1984 to 1988.
The B&B operations included leasing portable storage tankers to oil companies for the temporary storage of drilling wastes, including well-drilling fluids, drilling mud and oil. When the empty containers were returned to the site, they were washed out into open waste ponds on the property, according to Cameron-Cole, the contractor that will survey the property. Reports also indicate that there were also petroleum storage tanks formerly located on the property.
The parcel just east of Highway 29 is bordered on the north by East Highway 4, on the west by the railroad tracks behind Whataburger, on the east by the road to the Anthony Pleasant Park, and to the south by Anthony Pleasant Park and Showalter Park. A portion of the Century Cemetery, located to the north of Showalter Park, actually sits on the suspected parcel of land.
Pictured above: Environmental contamination is suspected on this property on East Highway 4 in Century. Pictured inset: A vacant house sits on the property. Pictured below: This map depicts the location of the parcel. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Evers Backing Bills On School Prayer, Right To Address Government
January 19, 2012
State Sen. Greg Evers is co-sponsoring two free speech bills — one guaranteeing the right to student-led prayer and one guaranteeing the right of citizens to speak publicly to governing bodies.
Evers’ co-sponsored Senate Bill 98 allows students to lead or participate in prayer at secondary school events. The bill has passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, its second committee stop.
And Senate Bill 206 would give Floridians the right to make public comment at meetings of state local governments. The bill has passed the Rules Subcommittee on Ethics and Elections and is now heading to the Senate Committee on Rules for its second committee stop.
Could You Be Trespassing At Your Favorite River Fishing Spot?
January 19, 2012
It’s a murky line between really good fishing, and trespassing.
A measure moving in the House seeks to clarify just where that line is – more specifically, where the state’s waterways end and where abutting private property starts.
The issue is vital to those who own property that runs right up to a riverbank or lake shoreline – how much property they pay taxes on for example is a question depending on where their property stops. But it’s also highly important to boaters, hunters and fishermen who fear losing access to swamps – prime habitat for many of the things they’re looking for.
Sometimes those non-tidal swamps aren’t there in the dry season, but are in the wet – and whether the high water mark or the low water mark or something in between is used as the demarcation point has become a highly contested issue, and the subject of a bill that cleared a committee stop Tuesday, but only after conflicting testimony about what the change would do.
The measure (HB 1103), approved Tuesday by the House Agriculture Subcommittee on a 9-4 vote, seeks to set out the “ordinary high water mark,” which is where the federal government says the public’s sovereignty ends. The trouble is, the state law doesn’t define ordinary high water mark or spell out exactly how you determine where that is.
There have been a couple of court cases that tried to set that definition out – and backers of the bill say it tracks those court opinions. The measure says the ordinary high water mark is the “highest reach of a navigable, nontidal water body as it usually exists when in its ordinary condition and is not the highest reach of such water body during the high water season or in times of freshets.”
The bill also acknowledges that the ordinary high water mark is a moving boundary and spells out that officials must determine where it is based on a mark on the soil – a change in the soil from where it is usually wet to where it usually is dry.
As one might imagine, just what it will mean still isn’t agreed on.
Preston Robertson, of the Florida Wildlife Federation, says the new definition will allow the line to be marked lower – allowing more land to be considered private, rather than part of the publicly-owned waterway.
The measure would take “tens of thousands of acres that everybody now enjoys and put it in the hands of private land owners,” Robertson said. And there would be no public benefit for making the change – the benefit would go entirely to those private property owners.
Legislative staff acknowledges that the ordinary high water mark won’t be the highest water level. It doesn’t take in “swamp or overflowed lands,” according to the Agriculture Subcommittee’s staff analysis. “And the ordinary high-water mark is to be found between such lands and the area occupied by the water for the greater portion of each average year,” the analysis says. Also, if there’s water there much of the time, there generally won’t be ability to grow crops – if crops can grow in the soil, it’s beyond the ordinary high water mark, the staff analysis reasons.
The exact line is extremely important to land owners for several reasons, said Jim Handley, executive vice president of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association. “You can’t use property as collateral,” if you don’t know if you own it, he told the committee this week. “It’s a concern of ours if somebody is trespassing and gets injured, who is liable?”
He rejected an assertion by hunters and fishermen, that agricultural landowners are simply trying to increase their holdings.
“This is not a land grab, this is an opportunity to show a clear definition of what folks have been paying property taxes on,” Handley said. “…Nobody’s trying to move the line, they’re trying to define the line.”
Trespassing is a major concern of boaters and sportsmen’s groups – which have for several days been sending around mass emails to draw attention to the issue.
Hunters carrying rifles, or even boaters simply legally carrying a concealed weapon, may be charged with trespassing for fishing on low water they’ve fished on for years.
“If they have to worry about a line that’s now moving, they’re subject to a third degree felony with armed trespass,” Robertson said.
Pictured: The Escambia River near Molino. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
By The News Service of Florida