ROCKWALL – Five speakers will discuss local, national and international human trafficking and explain how area residents can help stop this global problem at an evening of educational awareness, prayer and worship May 18, 7-9 pm, at Emmaus Church, 316 S. Goliad St. Rockwall.

Speakers are: Rockwall resident, sexual assault survivor and author Mary DeMuth; Dr. Tomi Lee “T.L.” Grover, with TraffickStop; Tara Kirk, with Alert Ministries; Lori Warren, with Jesus Said Love; and Mike Vinson, with Children’s Hopechest.

According to Vinson, the event organizer, attendees wiill leave with a greater awareness of human trafficking, real-world resources for themselves and their church, plus multiple opportunities to connect with ministries fitting their calling.

“Anyone desiring to learn more about local, national, and international human trafficking issues and take action steps towards being a part of the solution should attend,” he said.

For info, call local organizer Darren Sapp at 214-477-4039, or visit Facebook and search for STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

By J.J. Smith, Publisher

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ROYSE CITY – A young Dallas man led Rockwall County Sheriff’s deputies, Dallas County Sheriff’s deputies and Dallas police on a 30-mile, late-night car chase on I-30 early Monday morning, beginning in Royse City and ending in Downtown Dallas.

Jessie Eduardo Olivares, 19, refused to stop when a Sheriff’s Deputy attempted to pull him over at about 1 am in Royse City for a traffic violation.

A chase ensued with officers from all three departments joining the mix, including a Dallas Police helicopter hovering above.

As the chase entered the I-30 canyon in downtown Dallas, officers used spikes to blow out the vehicle’s tires. Officers said the car quickly ground to a stop at the I-30/Interstate 35E split.

Olivares reportedly struggled with police when he was arrested. An ambulance was called so paramedics could check on his health before he was taken to the Rockwall County jail.

Officers reported finding .4 grams of cocaine on Olivares, who has outstanding warrants in Dallas and Tarrant Counties. He was booked for: evading in a vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, driving under the influence as a minor, criminal mischief, driving without a license and possession of alcohol.

By J.J. Smith

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ROCKWALL – Rape on college campuses is a huge national problem.

One in five women is sexually assaulted in college, according to a study funded by the U.S. Justice Department. Still other young women become victims of dating violence and street crime.

One way to reduce the chances that your college-age daughter will become a victim is to send her to “Safety Strategies for Young Women” seminars, coming May 22, 6:30-9 pm, at Allure Restaurant at Chandler’s Landing in Rockwall.

Nationally-known self-protection expert Jeff McKissack (shown above) of Dallas-based Defense By Design will return to Rockwall to lead these Survival 101 seminars for college, work, dating & relationships, geared especially for girls, 18-24, and their mothers. Girls do not actually have to be in college to come.

He spoke last year to an overflow audience in Rockwall at the Hilton Bella Harbor Hotel to over 100 employees and local residents.

A certified self-protection instructor and author with over 20 years of teaching experience, McKissack has trained over 350,000 adults and teens in live audiences across the country. He is used locally by our ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC affiliates in DFW for his expertise and experience in preventing violent crime.

He is a member of the North Texas Crime Commission and consultant to several professional agencies. For years he served as the national representative for the critically-acclaimed Child Lures Crime Prevention Program.

He describes his seminars by saying: “I teach you how to spot trouble before trouble spots you.”

“This is a seminar preparing young women who are leaving or have left home and entering either the collegiate or working world. The purpose is to develop and/or enhance critical thinking skills should she be placed in a compromising if not threatening situation, learning to see these things before they happen, and thus hopefully avoiding them altogether.”

Click here to see a short YouTube video of him speaking on TV

Online registration is encouraged because space is limited. The cost is $100 per girl and $50 per mother, including a complete dinner, printed seminar materials, McKissack’s book and sponsor literature.

Local sponsors are State Sen. Bob Deuell, Rockwall Healthy Solutions Weight Loss, Horizon Auto Center, The RockwallNews.com and Allure Restaurant. More are expected and welcome.

