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Drunken driver strikes parked cars, flees on foot

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PANAMA CITY BEACH — A Panama City man was alledgedly intoxicated when he drove away from a karaoke bar and package store Friday morning and struck four parked cars at a nearby apartment building, the Florida Highway Patrol reported in a press release.

According to the FHP release, Cedric L. Austin, 23, left Newby’s Too just before 2:30 a.m. in a 2004 Ford Expedition. He made a left turn out of the parking lot of the lounge store toward Harbour’s Edge Apartments at 4010 Thomas Drive, veered to his left across the opposite lane and over the sidewalk into a row of unoccupied cars parked outside the apartment building, the release said. 

Austin and his passenger Justin T. Coleman, 27, of Bonifay, exited the vehicle and fled the scene on foot only to be caught by Bay County Sheriff’s Office a short time later, the release said.

Both men had minor injuries.

Austin was charged with driving under the influence, reckless driving, driving with a suspended license, having an open container in a vehicle and for leaving the scene of the crash. He also had four outstanding warrants with the BCSO.


Jacksonville man gets life in prison in loud music killing

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JACKSONVILLE (AP) — A Florida man convicted of first-degree murder for fatally shooting a teenager in an argument over loud music outside a Jacksonville convenience store was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole.

The life sentence imposed by Circuit Judge Russell Healey was mandatory for 47-year-old Michael Dunn after prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty.

“Mr. Dunn, your life is effectively over,” Healey said. “What is sad . is that this case exemplifies that our society seems to have lost its way.”

Dunn was convicted of first-degree murder at a second trial in September after jurors deadlocked on the charge at his initial trial in February. Prosecutors say Dunn, who is white, fired 10 times into a sport utility vehicle carrying black teenagers in November 2012 and killed 17-year-old Jordan Davis of Marietta, Georgia.

Evidence showed that Dunn, of Satellite Beach, fired the shots during a heated argument over the volume of music coming from the SUV carrying Davis and three other teenagers. Dunn was convicted of three counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison in his first trial because he continued to fire into the Dodge Durango as the driver tried to flee the scene. The 60-year sentence is consecutive to the life sentence.

Dunn, who testified at both trials, claimed he was acting in self-defense. Dunn told jurors that he saw Davis roll down the window and flash what he believed to be a gun after the two exchanged words. He contended that he kept firing at the fleeing SUV to make sure no one shot back at him.

At Friday's sentencing hearing, Dunn apologized to Davis’ parents.

“I want the Davis family to know that I truly regret what happened. If I could roll back time and do things differently, I would,” he said. “I am mortified that I took a life whether it was a justified or not.”

Davis’ mother, Lucia McBath said she always taught her son to love and to forgive.

“Therefore, I too must be willing to forgive and so I choose to forgive you Mr. Dunn for taking my son's life,” McBath said in court.

Throughout the second trial, prosecutors portrayed Dunn as a cold-blooded killer. Dunn never called 911 after firing into the SUV, and afterward he went back to his hotel, made a drink, ordered pizza, walked his dog and went to sleep.

Dunn testified that the problems started when he and his fiancee heard loud bass thumping from an SUV parked next to them after they pulled into a convenience store to buy a bottle of wine. Dunn had just come from his son's wedding.

Prosecutor John Guy said during opening statements that when Dunn pulled into the parking spot, the music from the SUV was blaring.

“He looked at his girlfriend and said I hate that thug music,” Guy said.

Walkers will honor Domestic Violence Month

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LYNN HAVEN — The second annual “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” walkathon will be Saturday at the Lynn Haven Recreation Center.

The Walk a Mile in Her Shoes program is being sponsored by The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. local chapter Xi Omicron Omega. The event kicks off at 9 a.m. To participant in the walk, participants should arrive at the Recreation Center at 8 a.m. to check in and register for the walk. Registration fee is $20. All proceeds will be donated to the Salvation Army Domestic Violence Program.

Last year the event raised $1,500 and had more than 50 walkers.

Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. local chapter, Xi Omicron Omega was chartered in 1982.  The local chapter currently has more 20 members, with the national sorority over 250,000.

Hathaway Bridge maintenance rescheduled

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PANAMA CITY — Routine bridge maintenance work in the westbound travel lanes of U.S. 98 across the Hathaway Bridge previously scheduled for Oct. 13 through Oct. 17 has been rescheduled to Monday through Wednesday.

