Archive for July 2nd, 2009

Independence Day festivities begin July 3

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–Bastrop area residents and visitors will begin the July 4 holiday celebrations with free music and fireworks July 3 at Fisherman’s Park in Bastrop. The annual Patriotic Festival is sponsored by the Bastrop Chamber of Commerce.

Texas 304, a local band, will perform in the park beginning at 6 p.m. Food vendors and activities for children will be available. At 8 p.m. the Austin Symphonic Band will take over with a concert of mostly traditional favorites.

When the sky is dark enough, roughly 9:20 p.m., a fireworks display will begin.

On July 4 the activity moves to Main Street. The Pets and Pals Parade will form at the Bastrop County Courthouse, beginning at 9 a.m. for registration. Judging the entries, including costumes, themes and additional flourishes begins at 10 a.m.

At 11 a.m. the procession will head to Main Street and move north to Spring Street and the Bastrop Opera House. The event is sponsored and staged by the Downtown Business Alliance. Registration forms and information are available at www.bastropdba.com

At 1 p.m. the city will formally open its first “bark park” for off-leash dogs on Grady Tuck Drive, across the street from the Bastrop police building between Old Austin Highway and Hospital Drive.

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Fire death total hits 3 this week in Bastrop County

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Bastrop, Tx–A third death in connection with a residential fire was recorded in Bastrop County early Thursday. Firefighters and law enforcement officials responded to a structure fire reported at 2:49 a.m. in the 300 block of Ponderosa Loop, off Texas 21 east of Bastrop.

The travel trailer was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived, and the fire was spreading into nearby woods, said Bastrop volunteer firefighter Rick Snell.

A statement released later in the day by the sheriff’s department said a body was subsequently found “within the remains (of the trailer).” Snell said the body, possibly a woman, was outside the structure.

The office of the State Fire Marshall has joined the investigation, according to the sheriff’s department statement. The victim was not immediately identified.

Another source, who asked not to be identified because the case remains under investigation, said there is some suspicion that the fire might have been intended to obscure evidence of a homicide.

The sheriff’s department press release said more information “will be released as it becomes available.”

On June 27 an elderly couple died when fire destroyed their home in the 400 block of FM 969.

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Elgin man jailed in sex solicitation sting

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Basrop, Tx–Bastrop County Sheriff’s Department investigators arrested an Elgin man July 1 and charged him with soliciting sex online with an underage girl via text messaging.

The investigation began June 25, according to a statement issued today by the sheriff’s department. Juan Pablo Ramos, 21, was jailed on a felony charge of online solicitation of a minor under the age of 14, according to jail records.

The sheriff’s announcement said Ramos had sent sexually explicit messages to the girl before investigators became involved and began impersonating her online.

Ramos arrived July 1 at a prearranged meeting site but met sheriff’s department investigators instead, according to the press statement. If convicted, Ramos faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

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Texas court denies Reed appeal

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Austin, Tx–The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest tribunal for criminal case appeals, rejected a plea from Rodney Reed of Bastrop for a new trial this week. It may have been his last state appeal, leaving federal courts the only avenue to avoid a date with execution by lethal injection.

Since 1998 Reed has been on Texas death row for the 1996 rape and murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. Defense lawyers urged the court to set aside the earlier conviction for capital murder because of evidence accumulated over the last decade of bad acts, some involving women, alleged or committed by Jimmy Fennell Jr. who was living with Stites in Giddings at the time of her death near Bastrop.

In an unsigned opinion, the court said recent revelations about Fennell, formerly a police officer in Giddings and Georgetown, do not weaken the evidence pointing to Reed as the killer. The evidence against Reed remains sufficient for a finding of guilt, according to the appeals court.

Fennell is serving a 10-year prison term for kidnapping and sexual misconduct with a woman in his custody in 2007 while he was on duty as a Georgetown police officer. Reed’s defense lawyers also argued that other sexual misconduct charges against Fennel since 1997 point to him as Stites’ killer. The court disagreed.

Reed has argued that DNA evidence recovered from Stites’ body resulted from a secret sexual laison the two had been carrying on prior to her death.

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