Register and pay online at:  http://safetystrategies4youngwomen-autohome.eventbrite.com.

Attendees can also register and pay at the door by calling J.J. Smith at TheRockwallNews.com at 214-317-1718.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit Dallas-based Americans Ending Abuse, whose Board and Advisory Council members include Sen. Deuell and Rockwall Co. Criminal District Attorney Kenda Culpepper.

The non-profit organization worked with Sen. Deuell and State Rep. Cindy Burkett to have a new Texas law passed in 2011, making it illegal for parents and guardians to show porn to their children.

They also arranged hundreds of news stories state and nationwide explaining the need for the new law, which was passed unanimously by the State legislature.

By J.J. Smith, Publisher

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DALLAS – A 19-year-old Garland man, who pleaded guilty in January to three bank robberies including the Rockwall Community Bank last summer, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison this morning by U.S. District Judge David C. Godbey in a Dallas federal courtroom.

Anthony Blue, robbed the State Bank of Texas in Garland and Community Bank in Rockwall on June 14. A month later he robbed the American National Bank in Quinlan.

He was caught after his own mother turned him in after she saw his photo on the website Bandittracker.com.

Shortly after the third robbery, Blue’s mother called the FBI saying that she believed the “Ear Lobe Bandit” (named for the large gauge earrings he wore) was her son.

She and her husband identified their son in surveillance videos and photos of the suspect in all three robberies after being questioned later by FBI agents.

By J.J. Smith, Publisher

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WYLIE – Fifteen-year-old Wylie East student Nahum Martinez, whose dead body was found lying on the street early Saturday morning, may have been killed because he and the two 14-year-old boys who are accused of murdering him had a quarrel over his 17-year-old girlfriend.

Testimony at a hearing Monday in the John Roach Juvenile Justice Center in McKinney showed that Nahum and the two Wylie East students were friends, but that after one of them flirted with his girlfriend, bad feelings developed.

The two 14-year-olds are still being held in the John Roach Juvenile Justice Center in McKinney.

A judge also heard County juvenile probation officer Jeff Falefia describe Monday how the two students pointed a gun at Nahum’s head twice, the second time pulling the trigger.  Then they pushed his dead body through a second-story window, carried it a short distance away and tried to stuff into a drainage ditch.

Police dogs found a gun and loaded clip just a few yards from where Martinez was found. Falefia said police found a spent shell casing on the dresser of one of the suspects in the house on Oxford St. where the two suspects were arrested.

Because the investigation is still ongoing, prosecutors have not yet decided if they want to try the suspects as adults.

A memorial service for Nahum Martinez was held this afternoon at First Baptist Church Wylie.

By J.J. Smith

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WYLIE – The body of fifteen-year-old Wylie High School student Nahum Martinez was found dead in the street by a sewer drain in the 600 block of Linden Ave. in Wylie Saturday at about 5:30 am.

Wylie Police Detective Venece Perepiczka said they have arrested two male teenagers, both 14-years-old, suspected in the murder at a residence in the 400 block of Oxford Dr., located about a block away from where Martinez was found.

Officers found evidence of a disturbance at that home and investigators believe Martinez was there before he was shot, said Perepiczka.

Police say a gun was found in a nearby field that they believe is the murder weapon.

Investigators are trying to figure out why he was killed.

Martinez was on the Wylie track team and was supposed to participate in a track meet in Rockwall Monday at Wilkerson-Sanders Stadium.

About 200 people attended a candlelight vigil in his honor Saturday night.

Grief counselors were on hand at Wylie East when students returned to school Monday.

Nahum’s aunt, Mariana Garza, says she wants the teenagers who were arrested in Nahum’s death tried as adults if they are charged with murder.

By J.J. Smith, Publisher

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ROCKWALL – Rockwall City Council candidate Freddie Jackson had his Ford F350 Super-Duty Dually truck stolen from his home this morning between Midnight and 6 am.

He lives on Bristol Lane in The Harbor District.

Jackson told TheRockwallNews.com that it contained all of his campaign signs and literature.

He contacted Rockwall Police early this morning and a search has begun.