Workers will begin with the outside travel lane, moving to the center, and finally the inside travel lane. This work will be performed from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.

All construction activities are weather dependent and may be delayed or re-scheduled in the event of inclement weather.

Man doesn’t click it, gets charged with felony

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PANAMA CITY — One Panama City man knows the importance of buckling up after being arrested Wednesday on several felony charges, according to Panama City Police reports.

James Delbert Cashon, 22, was charged with trafficking narcotics after police pulled him over on Mound Avenue Wednesday at about 7:30 p.m. for not wearing a seatbelt. Investigators made contact with the two occupants and could immediately smell the odor of fresh marijuana coming from the vehicle, police reported.

Cashon, without being asked, stated that there was marijuana in the vehicle by the center console, police said.

Investigators found two bags containing a combined 49.1 grams of marijuana. A search of Cashon was conducted and investigators discovered 10 Hydrocodone pills, according to arrest reports.

Subsequently, Cashon was arrested and charged with trafficking in Hydrocodone, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, and maintaining a nuisance vehicle for drugs.

PC records 10th homicide of year

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Glenwood residents awakened to more bloodshed Sunday and parishioners headed to Mt. Olive Baptist detoured around crime scene tape as Panama City police investigated the city’s 10th homicide of the year.

A Panama City Police Department news release said the late-night shooting death Saturday remained under investigation and no arrests had been made. Officers responding to a complaint of shots fired around 8:45 p.m. Saturday in the 700 block of E. 13th St.  found a black male with gunshot wounds. He was taken to Bay Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.

The man’s name had not been released Sunday morning, nor was there any indication if any suspects had been developed, though the release said investigators “continue to develop leads.”

Police said the shooting “appears to be a targeted attack, as there were several other people in the area at the time, that were not fired upon.” Police also said there appeared to be one gunman.

By 9 a.m. Sunday morning the visible reminders of a shooting consisted of crime scene tape stripped across the 13th Court from its intersection with Martin Luther  King Jr., Boulevard to about a half block to the east, toward Mt. Olive Baptist Church. The tape reached behind a motel and seemed to include the property adjacent to the hotel.

A Panama City Police Department patrol car sat on both sides of the tape on 13th Street.

The shooting death marks Panama City’s 10th of  the year, compared to three in all of 2013.

Most recently, three people were arrested after the shooting death of 17-year-old Curtis Hunt Tuesday on Kraft Avenue and a fourth suspect is still being sought.

Police are asking anyone with information to contact Det. Rogers at 850-872-3100, or they can report their tips anonymous to CrimeStoppers at 850-785-TIPS.

This report has been updated to reflect the number of homicides in Panama City this year.

2 dead in separate weekend slayings

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PANAMA CITY — Two men have been arrested in connection with the beating death of a man Saturday morning, and law enforcement in Panama City continued to investigate a separate shooting death of a man Saturday night in the city’s 10th homicide of the year.

Jackie McClendon, 48, died after he and two other men on four-wheelers crashed a party in the woods off Old Allanton Road early Saturday morning, said Sgt. Marc Tochterman with the Bay County Sheriff's Office. Jay Green, 21, of Youngstown, Chad Mercer, 18, of Panama City, and several other young people were partying in the woods when McClendon and two other men showed up, according to BCSO.

An argument between the younger group and the older men escalated into a fight, and Green knocked McClendon unconscious, Tochterman said. While McClendon was on the ground, Mercer kicked him in the face, Tochterman said.

--- SHOOTING VICTIM IDENTIFIED ---

Mercer, Green and several others fled after the fight. BCSO investigators identified the two men as suspects, and Green was arrested in a traffic stop. Mercer turned himself in after learning he was wanted on a social media website.

Both men were booked into the Bay County Jail on open murder counts, BCSO reported. The investigation continues and additional arrests are possible, Tochterman said.

On Sunday afternoon, Panama City Police had not released the identity of the man shot to death on the 700 block of E. 13th Court around 8:45 p.m. Saturday in the city’s 10th homicide this year.

People in the neighborhood who declined to give their names said they heard several gunshots and came outside to find the victim bleeding in the driveway of 705 E. 13th Court. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died.

