A Morgan County man was sentenced in Christian County Court this week on drug charges after selling drugs to undercover police officers.

Newschannel 20 reports that 27 year old Ronald D. Fisher was sentenced to 6 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections on Tuesday by Judge Bradley T. Paisley.

Fisher was originally arrested in August 2020 by Taylorville Police for methamphetamine delivery less than 5 grams after selling the drug in a controlled buy by undercover police officers. Fisher was also cited for possession of methamphetamine less than 5 grams during the arrest.

Fisher was arrested again in September 2020 according to court records for driving without a license.

Subsequent possession and delivery of methamphetamine arrests followed in Christian County in June and December 2021.

Fisher was sentenced on Tuesday to serve 3 year sentences consecutively on one of the possession and one of the delivery charges. He was also ordered to serve up to 1 year of mandatory supervised release, ordered to pay a $1,000 county fine plus fees and court costs. According to court documents, Fisher must serve at least 50% of the 6 year sentence. The traffic charges and other drug charges were dropped per the plea. Fisher was given credit for 285 days served in the Christian County Jail.

Travelers along West College Avenue have gotten to peer inside the guts of Crispin Hall on the Illinois College Campus lately.

The front facade of the building and the interior of the building have been completely demolished leaving only concrete and steel behind. The 1963-built educational building is receiving $12.6 million worth of renovations as part of IC’s Inspiring Achievement initiative. The college has privately raised $48.4 million over the last few years to bring the college into the future.

Construction began on the project on June 1^st. Vice President of Business Affairs & CFO for Illinois College Kent Siltman says that O’Shea Builders, the contractor for the project, is on track: “Almost all of the demolition work has been done. The contractor has actually begun pouring some foundations along the north edge of the building so they can move on to the new facade, or re-skinning of the building in terms of the masonry, windows, and those sorts of things. That will really start from that northwest corner and then they will work their way all the way around the building. As it is right now, you can see straight through the building. There is nothing but the concrete pours and piers.”

Siltman says the next big piece of the building will be making it more accessible: “The big piece that they are working on for probably the next couple of weeks is that we will be installing an elevator in this building to make it fully accessible. It is going to go in the northwest corner of the main part of the building. There is a stairway there currently. That is going to be removed to the opposite corner – the southwest corner. The space in the northwest corner will become the elevator shaft, the equipment room, and all those sorts of things. They will begin working on that here in the next week or so. Then, they will be at the point where they can start doing some of the layout of the interior with the new interior walls and begin some of the work on the electrical systems and HVAC systems.”

Siltman says that the building will once again house the college’s Computer Science, Math, Physics, and Psychology courses and programs once it is complete. He says those classes will be sprinkled throughout campus while work is being completed. Minor construction is occurring at various other buildings on campus throughout the summer to utilize empty space to turn into classrooms for use during the construction. According to an announcement in May, 73% of the college’s population take at least 1 class in Crispin Hall during the academic year.

Siltman says Crispin Hall should be completed before the start of the Fall 2023 semester.

Three area parks are receiving a portion of $30.3 million in grants through the state’s Open Space Land Acquisition and Development program.

The OSLAD program is administered through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. OSLAD grants can provide up to one-half of a project’s funds.

The following parks in the area are receiving grants for open projects:

The Mt. Sterling Park District is receiving $400,000 for improvements at the Joel Oliver Memorial Pool.

The City of Carrollton is receiving $200,00 for improvements at Fry Park

The City of Roodhouse is receiving $400,00 for improvements at the Roodhouse Rez Community Park.

The OSLAD Program began in 1987 and receives its funding from a percentage of the state’s Real Estate Transfer Tax.

Motions for a Cass County man to receive a new murder trial were denied yesterday afternoon.

Defense counsel Mark Wykoff filed a motion for a new trial for 72 year old Robert D. Harris in Cass County on June 3^rd. The motion outlined 8 separate paragraphs of reasons asking for Harris’ guilty verdicts on 2 counts of first degree murder to be reversed. Harris was found guilty by a jury in Cass County Court on May 5th.

Cass County State’s Attorney Craig Miller says the stipulations in the motion are various in nature: “One of the allegations was hearing impairment or hearing deficiency during the trial. A number of other paragraphs in the motion include that the defense believes the 9-1-1 calls used at trial were hearsay, that the experts who testified at the trial were not properly disclosed, and some of the photographs used as evidence were prejudicial or should not have been admitted. We, obviously as the state, objected to that motion. The judge did not abuse his discretion when he made rulings during the trial itself, and that there was no notice during the trial of any sort of hearing impairment, that the 9-1-1 calls were not hearsay and they fall under what’s called a ‘hearsay exception’ when it comes to the rules of evidence, and that the experts were properly disclosed and the defense had their reports months before the trial actually began. The judge, more or less, on the record said the same as the state, and those are the reasons the judge systematically went through each paragraph of the motion and that’s the reason why he denied each one of those stipulations.”

