Bastrop, Texas Events, News & Stories

Bastrop, Tx–The Lower Colorado River Authority’s McKinney Roughs nature and environmental learning center west of Bastrop has been listed by the National Wildlife Federation as a certified wildlife habitat.

Established in 1997, McKinney Roughs covers some 1,100 acres on the Colorado River where four distinct ecosystems come together along with hundreds of plant and animal species, including the westernmost stand of the Lost Pines for which the Bastrop area is famous.

At McKinney Roughs, LCRA operates a variety of educational programs through the year and allows visitors to enjoy its 18 miles of hiking and horseback trails and access to the river for canoes, kyaks and similar craft.

Bastrop, Tx–After less than an hour of deliberation Friday, a jury of nine women and three men found a 31-year-old Paige man guilty of capital murder in the June 2007 death of a 26-pound child who was approaching his third birthday.

As some relatives sobbed quietly in the courtroom, 335th District Judge Reva Towslee Corbett sentenced Christopher Lee Murray to life in prison without parole, the only punishment available under state law since prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty.

After prosecution and defense lawyers made their final arguments and appeals to jurors, the judge sent them to deliberate at 2:29 p.m. Friday. By 3:25 p.m. they told the court they had reached a verdict. It was a stunningly swift decision, given that the jury panel had eight days of witness testimony and related evidence to consider, including sometimes tearful testimony Thursday from the defendant.

Prosecutors argued that the pattern and extent of injuries revealed by an autopsy on the body of Robert “Robbie” Faske revealed an intentional assault on the child by Murray which resulted in death.

Evidence in the trial indicated that Murray was alone with the child from about 9:30 a.m. until after 1:30 p.m. on June 11, 2007. Murray testified that Faske apparently was injured by a fall from a “computer chair” in their residence on Old Pin Oak Road during the morning but appeared to be “fine” for some time afterward. Murray said more serious injuries perhaps resulted later when he was carrying the child outdoors and fell on him while descending a steep set of stairs leading to the ground from the residence where they lived.

Murray did not seek emergency medical help for Faske until after his mother, grandmother and other relatives returned to the Paige residence from a shopping trip to Austin.

Autopsy results revealed that Faske sustained a broken bone in his neck, five broken ribs, a skull fracture which resulted in bleeding into the brain cavity, bruising to the spleen and tears to the liver and small intestine. The autopsy also identified some 120 bruises to the child’s body, most of which–according to other testimony–had not been apparent before the incidents of the fatal day.

Bastrop, Tx–At a meeting Monday Bastrop County commissioners signaled they will not seek to bring in more property taxes for the 2009-10 budget year than they collected for the current fiscal year which ends Sept. 30.

This year’s tax rate was just a fraction less than 62 cents per $100 of property value. Given the new year’s estimated property tax roll, a rate of 63.23 cents per $100 value would yield the same revenue for the coming year to support county operations and services, said County Auditor Lisa Smith. To set a new tax rate higher than this so-called “effective tax rate” would require publication of notices and scheduling public hearings, she said.

Pct. 4 Commissioner Lee Dildy said the current economic climate is “not a time to raise taxes.” None of his colleagues disagreed, but Pct. 2 Commissioner Clara Beckett noted that commissioners have yet to see any hint of what the coming year’s budget needs may look like.

Bastrop, Tx.–A Bastrop County jail inmate who disappeared Monday from a road work crew remained at large this afternoon but now is suspected of having stolen a vehicle and may be headed toward the Pasadena area.

Investigators are asking for the public’s help in locating Ross Brandon Brekhus, 24, who went missing from a work detail near the intersection of FM 535 and Jeddo Road in the Rosanky area. He was in jail on an auto theft charge. A search of the area, aided by an Austin Police Department helicopter and a state prison dog team, failed to locate the inmate.

But officials believe Brekhus may have been spotted about 11:30 p.m. Monday making off with a white Chevrolet extended cab pickup with Texas plates 01N XG3. He is described at five feet six inches tall, weighing 148 pounds with short blonde hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information about the man’s location is asked to call the sheriff’s department at (512) 303-1080.

Bastrop, Tx–Just over a year ago Emmett McKinley took the reins of The Bastrop Advertiser with the title of publisher. His accession was announced in a front page story.

McKinley’s departure from the post about two weeks ago has been widely noticed but officially ignored in the historic news organ, in business since 1853.

