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BY KELLI PEACOCK DUNN
News Editor

An arrest has been made and another is pending following an investigation into a December stabbing incident in Clarksville.

As reported last month by The County Record, Diana Jo Bates, 29, was rushed to Bay Medical Center Dec. 15 after allegedly being stabbed. According to the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office, Dep. Bobby Sims, Sgt. Jared Nichols and Inv. Mark Mallory responded to a home on NW Baggett Loop just after 6 p.m. They spoke with Bates and her boyfriend, Justin Woody, who claimed Pamela Bowden, 43, who lives with them, came home and started an altercation over a cell phone. Diana reportedly confronted Pamela in the front yard and, at one point, thought Pamela had punched her in her left side. However, she looked down and saw blood. Pamela then got in her car and left the residence.

Bates was hospitalized for treatment. She reported receiving four stitches to a one inch stab wound that was four inches deep in her side.
Meanwhile, Lt. Mark Mallory located Bowden at her mother’s home. Although visibly shaken, Bowden said she was alright. No weapons were found on her person or in her vehicle. Bowden alleged Bates attacked her with an unknown weapon while in the yard of the home they share and admitted to stabbing her, but said it was in self defense. She said she didn’t know what she had done with the knife used in the stabbing.

After arriving home from the hospital, Bates reportedly told Lt. Mallory she and Bowden had been arguing for a couple days before the stabbing incident. She said on that day, the argument escalated when Bowden was in her car and Bates was on the front porch. Bates said she went toward Bowden at the same time Bowden came toward her to fight. Bates said she had no weapon in her hand and didn’t see that Bowden was armed with a knife. Bates told Lt. Mallory she assumed she and Bowden would have a physical altercation to settle their differences, then move forward residing together because they were friends. Bates said, as she got to Bowden, she realized she had been stabbed and 911 was called.

A week later, a follow up interview was conducted with Bowden who said, on the night in question, she was sitting in her car while Bates was standing in the doorway of the house in the midst of a verbal altercation. She spotted a knife in the seat and decided to arm herself. When Bates came toward her, Bowden said she thought Bates picked up a black object. She then met Bates in the yard, alleged Bates hit her in the thumb, then she stabbed Bates. Bowden still couldn’t recall what she did with the knife.

Other witnesses were interviewed, but the knife was never recovered. Bowden said the black object she thought Bates picked up could have been a sock with a padlock inside that her friend later found, but other witnesses denied seeing Bates with anything in her hand.
Due to the fact that Bates said she intended to fight Bowden that day, and since the two women reside together, Lt. Mallory concluded the incident constituted domestic violence by both parties.

Bowden has been charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon (domestic violence) and is being held without bond. A warrant has also been issued for Bates’ arrest on charges of domestic violence assault.

BY KELLI PEACOCK DUNN
News Editor

An undercover drug investigation led to the arrest of a father, son, and the son’s girlfriend last week.

Albert James “A.J.” Kearce, 52, and his son, Alan “Joseph” Kearce, 23, have been charged with trafficking in hydrocodone over 28 grams, but less than 200 grams. Both men, along with Joseph’s girlfriend, Pamala A. McMillan, 50, have all been charged with conspiracy to traffic in hydrocodone.
According to the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, members of the Calhoun-Liberty Drug Task Force utilized a confidential source to make a controlled purchase of 56 hydrocodone pills from A.J., Joseph and McMillan. Lt. Mark Mallory and Lt. Tim Partridge met with the source and A.J. reportedly called the source during this time and arranged to sell the pills for $5 each. A.J. allegedly indicated the pills belonged to his son, Joseph, and he had to keep four pills to prove on a urinalysis test that he was taking his prescribed medication. A.J. also told the source to bring $1.10 he needed to fill the prescription, as well as gas money.