The denial was rendered by Cass County Judge Timothy J. Wessel who presided over the duration of the murder trial.

Sentencing in the case has been set for August 30^th. Miller says the state is now preparing to gather victim impact statements.

Miller says according to Illinois truth in sentencing laws, Harris at the minimum faces life imprisonment without the possibility for parole.

People traveling into and out of Scott County are going to have to deal with a main road closure within the next two weeks.

Old U.S. 36/Illinois Route 106 from Interstate 72 to Church Farm Road near Riggston will be closed to all traffic. The scope of the work will be a box culvert replacement. The $340,000 project has been awarded to Kinney Contractors.

The road closure is expected to begin on Monday, July 18^th and last until September 8^th. IDOT says the time-frame of the start and end date are subject to change.

The Pike County Sherriff’s Department in cooperation with the Illinois State Police and Illinois Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force announced the arrest of a Barry man yesterday on a number of charges.

On Tuesday, the agencies executed a court-authorized search warrant at a residence located in rural Barry. Subsequent to the execution of the search warrant, 28 year old Brandon M. Lord of Barry was arrested for 12 counts of Dissemination of Child Pornography, Unlawful Possession of Child Pornography, Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine, and Unlawful Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Lord is accused of possessing and disseminating videos, via an electronic device, of children under the age of thirteen engaged in various sexual acts.

According to Pike County Sheriff David Greenwood, the investigation into Lord’s activities began in May when information was received regarding the possession and dissemination of child pornography. The investigation was forwarded to the Pike County Sheriff’s Department for further investigation. According to Greenwood, the Pike County Sheriff’s Department executed multiple search warrants and were successfully able to identify, locate, and arrest Lord as a result.

Lord remains lodged in the Pike County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond. Greenwood says the investigation is ongoing.

Pike County Judge Charles H.W. Burch ordered yesterday that Lord refrain from any contact with any person under the age of 18 without adult supervision. Lord is next due in Pike County Court on July 19th.

The U.S. Marshals are in search of a serial child rapist with ties to Central Illinois who has been on the lam for 20 years.

A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of 70 year old Herman Arthur Carroll. Carroll was arrested on July 3, 2000 after being accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl. The child sex offender, who had prior convictions in 1983 and 1993, was arrested in Moultrie County on charges of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, criminal sexual assault, and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Carroll later posted bond and has been on the run ever since.

According to the U.S. Marshals’ Service, the last confirmed sighting of Carroll was in 2012 in Branson, Missouri in a park. Carroll is known to have used the aliases of James Buzzard or James Butler. He is a carpenter by trade and specializes in trim finishing. He also has been known to sell handmade origami and stained glass. He has family members in the Peoria and Mount Vernon areas. Investigators believe he may be hiding out in homeless camps in Springfield, Missouri.

Carroll is a white male, standing 5’7″ and weighing about 240 pounds. He has brown hair, hazel eyes, a birthmark/discoloration on his abdomen and scars on his right finger and left wrist. He has tattoos of a red heart with the name “Joanne” and of a family tree with family members’ initials on the branches.

Anyone with information can contact the U.S. Marshals Service tip line at 1-877-926-8332 or call or send a tip to your local Crime Stoppers.

A Jacksonville teen is headed to state prison for his role in an armed robbery incident earlier this year.

18 year old Sebastian J. Eskew of the 1000 block of North Fayette Street pleaded guilty yesterday afternoon in Morgan County Court to a single count of aggravated discharge of a firearm at a vehicle with an occupant present.

The charge stems from a January 11th incident that occurred in the 500 block of East State Street. According to police reports at the time, Jacksonville Police and Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the scene just before 6PM on January 11th and discovered a victim who had received non-life threatening injuries from a shooting. The victim was transported to Jacksonville Memorial Hospital.

Approximately 10 minutes later, a Morgan County Sheriff’s Deputy who had responded to the State Street scene, witnessed an individual fitting the description of a suspect in the shooting incident getting into the back of a vehicle on East Douglas Avenue. The Deputy initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle in the vicinity of the intersection of East Douglas and North Main Street and took Eskew into custody.

Shortly before 11PM that evening, Jacksonville Police recovered a pistol in the 600 block of East Douglas Avenue which had been reported stolen from out of state, which investigators said at the time was likely connected to the incident. Eskew was later charged with the aforementioned charge as well as armed robbery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon without possession of a FOID Card.

Police later arrested 18 year old Joseph S. Graham of the first block of Newland Lane on January 17th for armed robbery and robbery in connection to the case. He is due in Morgan County Court for a status hearing today.

Yesterday, Eskew was sentenced to 4 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections, a $500 fine, plus ordered to pay fees and court costs. Due to a firearm being used in the crime, Eskew must serve at least 85% of the sentence according to Illinois’ Truth in Sentencing laws. Eskew was given credit for 175 days served in the Morgan County Jail. The armed robbery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon charges were dropped per the plea.