• Police excavate lot after report of foul odor

• Stabbing melee leaves city man dead

• Amber Jack’s incident sparks outrage on Facebook

• Bar wars

• Grieving mother: Son deserved a better life

• Mechanic injured in garage fire

• State trooper funeral

• Gun buyback results unveiled

• Overturned semi

• Puppy stolen from the APL

• Carpenter Street fire

• Guns ablazin’

• Collision with train leaves teenager dead

• Homeless man beaten to death outside library

• Broken life: Jerry Gaston’s story

I spent more than six hours at this scene, watching as Springfield police, beginning with shovels and then moving to heavy equipment, dug up an entire lot on Wirt Avenue, after a public works crew reported smelling a foul odor upon demolishing a structure. A local woman who went missing in April 2008 last was seen near this neighborhood, and a man who had lived in the house previously had an extensive criminal record. Police wanted to exhaust all avenues to ensure there were no human remains on the property. None were found. It was a fascinating exercise to watch.

Police find nothing in excavated cistern

Nov. 10, 2010

Springfield police detectives and a city public works crew on Wednesday found nothing after excavating an old cistern at 1846 S. Wirt Ave. to try to pinpoint the source of a foul odor.

Police and work crews reached the bottom of the cistern shortly before 10 p.m. Officials said the hole would be filled Friday.

Springfield Deputy Police Chief Cliff Buscher said a squad car would be assigned outside the home to guard the large hole today.

“We’ll have a city crew come by and fill it on Friday,” he said.

Buscher previously had stopped short of calling the probe a death investigation, although detectives and crime scene technicians participated in the excavation.

Public works employees originally went to the property Monday to tear down the red single-story house, which neighbors said had been mostly vacant since a [...] Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most memorable interviews I’ve ever done with a witness. Mr. Collier’s eyes were swollen shut from the beating he took in the fight. He was missing teeth and spitting blood, and he talked to me inside his all-but-empty trailer, which had no running water or heat. He became upset and started crying, and I recall him saying to me, “I used to be a good-looking dude,” as he talked about the melee and pulled out a family photo album to show me. Meanwhile, random people were milling around outside the trailer and up and down the street. I actually texted another reporter to drive by and check on me.

Stabbing melee leaves city man dead

Oct. 5, 2010

A melee involving a knife, a tire iron and a meat hook that resulted in the stabbing death of a Springfield man Monday night may have stemmed from an earlier fight at a mobile home down the block, according to a man who lives there.

Neighbors and the Sangamon County coroner identified the victim as Jacob Folder, 25. He was pronounced dead at 12:07 a.m. Tuesday while in surgery at St. John’s Hospital. An autopsy indicated the cause of death was a stab wound to the upper body.

In all, there were five victims, according to Sangamon County sheriff’s investigators.

The fight, which happened at a house in the 100 block of South Livingston Street, came to the attention of police about 10:30 p.m., [...] Read the rest of this entry »

This story about an altercation at Amber Jack Ale House in Springfield came to my attention while working on Police Beat in May.

After the story was published on SJ-R.com and then the newspaper the following day, readers began calling and emailing the newspaper wanting to talk about experiences they had at the restaurant. A short time later, two sites sprang up on Facebook — one calling for a boycott of Amber Jack’s and the other asking people to share their stories about being banned by the Amber Jack’s owner who was the subject of my story. Within about 24 hours or so one of the Facebook sites had more than 1,000 “fans” and the other had more than 500. It’s a fascinating example of the power of social networking. By the way, the ‘boycott’ site later was pulled by Facebook for violating its rules about personal attacks.

Amber Jack owner, customer cited after altercation Saturday

May 10, 2010

The owner of Amber Jack Ale House and a customer face battery charges after a weekend confrontation at the Springfield restaurant that allegedly involved shoving and slapping.

Police issued notices to appear in court to Amber Jack owner Catherine D. McHenry, 53, of the 2000 block of South Willemore Avenue and customer Charles T. Silvey, 47, of Athens.

The incident happened about 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the business, 3150 Chatham Road. Police said they arrived to find the restaurant’s co-owner, who is McHenry’s husband, holding Silvey down on the floor. Numerous customers were inside, including prom parties [...] Read the rest of this entry »

This story was the talker in Springfield in mid-February. I pieced it together mostly using public documents, including police reports and court filings.

