Author: Don Fletcher

By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced last week that one of three privately built “mega prisons” will be located in Escambia County. The other two will be built in Bibb and Elmore counties. According to a press release, the new 3,000-bed facility will be located on a site “near Bell Fork Road in Escambia County.” But Atmore Mayor Jim Staff said last week the massive…

Atmore man charged with murder By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Knight An Atmore man remained behind bars as midweek approached, charged with murder in the death of an unidentified person whose body was found September 3 in a wooded area near Nokomis. Investigators with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office and Atmore Police Department were sent to the Nokomis area Thursday, Sept. 3, after a tip was received that a…

By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer Each of the victims of a July 26 two-vehicle, head-on collision on U.S. 31 are slowly recovering from their physical injuries, although the drivers of the involved vehicles both reportedly have a long way to go. Joseph D. Barnes of Atmore, who was driving a 2005 Jeep Cherokee and was critically injured, remained in a coma and on a ventilator for several weeks and…

Gray Officers found synthetic and natural marijuana, along with two rifles, two handguns and various items for packaging and distributing the illicit substances. By DON FLETCHER News Staff Writer A wheelchair-bound Atmore man is behind bars after a multi-agency raid on his Atmore residence turned up synthetic and natural marijuana, along with materials for packaging and distributing the illicit substances, and four firearms. Austin James Gray Jr., 43, was taken…