This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | Dec. 4-10

1. Tompkins defeats Darr for Muscogee County sheriff by 417 votes: Challenger Donna Tompkins has defeated incumbent Muscogee County Sheriff John Darr by a margin of 6,434 votes to 6,017 votes, or 51.67 percent to 48.33 percent, according to unofficial final results from the Columbus Office of Elections and Registrations. Tompkins said she now has to catch up on state-mandated training for newly elected sheriffs.

2. Funeral tonight for 17-year-old Columbus High School student: Muscogee County coroner Buddy Bryan has said Annie stayed home from school Friday due to cramping and vomiting. Her mother went to a store to get something for Annie, came home and found Annie collapsed on the floor. Bryan, who has said no foul play was involved, said Wednesday the cause of death hasn’t been determined. The body was sent to the state lab in Atlanta for an autopsy, toxicology and histology, he said.

3. Columbus Bank and Trust, city’s largest bank, getting a new president: Synovus Financial Corp., the bank’s parent company, said Thursday that Heath Schondelmayer will take the helm of CB&T on Jan. 1. He will succeed Billy Blanchard, who plans to join a Columbus private equity firm, Jordan-Blanchard Capital, in which his father is now involved.

4. Charges dropped after Columbus man spends 35 years in prison: The Georgia Court of Appeals overturned his convictions Nov. 20, 2015, ruling Tyner deserved a new trial because the late Judge John Land had erred in denying Tyner’s request to have an attorney resume his defense after trying to represent himself. Now Tyner no longer faces prosecution for what authorities charged was a series of violent sexual assaults against Columbus women whose homes he broke into over eight months in 1980 and 1981.

5. Columbus High student gets highest possible score on ACT: Nationally, while the actual number of students earning the top score varies from year to year, on average, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earns the top score.

This story was originally published December 10, 2016 at 6:20 PM with the headline "This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | Dec. 4-10."