Bar wars? Police investigate incidents at two downtown taverns

Feb. 17, 2010

The owner of a closed downtown sports bar was questioned over the weekend about the destruction of 10 windows at a tavern across the street that is owned by his landlord, with whom he has been at odds, according to police reports.

Tom Kelty, 39, who owns Sammy’s Sports Bar at 217 S. Fifth St., denied any role in the vandalism, which caused $6,000 damage to the front windows at Floyd’s Thirst Parlor across the street at 210 S. Fifth St. Floyd’s is owned by Dennis Polk, who also owns the building that housed Sammy’s Sports Bar.

Court records show that Kelty and Polk have been embroiled in a lease dispute over the Sammy’s building since December 2004. A judge overseeing the case last week ordered Kelty to vacate the building by noon this Friday.

About noon Tuesday, police were sent to 217 S. Fifth St. after Kelty climbed a ladder and took a knife to the property’s blue awning and cut out all of the Sammy’s Sports Bar logos.

“I did climb up out front and I cut our logo and our name off the canopy out front,” Kelty said. “Our name is registered with the state. It’s trademarked. We own it; we bought it; we paid for it.”

Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies [...] Read the rest of this entry »

In August I sat through a tearful interview with Dawn Whalen, whose son, Tony Mabie, was struck by three alleged drunk drivers on Toronto Road. He died from his injuries. The criminal cases against the drivers, one of whom was a firefighter, are pending. This story was the result of the interview with Whalen.

Mom: Hit-and-run victim deserved a better life

Aug. 29, 2009

Tony Mabie coped with a learning disability as a youngster, a debilitating injury as an adult and lifelong feelings that he did not measure up.

His biggest enemy was himself, but he had dreams for the future, said his mother, Dawn Whalen of Buffalo. Now, she is hurt and angered by her son’s death at the hands of multiple hit-and-run drivers.

Mabie, 26, was walking along Toronto Road about 2 a.m. Tuesday, when he was struck by as many as three vehicles, two of which fled the scene.

The driver of one of the vehicles, a Springfield firefighter, allegedly was intoxicated, based on court filings, but had the presence of mind to stop and call 911. He was arrested for driving under the influence, but has not been charged with any other crimes.

It is unclear what happened from there. Springfield police said earlier this week they’ve recovered all three vehicles involved in the crime. Investigators would not comment otherwise on Friday.

“It hurts me to think my son felt so discounted all his life, and that’s the way he left this life,” Whalen said Friday. “Tony was not a fighter, he was not [...] Read the rest of this entry »

A mechanic suffered severe burns in this fire, which happened the morning of April 21, 2009, when he dropped a fuel tank he was changing out on a truck and the fuel ignited.

I covered the funeral of Illinois State Police trooper Brian McMillen, who was killed in an early morning crash east of Springfield. The funeral was in Taylorville on Oct. 31, 2007. I shot video, and SJ-R photographers Justin Fowler and T.J. Salsman shot stills. The result was this touching tribute.

City officials show off the hundreds of firearms turned in during a gun-buyback program. Oct. 29, 2007.

A truck hauling large pieces of concrete overturns at Veterans and J. David Jones parkways in Springfield.

Sue Pilger from the Animal Protective League talks about a break-in at the shelter in March 2008, during which a sick puppy was stolen.

House fire on Carpenter Street on Jan. 9, 2008.

After the city of Springfield hosted a gun buyback program in 2007, I started pestering the folks at the police department about following along to watch the guns get destroyed. After months of documenting, processing and background-checking all the guns, they finally invited me observe the process of getting rid of the more than 500 guns and other evidence.

This story was a ball to report. The officers on the police department’s evidence destruction team were fun and knowledgeable. Watching them go through all sorts of old evidence was interesting, but getting to go inside a Bartonville foundry to watch the guns as they were dumped into the white-hot flames of a furnace was a sight to behold.

Hundreds of city buyback guns fed to foundry’s furnace / Old paperwork and evidence, illegal drugs also destroyed
May 27, 2008

The idea of a gun buyback, during which Springfield residents could turn over their unwanted weapons to police, no questions asked, seemed like a good one last fall.