--- SHOOTING VICTIM IDENTIFIED ---

Police believe the shooting was carried out by a single gunman, and the victim was targeted because several others in the area at the time were not fired upon. No arrests had been announced Sunday afternoon. Police encouraged anyone with information to contact Detective Rogers at 850-872-3100 or call CrimeStoppers at 850-785-TIPS (8477) to report information anonymously.

PCPD officers continued to work the scene Sunday afternoon, with assistance from the Panama City Fire Department. Residents looked on as a firefighter hosed the victim’s blood off the concrete, just down the block from a Baptist church and a home where a family planned a birthday party.

The victim is the 10th homicide victim in Panama City this year, Panama City Police Department spokesman Officer Richard Thore said. There were eight murders in all of Bay County last year, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; three of them were in Panama City.

FHP feeds Florida families

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PANAMA CITY — Florida Highway Patrol announces its inaugural ‘Stuff the Charger” Thanksgiving food drive.

In partnership with food banks across the state, FHP is collecting food donations for Florida’s families. From now through Nov. 6, officers will collect nonperishable items including canned goods, dried goods and other goods such as nuts, evaporated milk and broth.

They plan to get as much food as possible, pack it into a patrol car and deliver it to area food banks throughout the state. The prospective food delivery date is Nov. 6,  so that donations will arrive in time for Thanksgiving.

The Florida Highway Patrol Troop A will accept non-perishable food donations at Troop Headquarters, 6030 County Road 2321, Panama City.

For more information, contact Lt. Steve Preston, (850) 484-5000 ext. 103.


Anti-bullying event set

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PANAMA CITY — The Student Advocacy Center of Bay County, as part of its month long series of National Bullying Prevention Month events, will host the first of a two-part Student Advocate Training at Greater Bethel AME Church, 829 Hamilton Ave., Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

The train-the-trainer workshop is geared toward youth leaders, adults and parents who wish to learn effective strategies for advocating for students. The training will be conducted by representatives from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

The topics for the first training session include bullying prevention, intervention and school discipline.

Part two training will be held at a later date.

Woman accused of impersonating law enforcement officer

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PARKER — Police have arrested an Alabama woman for attempting to protect and serve — eventually abusing her power — though she was not actually a law enforcement officer, according to police reports.

Morcia Dawn Lowery, 40, had walked the grounds of Smuggler’s Cove RV Park in Parker wearing a shirt with police insignia since August. She allegedly told neighbors she was a U.S. marshal and threatened to lock up unruly juveniles and place witnesses in “protective custody” until her arrest Sunday at about 2 p.m., according to Parker Police arrest reports.

Lowery also had apparently resigned herself to the “bad cop” role, abusing her self-appointed powers while in the line of duty, police reported.

According to management of Smuggler’s Cove, Lowery told residents she ended up in Bay County after a drug bust gone horribly wrong. Her 9-year-old son had been shot in the head during a shootout, she had said. She got revenge on the killer, also shooting him in the head, but requested to be reassigned following the traumatic experience. She had been working the child protection beat since, and she told residents she had closed about 80 cases of child exploitation.

Once residing in the RV park, Lowery began to grow bolder, telling one man she would place him in “protective custody” for an outstanding warrant in Tennessee, police reported. On other occasions, she threatened unruly juveniles in the neighborhood with juvenile detention if they didn’t walk the straight and narrow, according to police reports.

“She was telling people about all these things she did and all these things she could do, and nothing would ever come to fruition,” said Crystal Britt, Smuggler’s Cove property manager.

After several months of Lowery blaming her late rent on delinquent paychecks from the U.S. Marshals Service and increasingly suspicious tales, management of Smuggler’s Cove called authorities.

Lowery owed about $1,500 in back rent at the time, Britt said.

Lowery was charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer and grand theft.

UPDATE: Police identify shooting victim; still seeking suspect

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PANAMA CITY — Police released the identity of the city’s 10th victim of fatal gun violence Monday as the search for his shooter continues, the Panama City Police Department announced Monday.

Christopher Coleman, 21, was killed in what authorities called a targeted attack, according to a press release from the PCPD. He died shortly after the incident in the 700 block of 13th Court.

No arrests have been made, as police disclosed they’re looking for “a black male wearing black clothing.” Detectives are currently asking the public for assistance in identifying the suspect.

--- TWO DEAD IN SEPARATE INCIDENTS ---

Coleman also is known as “ “Murda.” 

