This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | August 26 - September 1
1. Jury reaches verdict in aggravated sodomy trial of former Harris County deputy: A nine-woman, three-man Harris County Superior Court jury on Wednesday found a former sheriff’s deputy not guilty on aggravated sodomy, but guilty on a variety of other charges. The jury deliberated about seven hours over two days in deciding the fate of Thomas Carl Pierson. Three women had accused him of inappropriate actions during traffic stops in 2015 and 2016. One of the women said that Pierson forced her to perform oral sex on him during a Feb. 14, 2016 stop.
2. ‘I couldn’t stop him from being killed’: Family mourns 18-year-old killed on Henson Drive: Rose Jones hadn’t seen her great-grandson, Tremaine Taylor, in two days. With each passing hour, she became more concerned. “He didn’t come home that Tuesday, because I had made up his bed and it still was made up,” she said Thursday, sitting on her front porch in a south Columbus neighborhood. “So, this morning when the man knocked on my door, I thought it was him coming. But it wasn’t him, it was the coroner saying he was shot.”
3. See how much city of Columbus employees are making: The highest paid full-time employees of the Columbus Consolidated government are state judges. The lowest paid are court reporters. Those are just a couple of insights revealed in a list of full-time CCG employee salaries released by the city’s Human Resources Department in response to an open records request submitted by the Ledger-Enquirer.
4. Judge: ‘Stocking Strangler’ Carlton Gary denied retrial: A Muscogee County Superior Court judge has denied convicted “Stocking Strangler” Carlton Gary a new trial or new sentencing based on new evidence in the serial killings that terrorized the Wynnton neighborhood of Columbus from September 1977 to April 1978. Judge Frank J. Jordan Jr. delivered his decision in a 50-page order on Friday, almost three and half years after Gary’s attorney filed motions on the request.
5. With ‘Rebel’ flag in hand, Smiths group gathers at Civil War monument: With an American flag in one hand and the Confederate “Rebel” flag in another, nine young men from Smiths Station, Ala., converged on a Columbus memorial to the Civil War dead Saturday in the 700 block of Broadway. Keith Porter said the group from Smiths Station was at the monument to support Southern heritage. “We are against racism,” he said.
This story was originally published September 2, 2017 at 5:08 PM with the headline "This week’s top stories from the Ledger-Enquirer | August 26 - September 1."