Looking back at 2018

One word that can be associated with 2018 is change. And there was no bigger change locally than the November election, one day after President Donald Trump visited Cape Girardeau to rally Republicans.

Trump rallied thousands of cheering supporters on a rainy Nov. 5 in Cape Girardeau, offering closing arguments for the Republican Party before Nov. 6 crucial midterm elections to decide the balance of power in Congress.

More than 7,000 people, many of them standing, crammed into the Show Me Center for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rally.

Thousands stood in line for hours outside the Show Me Center, braving rain and wind to get an opportunity to see the president. Doors were scheduled to open at 6 p.m., but opened earlier because of the weather.

Trump brought along some star power with him, including nationally known conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, a Cape Girardeau native, and country music star Lee Greenwood.

The president also brought up several women to the stage, including his daughter Ivanka Trump, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.

Conservative radio and television commentator Sean Hannity also briefly took the stage.

The rally worked as Republicans took many state offices and the impact was even felt on the county level.

Scott County will have new officials in 2019 as none of the incumbents were re-elected during the Nov. 6 election.

Scott County voting trends mirrored the statewide trend with the majority of voters opting for the Republican candidates.

Republican Jim Glueck defeated Democrat incumbent Jamie Burger, who has served as the presiding commissioner since 2008. Glueck received 7,269 votes, and Burger had 6,907 votes.

In a race separated by only 98 votes, Zac Horack, a Republican, defeated incumbent Scott T. Horman, a Democrat, as the associate circuit judge for Division 5 with a vote of 7,148 to 7,050.

Republican Amanda Oesch ousted Democrat incumbent Paul R. Boyd, who has served as the prosecuting attorney since 1996, in a vote of 8,474 to 5,701.

In the final contested county race, Joe Bill Davis, a Republican, defeated Glenda Enderle, a Democrat, who has served as the treasurer for 28 years, in a vote of 8,697 to 5,411.

In another change, a Sikeston man,convicted of killing of a bar owner in 2000 despite a total lack of physical evidence linking him to the crime, was freed from prison in May after the state’s top prosecutor decided not to retry him.

David Robinson, 49, was greeted with hugs and thanked his attorneys as he emerged from the Jefferson City Correctional Center at around 10 p.m. May 14.

“I know I’m being held to a higher standard,” Robinson said about life going forward. “I can only say it’s only just begun.”

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley and the county prosecutor issued statements that holding charges would be dismissed after Judge Darrell Massey, who was appointed to review the case for the Missouri Supreme Court, found in February that there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Robinson “is actually innocent” of killing Sheila Box. She was shot to death in 2000 after leaving a bar she co-owned in Sikeston, in Missouri’s southeastern corner, with $300 in cash and checks.

On May 1, the state Supreme Court overturned Robinson’s conviction, ruling that his constitutional rights had been violated, and gave Hawley 30 days to review the case to decide whether to retry him. Hawley would have had little evidence on which to re-try Robinson.

During the trial, prosecutors presented no physical evidence linking Robinson to the crime and two witnesses who placed him at the scene recanted. Another man, Romanze Mosby, confessed to several people in 2004 that he had killed Box, but he refused to sign an affidavit to make the confession official. He killed himself in his cell five years later and his confession was never introduced as evidence.

While one crime that was thought solved became unsolved, another crime that stood unsolved for 20 years was finally brought to an end.

Through the tenacity of law enforcement officers and breakthroughs in DNA technology, New Madrid County Sheriff Terry Stevens announced Oct. 5 that one of the “most heinous crimes ever in the history of New Madrid County” is now solved.

Stevens was joined by investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crimes Control along with an officer from Dyer County, Tenn., to identify Robert Eugene Brashers, 40, as the man responsible for the March 28, 1998, murder of Sherri Scherer, 38, and her daughter, 12-year-old Megan Scherer, of rural Portageville.

“We have identified the killer,” Stevens said. “Make no mistake about this gentleman; he was a serial rapist and a serial killer, but no more.”

On Jan. 13, 1999, Brashers had his last brush with the law.

As Kennett Police Department officers were conducting an investigation into a stolen license plate, a four-hour standoff ensued with Brashers, who was armed with a semi-automatic pistol. The standoff ended when Brashers killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

According to Master Sgt. Bud Cooper with the Missouri Highway Patrol, it was nearly 15 years later when significant advances in DNA testing led to evidence from the Scherer murders being resubmitted to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Crime Laboratory. A full-suspect DNA profile was developed and entered into CODIS resulting in a match to the April 6, 1990, murder of Genevieve Zitricki of Greenville, S.C.