In his past, had an extensive history of criminal accusations involving drugs and guns, but few convictions in his history, according to court records. He had been charged with accessory to armed robbery in October 2011 and discharging a firearm from his vehicle into another vehicle in March of 2011. But both those charges were either dropped or acquitted by a jury, respectively.

Coleman pleaded no contest to improperly exhibiting a firearm in the March incident where he was accused of firing seven .45-caliber shots beginning at an intersection east of Seventh Street and Sherman Avenue. A passenger in the vehicle, Sammie Underwood III, pleaded no contest to principal to firing the shots.

Underwood was released on probation and Coleman got time served. In October, police arrested the two and a third man for armed burglary of a Macedonia Garden Apartments. Investigators believed Coleman and the third man remained outside as Underwood forced open the door with a .38-caliber handgun and fired into the apartment, in an attempt to shoot its inhabitant.

The three were arrested together a short time later. Charges against Coleman were dropped, but Underwood pleaded no contest to discharging a firearm in public and was sentenced to almost two years in prison, according to court records.

Underwood, also known as “Trigger Tre,” is currently in jail on charges of several pending felonies and was arrested after investigators found DNA evidence of a connection to the unsolved slaying of 17-year-old Samuel McGriff again at Macedonia apartments in June of this year.

McGriff, at the time, was the fourth victim to die in shootings in the city this year.

--- TWO DEAD IN SEPARATE INCIDENTS ---

Coleman’s death brings the toll of gun-related slayings to 10, most of which have been concentrated to two areas.

Though some of the names of victims and suspects are recurring and the shootings concentrated to areas, PCPD spokesman officer Richard Thore said police have found no confirmation the shootings are related.

Anyone having information regarding the shooting of Coleman is urged to call Detective Rogers of the Panama City Police Department, 850-872-3100, or they can report their tips anonymously to CrimeStoppers at 850-785-TIPS.

Jury selected in strangling death trial

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PANAMA CITY — The trial of a man accused of carrying out the strangling death of his father-in-law at his mother-in-law’s behest began Monday.

Jurors were selected Monday in the first-degree murder case of David Clanton, 33, who is charged with the strangling death of his father-in-law Arthur Moore, 69, of Youngstown, on Sept. 8, 2013. The Bay County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Moore’s disappearance after his wife, Lottie Moore, reported her husband missing.

But the investigators got a tip from a man from Minnesota who said he’d had a conversation in which David Clanton jokingly described choking his father-in-law to death in his bed and burying his body in the woods. They re-interviewed Clanton, and he confessed to killing Moore at Lottie Moore’s request and led investigators to the body, BCSO reported at the time.

Mary Clanton, who is Arthur Moore’s daughter and David Clanton’s wife, told investigators she rode with her husband to bury her father’s body off Steelfield Road. All four lived together on Stauber Road, off Campflowers Road. About a week earlier, her mother openly proposed conspiring to kill Arthur Moore, authorities reported. David Clanton accepted, Mary Clanton said, but never thought the plan would get carried out.

“You know, whenever you see somebody hurting, you say something to comfort them,” she said during her deposition earlier this month. “That’s what I took it as.”

The night of his death, Lottie Moore poisoned Arthur Moore’s food and removed his gun from the room in case he struggled against David Clanton, Mary Clanton said. She heard from another room Arthur Moore call out “David” before the room fell silent, she told prosecutors.

Lottie Moore and Mary Clanton have been adjudicated guilty as accessories after the fact to murder.

Blotter: Are you ready to party?!

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When most people see a church, they seem to be able to resist the almost relentless urge to party. That wasn’t the case recently for one crew, hell-bent on a righteous shindig.

That guy still wearing the lamp shade from the night before was nowhere to be found, but he did leave some remnants of a biblical bash the following Sunday.

Several beer bottles, a pizza box and soda cans (drink responsibly) were strewn in the playground area of a local church, leading to a section of the chain-link fence that had been cut out. A broken DVD player and a single DVD were also on the playground as the pastor looked over the disarray. Someone had also taken the trampoline mat from the frame — didn’t want the whole trampoline, just that multi-purposeful trampoline mat.

Coast Guard searches for missing boater

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MOBILE, Ala. – The Coast Guard is searching for a missing boater 50 miles south of St. Marks Sunday.