The offer turned out to be far more popular — and expensive — than expected. And it culminated last week when nearly 500 buyback guns — plus a variety of drugs, paperwork and other no longer needed crime evidence — went into a 3,000-degree furnace at the Keystone Steel and Wire foundry in Bartonville.

When the buyback was envisioned, the idea was to get guns off the street, cut down on [...] Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t believe the family of this Girard teenager ever got the answers they were searching for about how this crash happened. The mother wore her son’s class ring on her finger as she took me and photographer Shannon Kirshner to the crash site in October 2007. I’ll never know how she managed to keep herself together.

Mourning ‘Munchy’ / Girard teen died when car he was driving was struck by train
Oct. 29, 2007

GIRARD - To his friends, Matt Munchalfen was “Munchy,” a shy, all-around good guy who had a secret crush on a popular schoolmate. To his neighbors, he was the dependable young man who showed up to cut their grass, rake their leaves and put up riprap at their lakeside homes.

His younger brother and sister could count on Matt for rides and advice. Matt’s father expected his son to take over the family electrical business. He already could fully wire a garage.

And Matt was his mother’s first-born child. Despite being a busy 19-year-old, he often stopped by her bedroom to chat whenever he returned home from a night out with his friends.

“I didn’t know how many people Matt touched, how many people he knew,” Joanne Munchalfen said last week. “This is something that hits close to home for all parents.”

Matt, a senior at Girard High School, died Oct. 13 when an Amtrak train struck his sport utility vehicle as he crossed a track on Greenridge Road two [...] Read the rest of this entry »

Lincoln Library, the public library in Springfield, became an unauthorized homeless shelter of sorts the summer of 2007. For some reason, numerous homeless people began spending their days and nights hanging around and sleeping on the sidewalks outside the library instead of at the shelters downtown.

Things came to a head one night in July, when one homeless man beat and stomped to death another homeless man outside the library. I learned that the victim, Timothy Ryan, hadn’t always been homeless and that he, in fact, had family here in the city.

I attended Tim’s funeral and remember looking at all the photographs of him as a child and a teenager, wondering how he got into the situation he was in and thinking about how difficult it must be for a parent to watch it happen.

Homeless man beaten at library / On life support; suspect in custody
July 28, 2007

A 45-year-old homeless man on Friday remained hospitalized in critical condition after having his head stomped on, allegedly by another homeless man, outside Lincoln Library Thursday night.

The victim was on life support at St. John’s Hospital, authorities said.

Robert B. Jones, 45, was arrested a short time after the attack.

He was charged with aggravated battery and is being held in the Sangamon County Jail on $200,000 bond.

The attack happened about 8:40 p.m. Thursday on the north side of the library, 326 S. Seventh St. Police have not said if they know what prompted the attack.

For more than a year, the library has been the [...] Read the rest of this entry »

Jerry Gaston became a quadriplegic after an unlicensed, uninsured driver fleeing from police crashed into the car Gaston was riding in and paralyzed him.

Gaston sued the driver and the city of Springfield in circuit court and won the largest verdict in Sangamon County history. The money should have been enough to take care of all his medical and personal needs for the rest of his life.

Gaston has never seen a penny and probably never will.

Of all the work I’ve done at The State Journal-Register, this is the story I’m most proud to have told. I wish I could have done more for Jerry and his family.

Photographer T.J. Salsman documented Jerry’s life in photos. This was my first attempt at narrative writing on a significant news story.

Broken life / Reckless driver forever changes Jerry Gaston’s world
Aug. 27, 2006

Jerry Gaston’s eyes flutter open about 4 a.m. most days.

He wishes he could sleep longer, but painful muscle spasms jar him awake. Four to five hours of sleep a night is all he can manage.

He can hear his fiancee, Minnie Blue-Bond - his wife for all intents and purposes - breathing heavily next to him. Occasionally, he hears one of the children stir in the next bedroom.

He can’t see out the window behind his head, but he can tell dawn is breaking from the way the hues in the room change and from the furious chirping of birds outside.

He orders his [...] Read the rest of this entry »