By Rita Howell
The year 2014 saw five murders in Panola County, with two quickly solved, and the other three, including the December 6 burning of Jessica Chambers, still under investigation, with no arrests made.

Panola made it through nearly half of the year with no killings. But on the evening of June 11, 29-year-old Marreo Andreal Toliver of Sardis was shot just west of Highway 51 in Sardis, apparently following an altercation with Jordan Johnson, 41, also of Sardis. Johnson confessed within hours.

Labor Day saw apparently unrelated shooting incidents in two locations the evening of September 1 in Batesville where one man died and two were wounded.

Corey Henderson died and Darrius Johnson was wounded by a man who unleashed a fusillade of bullets at a Patterson Street home. Aundricus Lee Draper, 21, was arrested the next day. Johnson survived.
The same evening Dustin Armstrong was hit in the leg by gunfire in an unrelated robbery attempt at West Ridge Apartments. Two days later Devonta Pride and Derrick Morning were arrested for armed robbery and aggravated assault.

Twenty days after Henderson’s death, two men were killed September 20 in an ambush-style shooting at a small store on Curtis Road.

Killed were Rodrick Scurlock, 24, of Pope and Quendez Korterrious Robinson, 20, of Batesville.
Sheriff Dennis Darby said at the time his investigation indicated a shootout between members of rival gangs.

“This is gang stuff,” Darby said. “…A lot of people saw what was going on.”
But no one has been arrested.

On December 6, on an uninhabited stretch of Herron Road near Courtland, a passerby encountered Jessica Chambers beside her burning car. She had burns over 98 percent of her body and died a few hours later at a Memphis hospital.

The case of the pretty blonde teen who died so horrifically drew media attention from all over the U.S. A team of investigators from federal, state and local agencies continues to seek answers, and after interviewing dozens of people over the past three weeks, still no arrests have been made.

Through the year
The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday January 20 in Batesville saw the dedication of an official historical marker commemorating the March 19, 1968 visit to Batesville’s Mt. Zion M.B. Church.

A skull was found by a man searching for a horse in the northeast corner of Panola County January 13. It was sent to the State Crime Lab.

Five years of state conservancy ended in the North Panola School District when a newly elected board of trustees was sworn in January 14. Members are Deborah Armstrong Tucker, Verna Lasha Hunter, Chris Fairlee, Pat Lamar and Trosiki Pettis.

Plans were begun in January for construction of a lane for visitors to pull their vehicles off Highway 35 and view the Batesville Mounds. The area was cleared of brush and overgrowth and the mounds are now visible from the road. In the fall scouts from Troop 78 camped out at the site where pre-Columbian Americans once lived.

A thousand prize coonhounds and their handlers from all over the country came to the Batesville Civic Center January 23-25 for the UKC Winter Classic coon hunt and bench show.

They’ll be returning for the 2015 hunt January 29-31. The UKC has made a multi-year commitment to hold the event in Batesville.

On January 23 a Panola County jury found Christopher Thomas of Courtland guilty of capital murder and conspiracy to commit armed robbery in the death of Tovell Henderson on May 3, 2013 on Boyd St. in Batesville. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tenn., on January 27 purchased Hospital Management Associates, giving CHS ownership of 14 of HMA’s Mississippi hospitals, including Tri-Lakes Medical Center in Batesville.

In February a marksmanship team from South Panola High School’s JROTC unit won the Air Force ROTC Air Rifle National Championship in Anniston, Ala.

Emily Sigler was selected as Panola County’s Miss Hospitality in a competition sponsored by the Panola Partnership. She represented Panola in the state Miss Hospitality pageant in Hattiesburg in July.
Joe Azar was installed as the new president of the Panola Partnership at the organization’s annual banquet in early March.

Jerry Lightsey and Mary Lou Mitchell were crowned king and queen of the 2014 Junior Auxiliary Charity Ball in March.

L.A. Sparks guard and Ole Miss alum Armintie Price-Herrington and Memphis shoe designer Edward Bogard were the speakers at the Boys & Girls Club of North Mississippi Steak and Steak Banquet March 27.

In April MDOT officials confirmed that the proposed Highway 6 Batesville Bypass project has been bypassed.

Como Police Chief Earl Burdette has filed a lawsuit against Panola County Sheriff Dennis Darby, stemming from an altercation during an investigation of a shooting in Como in November, 2013.
Springtime brought a construction boom along the Highway 6 East corridor. Plans for new construction were announced by McDonald’s, Sonic, Dodge Store, Guaranty Bank, C Spire and Raceway. A new hotel, Comfort Suites, was completed in January.