The source met A.J. at his South Pear Street home with $10 to cover the gas and his prescription cost. They agreed to meet at the Calhoun County Library once A.J. obtained the pills. A short time later, A.J., Joseph and Pamela arrived at the library parking lot, along with another female in the vehicle. A.J. approached the source’s car and exchanged the pills for $300. During the transaction, he was asked if the others knew what was going on and said they did. The pill bottle had a prescription label with Alan J. Kearce’s name. The source called and spoke with Joseph Kearce, thanking him for selling the pills.
Once the deal was done and the suspects drove away, an arrest team consisting of Cpl. Eddie Dalton and BPD Ofc. Maxwell initiated a traffic stop and recovered the $300 in buy money.

Lt. Mallory interviewed Joseph who denied knowledge that his father was going to sell his pills. However, he was overheard on a jail phone later asking a pastor to bring him bail money and allegedly remarked that the pills were sold because they needed money.
Also interviewed was A.J. who said he wanted to accept responsibility for selling the pills and said his son had no knowledge of it. However, he admitted when asked that McMillian was with him when he first met with the source the day before in Bristol to discuss selling the pills. A.J. was also asked about his own prescription for hydrocodone. He stated he receives 90 pills per month, then trades them for sex and sells them.

Both A.J. and Joseph are being held on a $5000 bond. McMillian’s bond is set at $10,000. The other woman in the vehicle was not charged.

BY KELLI PEACOCK DUNN
News Editor

An investigation into inappropriate behavior with a child led to the arrest of a Blountstown man this week.

Edmond Nicholas Taylor, 34, has been charged with showing obscene material to a minor child.

According to the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, the mother of a seven-year-old boy told authorities Taylor was a new neighbor who had befriended her and her children. She said her son had gone to Taylor’s home and watched television with him before, but recently began acting strange around Taylor and refused to go with him. The woman questioned her son and said he told her Taylor had touched his private parts. The child provided details to a Department of Children and Families investigator about an alleged incident with Taylor.

Lt. Mark Mallory and DCF Inv. Barbara Bodiford interviewed Taylor who indicated he had babysat the woman’s two children, but never had either of them with him alone. He said he only watched the children in his home once about a week before Christmas. Lt. Mallory asked Taylor if he knew of anything about the children that concerned him and he responded he did not.

It was then disclosed to Taylor that one of the children alleged he had touched him inappropriately. Investigators then told Taylor a medical exam was going to be conducted on the boy and, at this point, Taylor offered that the boy had spent the night with him alone about a week before Christmas and they watched movies together on a sofa bed. He said the boy confided in him during that visit that his cousins had sexually abused him.

Lt. Mallory then questioned Taylor about the discrepancies in his story, first denying he had never had the children for more than a few hours, stating he never kept either child alone, and failing to mention he had ever had the child spend the night at his home in the same bed with him. Lt. Mallory also pointed out that Taylor never mentioned the alleged child abuse involving the boy’s cousins when asked if anything concerned him about the children. Taylor admitted he never told anyone about the boy’s claims of sexual abuse by his cousins, including failing to mention it to the boy’s mother.

A search warrant was issued for Taylor’s home after the child described watching pornographic videos of boys engaged in sexual acts and referred to a mannequin Taylor kept in his home named Lola. A search of the home turned up two DVDs with gay pornography and the mannequin the boy described. The computer search history revealed someone had been searching topics such as “preteen nude boys.” The computer was seized and sent to the FDLE crime lab for further analysis.

Taylor is being held without bond in the Calhoun County Jail.

Christmas festivities get underway tonight in Calhoun County with the Jingle Bell Run set for 5:30 p.m. The run will begin at Blountstown Middle School and will wind through the hospital neighborhood. Come cheer on the runners along the route, play Christmas music and show your spirit! According to the Chamber of Commerce, the route will be as follows:

-Up Charlie Johns Street, around Calhoun-Liberty Hospital, back down to Hentz Avenue

-West on Hentz Avenue to Jane Street, from Jane to Wade Street, and from Wade to Teresa Terrace

-Up Teresa Terrace to Marie Avenue

-Marie Avenue back to Charlie Johns Street, then winding up at BMS.

Come join the fun!