Missing is George Taylor, 60, from Tallahassee, who was reportedly sailing his 27-foot Catalina sailboat from St. Marks to Carrabelle.

A friend of Taylor’s called Coast Guard Sector Mobile to report him overdue at 4 p.m. Saturday.

The caller’s last contact with Taylor was Thursday morning via social media; he reportedly stated his intentions were to be in Carrabelle Friday evening.

Sector Mobile issued an urgent marine information broadcast, dispatched a MH-60 Dolphin Helicopter and a C-130 Hercules Fixed Wing Aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, as well as a 45-foot Response Boat - Medium from Coast Guard Station Panama City, Saturday at 5 p.m.

The crew of the C-130 located a sailing vessel that matched the description about 50 miles south of St. Marks, and the small boat crew from Panama City was diverted to investigate Sunday at 7 a.m.

The crew arrived and confirmed that it was George Taylor’s vessel, and found Taylor’s dog and belongings aboard.

The Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who have added additional surface and air assets, are continuing the search for Taylor.

 

Prominent FSU fraternity suspended

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TALLAHASSEE (AP) — One of Florida State University's more prominent fraternities is being suspended amid an ongoing rape investigation.

Campus police say they are investigating an alleged sexual battery that occurred at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house. Authorities were called about the incident early in the morning on Oct. 11.

FSU officials have sent letters to the fraternity telling them because of the seriousness of the allegations they cannot hold normal activities or participate in intramurals. All contact with pledges must also be placed on hold.

The Tallahassee Democrat reports that Pi Kappa Alpha, or the "Pikes" as they are known, were at the center of an investigation into a brutal rape in the late '80s. The fraternity was kicked out of FSU and did not return for more than a decade.


Coast Guard suspends search for missing boater

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ST. MARKS (AP) — Coast Guard officials say they've suspended search efforts for a boater who went missing of the Florida Panhandle.

The Coast Guard ended its search for 60-year-old George Taylor just before noon Tuesday. Rescue crews had covered 10,358 square nautical miles over the course of 60 hours.

The Tallahassee man had reportedly been sailing his 27-foot Catalina sailboat from St. Marks to Carrabelle when he disappeared.

Man arrested in robbery

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MARIANNA — After a robbery at knife point, police have made an arrest, Marianna Police Department reported in a press release.

Dexter Luwon Morrison, 27, was arrested on armed robbery charges Tuesday morning in connection with a stick-up at the Tom Thumb convenience store at 3008A Jefferson St., police said.

The business was allegedly held up at about 4:30 a.m. earlier that day by Morrison. Police said Morrison took an undetermined amount of cash and have charged him with armed robbery.

PCB woman dies in Georgia accident

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A Panama City Beach woman died Sunday after being ejected from a vehicle in what Georgia State Patrol officials believe to be an intentional car crash in Long County, Ga.

Gerard Lucien Pepin, 62, and his wife, Gina Marie Pepin, 59, were traveling in a 2007 Ford Mustang on U.S. 301 near George Swindell Road in Long County, a rural area just southwest of Fort Stewart, when the vehicle veered off the highway and crashed into a wooded area, officials reported.

Neither of the victims was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.

Gina Pepin was pronounced dead at the scene, and survivor Gerard Pepin was airlifted to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah.

Georgia authorities said they were already on the lookout for the Mustang after a housekeeper at the Richmond Mills hotel, where the couple had been staying, found suspicious items in their room and called police. Reports said the couple departed the hotel at 10:30 a.m. and crashed shortly after noon.

Circumstances leading up to the crash are still under investigation by the Georgia State Patrol, Richmond Hill Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Gerard Pepin was out on bond stemming from a case in Volusia County in which the therapist was charged with blackmailing a patient for sex in June. Georgia officials said he will face additional charges from the accident.

Public safety divers converge on P.C. for annual conference

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PANAMA CITY — Hundreds of public safety divers from across the U.S. and Canada came up for air in Panama City this week at a conference designed to support better response and safer practices for water-related emergencies.

Hosted by the International Association of Dive Rescue Specialists (IADRS), the four-day event kicked off Monday and will continue through Thursday at the Florida State University Panama City Holley Academic Center, featuring several presenters and exhibitors from dive rescue teams specializing in water rescue and recovery.