Former Como city clerk Kara Killebrew and her husband, Marcus Wade Killebrew, were arrested for embezzlement in April. She is alleged to have embezzled more than $16,000 from the town’s bank accounts.

Country quartet Lonestar headlined Batesville’s Springfest in May.

Walmart announced plans in May to open a Neighborhood Market in Sardis.

South Panola High School’s football field was vandalized May 24 by drivers of two pickups who cut doughnuts in the artificial turf late on that Saturday night. Insurance paid $200,000 for damages.

Two Panola County men, John Wesley Hallmark, 64, and Jeffrey Scott Capwell, 52, died in a housefire near Courtland on May 30.

On June 4 Batesville’s Square Market opened for its fifth year. The farmers market runs through October.
Panola County’s jobless rate dipped to nine percent, the lowest in six years.

A Panola County jury found James Willie guilty of the May, 2012, murder of Thomas Schlender of Nebraska. Schlender was shot multiple times alongside I-55 near the Pope-Courtland exit.

Cedric Richardson was named the new superintendent of the North Panola School District in June.
About a dozen former civil rights workers who had volunteered to work in Panola County during the “Mississippi Freedom Summer” in 1964 returned to visit Panola in June.

The South Panola School District trustees proposed a budget of $37.5 million to educate about 4,600 students.

In North Panola, trustees proposed a budget of $15.8 million for about 1,600 students.
The South Panola School District received a 21st Century Grant in June to supply tutors in grades one through eight.

A renovation project designed by Batesville architect Angela Clanton won a Mississippi Main Street Award. The Wilbourn Bulding, owned by Vicki Cobb, won the award.

Danielle Bean of Batesville was named National Curvy Ms. Queen at the Today’s American Woman Pageant in South Carolina in June.

The Batesville Fire Department received its newest pumper truck in July. It was paid for jointly by the city and the county and will be used to fight fires outside the city limits if necessary.

New trials were ordered in July by U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers for Lee Garner and Ray Shoemaker, charged in a kickback/bribery scheme at Tri-Lakes Medical Center. Both had been found guilty on multiple counts by a jury in 2012, but the case has been prolonged by subsequent acquittals, appeals and reversals.

In September crews worked along Sardis’ Main Street to upgrade sidewalks.

MDOT tightened weight limits on 13 bridges between Batesville and Clarksdale, causing problems for farmers trying to get their products to market during harvest season.

Hannah Heafner was North Delta’s homecoming queen. Shanbreyata Akins was North Panola’s queen. South Panola’s queen was Kiearra Whitehead.

Travis Sisson was named CEO at Tri-Lakes Medical Center in September.

Tim Taylor, long-serving part-time fire chief for Batesville, was named its full-time fire chief by the Board of Aldermen in October.

Thacker Mountain Radio recorded a program in Como in October, featuring local performers. The program was broadcast statewide December 13.

Though the overall rankings of Panola’s two school districts did not change following the 2014 state achievement tests, individual school scores did rise in several cases, it was announced in October.

North Panola High School is now rated a “B” school, as are four of the schools in the South Panola district: Batesville Junior High, Pope School, Batesville Intermediate and Batesville Elementary. The North Panola District is rated “D” and the South Panola District is rated “C.”

An undersized sewer line is being replaced by the City of Batesville along Highway 35 North.

On November 3 Gov. Phil Bryant came to Batesville for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly renovated Skyview Apartments, the first project completed under Mississippi’s Health Care Zone initiative. The location of the complex to provide affordable housing within the health care zone allowed for tax credits that aided in the financing of the $11 million project for Wishcamper Properties.

Kirk Rowsey and Woody Drake were appointed to the Panola County Land Planning Commission in November.

Two Batesville civic groups sponsored foot races as the year ended. The Batesville Rotary Club drew 359 participants in its Gateway to the Delta 10-miler and 5K on November 15 and the Junior Auxiliary of Batesville had more than 100 runners of all ages in its Jingle Bell Rock and Run December 13. Both races started and finished on the Batesville Square.

South Panola football fans were glad to make two trips to Starkville December 5 and 7 to see their team claim its 11th state championship.

The North Panola Church Collaborative ended the year by serving 600 families with bags of free groceries. The group held six food distributions during the year at Como’s Cistern Hill Church.