Another criminal case that had dominated the media over the past year-and-a-half finally came to a close in November as former Mississippi County Sheriff Cory Hutcheson pleaded guilty Nov. 20 to federal charges for using the cellphones of a judge, other law officers and others to track their whereabouts.

Hutcheson, 35, admitted to wire fraud and identity theft and agreed to resign as part of a plea deal. Federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss 26 other counts.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 28.

Hutcheson still faces unrelated charges in state court that include robbery and assault, but his attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said he expects those charges to be dropped. Rosenblum said Hutcheson is expected to plead guilty only to a misdemeanor state charge of improperly using a notary.

Rosenblum said Hutcheson takes responsibility “for the lapse in judgment he made.”

Hutcheson was a longtime deputy in Mississippi County, and he was elected sheriff in November 2016 and took office in January 2017.

Hutcheson also was named in a lawsuit over the May 2017 death of an inmate at the county jail. The lawsuit filed by the family of Tory Sanders said he died after Hutcheson and others beat and choked him. The lawsuit said Hutcheson used his knee to press on the man’s neck and refused to let up, even when another officer urged him to do so.

City of Sikeston

Residents of the City of Sikeston were once again handed utility rate increases. The Sikeston City Council approved a BMU recommendations for a three-year cumulative rate increase for utilities provided by BMU. It is the latest in significant increases since 2014, the most recent being a 10.9 percent increase implemented in June of this year.

The proposed three-year rate increase averages 8 percent per year for electric and 12 percent for both water and sewer. For the average monthly bill, which according to BMU is $138.37 with $106.92 electric, $17.50 water and $13.95 sewer, the increase will be an average of $12.15 after year one, $14.61 for the second increase and $17.10 after the third increase.

The rate increase began in October of this year for electric and will begin in January 2019 for both water and sewer. At the end of the proposed three-year increase in 2021, Sikeston utility rates will be comparable to the majority of Missouri cities’ rates imposed on their customers in 2016.

While officials referenced many times that Sikeston’s rates would still continue to be some of the lowest in the state, it was of little consolation to many who the increase will impact. Some who spoke cited Sikeston residents who are on a fixed income and their inability to pay for the increases.

• of the Salvation Army’s Sikeston Service Unit Board, addressed the Council and said one of the things the Salvation Army helps do is help pay bills for those who have had their electricity shut off.

“There is a tremendous amount of people who are living month to month,” Sikes said. “The city needs to figure out some way to help those people because they still have to live. Water and electricity are not just wants, they are basic needs.”

Some who spoke out said the increases could cause people to move or force small businesses to close while keeping businesses from locating in Sikeston.

“You are going to push out the actual working people in this town because they can’t afford it anymore,” said Sikeston resident John Graham.

It wasn’t all bad in Sikeston however, as construction on the new Sikeston R-6 elementary school officially began early July 3 with a groundbreaking ceremony by district administrators, past and current board of education members and bond steering committee members.

The 17 individuals in attendance gathered briefly under a partly-sunny sky and 80-degree weather at 7:30 a.m. at the site of the future Wing Elementary located at the corner of Col. George E. Day Parkway and Brunt Boulevard in Sikeston.

Since the $11-million bond issue was approved by Sikeston R-6 voters in April 2017, Superintendent Tom Williams said the most frequently asked question he’s received from patrons has been: “When are we going to get started?”

The project has been broken into stages, the superintendent said and the overall plan is for the building to be completed by July 2019 and ready for use for the 2019-2020 school year.

The ended on a positive note for the community as deeds from the Sikeston Jaycees were rewarded in a big way as the group was the winner of a national contest.

On Dec. 5, the Sikeston Jaycees accepted the grand prize for the AGCO/PRCA Sowing Good Deeds initiative on behalf of the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo committee at the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. In addition to the national recognition and covered airfare for two committee members, the Jaycees will receive a Massey Ferguson tractor valued at $35,000 as a reward for their philanthropic contributions to the community.

“This is a substantial honor not only for the Jaycees but for Sikeston as a whole,” said Ross Merideth, Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo chairman. “We come together as a community each year to generate enough revenue to grow the Rodeo as an attraction and give back to local organizations such as the Kenny Rogers Children’s Center, Missouri Delta and the YMCA. We’re proud of our efforts and extremely thankful for the support we receive from Sikeston residents and Rodeo guests every year.”