The vehicle is solid white with a hard white top on the back. The Texas license number is BF6-5569.

He said it was not towed away for any reason and he is arranging a rental vehicle for the time being.

Anyone with information about the truck should call Rockwall Police at 972-771-7717 or call Jackson at 214-620-7990.

By J.J. Smith, Publisher

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ROCKWALL – A Rockwall man dressed in camouflage clothing with camouflage paint on his face was arrested Wednesday night by Denton police on charges of possessing the components of explosives after they found him with a quantity of gasoline, rags, beer bottles and a lighter.

Jason Jones, 35, was on his way to harm his former wife’s  boyfriend, according to a police report

The incident began about 10 pm when officers responded to a woman in the 2200 block of E. Sherman Dr. who said she had just been notified by Rockwall police that a man was on his way to Denton to harm her son.

She said the man was the former husband of her son’s girlfriend.

When her son heard the news, she said he left and returned intoxicated, and she was worried. She said he then went into the backyard to make Molotov cocktails to defend his house against the other man. Officers found him agitated.

He said the Rockwall man had been indicted because he and several other men had broken into a house in Rockwall where they beat and severely injured him.

Jones has since been released on bail, said a Denton police officer.

By J.J. Smith, Publisher.

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CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – More than 110 vehicles led the procession as hundreds of people attended the funeral Tuesday of  22-year-old Lindsay Nichols, who was killed in the murder-suicide last Wednesday by her former boyfriend, Dr. Timothy Roses of Heath TX, who then took his own life.

Nearly a week after Nichols was killed in nearby Jesup Iowa, family members and friends gathered at Nazareth Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls to remember her, with services conducted by the Rev. Brian King.

Burial followed at the Garden of Memories Cemetery in Waterloo, Iowa.

“It was difficult,” Rev. King told the WCF Courier newspaper.

“Even me, as a pastor, all my training and all my faith has left me nearly speechless in the wake of Lindsay’s death,” he told the crowd.

Dozens of uniformed deputies from the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office were among the mourners — co-workers of Lindsay’s father, long-time Deputy Tom Nichols.  Dozens of their police and fire vehicles were in the funeral procession. Her brothers, Joe and Chris, members of the US Air Force, wore their blue dress uniforms and spoke.

Sheriff Tony Thompson said department employees remembered Lindsay well, and added that the investigation has been particularly trying because of the personal ties so many deputies have with the victim’s family.

Her casket was opened in the entryway as people filed in, after which they saw photos from Nichol’s life, including pictures of Lindsay with friends and family, with East High cheerleaders in uniform, in muddy clothes, in softball gear, in Halloween costumes, in nursing scrubs and in a wedding gown from her 2010 wedding. She was divorced at the time of her death.

“There are mistakes we all make in our lives, and we all may question bad decisions, but Lindsay’s life was much longer than this past week and these past couple of years,” Rev. King said.

“Not a marriage, not a divorce, not a murder — nothing can separate us from God’s love.”

Nichols was a 2008 graduate of Waterloo East High School and a recent graduate of the Covenant Medical Center School of Radiography, where she met Roses, a radiologist.

The funeral of Timothy Roses was held yesterday at 1st Assembly of God Church in North Little Rock, AR, according to KWWL-TV News in Iowa. He is survived by his wife, four children, family and friends in Heath.

By J.J. Smith, Publisher

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WATERLOO IA (KWWL-TV News) – In the flickering, peaceful radiance of white candlelight, friends of murder victim, Lindsay Nichols, enveloped Lindsay’s family with love and condolences Thursday night on the steps of Waterloo’s East High.

The 2008 East High School graduate was shot to death Wednesday night by Dr. Tim Roses, a radiologist with whom friends say Lindsay had recently ended a relationship. After shooting Lindsay Nichols, Dr. Roses turned the gun on himself, ending his life, too.

The Thursday night candlelight memorial crowd of more than three hundred heard testimonials from Lindsay’s family and former teachers and friends, as they reflected on the life of the young woman they so deeply loved and respected.

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