With the crux of the job spent underwater, Richard Sadler, medical director and diving medical officer for IADRS, said public safety divers conduct some of the riskiest and most underappreciated missions in public service.

“Public safety diving generally is considered the most hazardous job in diving,” Sadler said. “These guys dive in notoriously bad conditions. ... It’s a very risky job. They don’t really get the credit they deserve.”

IADRS Executive Director Blades Robinson said the purpose of the conference is to make sure divers have access to the best training and equipment available.

Over the last 10 years, Robinson said the organization has seen half as many diving fatalities as the previous 10-year period.

“The biggest challenge we’ve identified in the last 10 years is that 70 percent of public safety diving fatalities have been related to coronary artery disease,” Robinson said, adding that the organization has since created a program to evaluate a diver’s skills and physical limitations before sending them into the field. “What’s so important for these divers is the training that they go through. It has to be proper training.”

As a major hub for diving and underwater research, Panama City was a natural place to host the conference.

“Panama City is really the hub of ocean research and diving,” said Mike Zinszer, director of the Advanced Science Diving program at FSU Panama City, also citing underwater research activities and dive training programs at Naval Support Activity Panama City. “People here locally don’t realize how much research goes on here.”

The FSU Panama City dive program launched about 12 years ago and now accounts for about 5 percent of campus enrollment.

“Five percent of students at this campus play underwater,” Zinszer said. “This program does not exist at any other university. It’s one of a kind.”

Witnesses differ on murder plan

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PANAMA CITY — Jurors heard three divergent accounts of what led to the strangling death and shallow-grave burial of a Vietnam veteran during Tuesday’s trial of accused killer David Lee Clanton.

Weeks passed after 69-year-old Arthur Moore was reported missing before Bay County Sheriff’s Office investigators got a tip from a friend of Clanton, 34, that he’d jokingly mentioned strangling Moore, his father-in-law, to death in his bed. Moore was known to go out of town unannounced and had been reported missing by his wife and daughter after the night of Sept. 8, 2013, though both knew he was actually buried in a shallow grave near the Steelfield Landfill.

Lottie Moore and Mary Clanton have been given sentences of seven years and three years, respectively, for assisting in Arthur Moore’s death. Attorneys of David Clanton have not denied he committed the act, but have so far attempted to portray him as a pawn in either of the women’s scheme.

Jurors in Clanton’s first-degree murder trial Tuesday heard different stories of how plans for Moore’s death developed.

Clanton led investigators in late-October of last year to where he and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Clanton, buried her father. All four lived together in a three-bedroom trailer on Stauber Road, off Campflowers Road. Clanton initially told them he feared for his life around Moore and strangled him out of self-preservation.

“The day everything went down, he asked me how long it would take me to bleed out,” Clanton said in a confession played for the jury. “I felt like he was going to hurt or kill me.”

Moments later, after being allowed to speak with his wife, Clanton’s story changed. In a second recorded confession he said he was manipulated by his mother-in-law, 64-year-old Lottie Jean Moore, and his wife played only a minor role.

On the witness stand Tuesday, Mary Clanton, 27, turned on both her mother and husband. She said her mother mentioned plans for David Clanton to strangle Arthur Moore during a card game days earlier, to which he agreed. Their plan culminated Sept. 8.

“She wasn’t asking that night,” Mary Clanton said. “They’d already decided.”

Mary Clanton said her mother drugged Arthur Moore and removed a gun from his room, in case he struggled against David Clanton. When he struck, Mary Clanton hid in the bathroom until she was summoned for assistance in the burial of her father. She also said she was warned if she stuck to the story, she would be safe — which was why she lied to authorities for more than a month after seeing her father strangled to death, she said.

Lottie Moore and Mary Clanton supplied BCSO with piles of bogus information during the search for Arthur Moore. Lottie Moore even went down to BCSO to complain they weren’t allocating enough manpower to the search.

But during her turn on the stand, Lottie Moore shifted the blame onto her daughter. She said her offer to kill Arthur Moore was “teasing” that Mary Clanton ran with. Mary Clanton then manipulated David Clanton into committing the crime. When authorities inquired for help with finding Arthur Moore, Lottie Moore lied out of fear, she said.

“I was afraid Mary was going to push the button, and I’d be the next one,” she told jurors.

David Clanton could face life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder. The trial continues Wednesday.

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