Company officials told employees only that Mckinley is no longer employed by Cox Newspapers, owner of The Austin American-Statesman and its suburban newspaper subsidiary, Austin Community Newspapers which include The Advertiser and The Smithville Times. ACN officials also immediately changed the locks on The Advertiser building at 908 Water St. in Bastrop.

The newspaper’s only hint of the change so far has been the disappearance of McKinley’s name from the staff box regularly printed in the twice-weekly publication.

McKinley came to The Advertiser last year after a prior career in advertising sales and marketing for newspapers, mostly in the Houston-Beaumont area. He was also formerly employed by Granite Publications, a Texas newspaper chain whose properties include the Tayor Daily Press and the Elgin Courirer.

Bastrop, Tx–At a meeting July 27 Bastrop County commissioners approved an agreement allowing the City of Manor to use some county road rights of way to construct a water pipeline to the city from northern Bastrop County.

A 12-inch pipeline could convey up to a million gallons a day to the growing and thirsty city east of Austin on US 290. “Manor needs water,” said Barry Knight, an attorney for the city. “We will need to import water in the future.”

Manor offered $25,000 for a three-year option to use the county rights of way. But the pipeline project is far from a done deal. To work, the pipeline will also need to use some state highway rights of way as well as easements from some private landowners, said Knight.

The lawyer said the water source would be wells controlled by a water development firm known as End-Op .

It has leased some water rights in the McDade area. A principal in the firm is former Wiliamson County commissioner Frankie Limmer, according to Joe Cooper, general manager of the Lost Pines Groundwater Conservation District.

End-Op holds permits to drill two test wells on the leases but has not sought permits to operate any wells there, said Cooper.

If Manor exercises its option, Bastrop County will be paid $300,000, said Knight.

Bastrop, Tx–On July 7 when former Bastrop school superintendent Roderick Emanuel gave up his post to take a subordinate position with the school district he did not get a pay raise, really, nor did he take any cut in pay or benefits.

Details of the arrangements between Emanuel and the school board are revealed in documents released today under a request under the Texas Public Information Act from Bastrop-News.com

An August 2007 contract between Eamnuel and the school board gives the superintendent a salary of $148,557.20 a year plus $750 a month for an “automobile allowance.” The two amounts add up to $157,557.20 a year, the amount guaranteed under a new “administrator contract” with Emanuel to take up a subordinate position with the school district beginning as soon as a new superintendent is hired. In the meantime Emanuel will act as interim superintendent.

The new agreement with Emanuel was signed July 7. He will become Director of Employee Relations, reporting to an Assistant Superintendent for personnel who earns about $98,000 a year.

Bastrop, Tx–Bastrop police seized more than five pounds of marijuana early Sunday following a traffic stop near the intersectiion of Austin and Haysel St.

Patrol officer Travis Lucas alleged he stopped a pickup truck after it ran a red light while west bound on Texas 21 about 4 a.m. When he approached the vehicle he could smell burning marijuana and could see a roach, a partially smoked marijuana cigarette, he alleged.

A subsequent search of the truck revealed some 6.5 pounds–almost three kilograms–of marijuana, according to Bastrop Police Chief David Board.

David Martinez, 27, was booked into the
Bastrop County Jail shortly after 5 a.m. July 19, according to jail records. Police said Martinez had both a Bastrop post office box and and Austin street address.

Martinez was released about 1 p.m. Monday after posting $10,000 bail, said a jail spokesman.

Bastrop, Tx–Investigators believe the woman whose body was found beside a travel trailer which burned July 2 near Bastrop was Lillian Rose Palmer, a 23-year-old mother. Positive identification of the badly burned corpse is awaiting autopsy results, according to a July 7 statement from the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Department.

The fire on Ponderosa Loop, off Texas 21 east of Bastrop, was reported shortly before 3 a.m. July 2. Firefighters at the scene said they found a travel trailer fully engulfed in flames and fire spreading into the adjoining woods. Once the fire was under control, officials found a body near the trailer, and investigators began a search for Palmer’s “young child”–who was quickly located unharmed–and a man described as her boyfriend.

Local investigators, with the aid of the Austin Police Department and a fugitive recovery team from the U.S. Marshall’s Service, arrested Donald Martin Blackmon, 29, later July 2 on a previously issued warrant charging him with probation violations. Blackmon has been held without bail in the Bastrop County Jail since July 2, according to jail records.

Blackmon has not been charged with any offense connected with the fire or the death of Palmer. He has been questioned by local investigators, however, according to a statement from the sheriff’s department.