Monday, July 31, 1995 News-Leader 2B Ozarks 2B Death notices 3B News of Record 5B Life Times 7B Comics FAIR: Results from Boy Scout, livestock competitions. 3B COURTS: State Supreme Court Justice Elwood L. Thomas dies. 4B ARE LIFE TIMES: Comedy comes back with record company re-issues. 58 COMING TOMORROW: A labor strike in a small town.
LOCAL AND REGIONAL NEWS INSIDE SECTION Oz Mn Id gdIgM i ddi pui mm The Associated Press ST. LOUIS When 10-year-old Cassidy Senter vanished while walking to a friend's house in December 1993, the city was gripped with the fear a serial killer who preyed on children was at work. Eight days later, Cassie's body was found in a trash-strewn vacant lot, ending tearful pleas by her mother, Rhonda Senter, to help find her daughter. The man accused of killing Cassie goes on trial today when the judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers gather in Greene County in hopes of finding impartial jurors to hear the murder case against Thomas Brooks, 28. The state is seeking the death penalty.
The search for Cassie, who lived in suburban Bridgeton, gripped the city. Her disappearance came 12 days after Angie Houseman was abducted in nearby St. Ann. A hunter found 9-year-old Angie's body in the August A. Busch Wildlife Area in St.
Charles County. Stirring fears also were a number of reported attempted abductions in the St. Louis area, and the much-publicized abduction and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas in Petaluma, Calif. Until Brooks' arrest on Feb. 3, 1994, investigators wavered between two theories.
One was that a serial killer was preying on young girls, and the other was that similarities in the cases were just coincidental. Brooks, a neighbor of Cassie, was immediately discounted as a suspect in Angie's death. No one has been charged in that case. Judge James R. Hartenbach decided to pick jurors in Greene County after a poll conducted for the defense by a Saint Louis University professor showed 93 percent of the 551 interviewees in St.
Louis County remem bered the case nearly a year after Brooks' arrest. The jurors will be brought to St. Louis County for the trial. In addition to first-degree murder, Brooks is charged with kidnapping, attempted rape and armed criminal action. He has pleaded innocent.
Court records show that prosecutors Dean Waldemer and Rob Livergood have certified 152 potential witnesses. More than 90 are law enforcement officers, including FBI agents. Waldemer said he expects to call fewer than 50 of the witnesses listed in court files. The state is expected to present DNA and hair evidence, and Sweeney's court: Service MORGAN COUNTY Rocky mount man drowns in Lalie of Ozarks A Rocky Mount man drowned at the Lake of the Ozarks while swimming alone. Bruce J.
Patterson, 36, was last seen swimming about 9 p.m. Saturday by a neighbor, the Missouri Water Patrol said. The neighbor looked at 10 p.m. and did not see Patterson and believed he had gone home. His body was found floating in the lake about 10:15 a.m.
Sunday. CHRISTIAN COUNTY Head-on crash leaves two dead, five injured Two men were killed and five injured in a head-on crash on U.S. 60 in Billings late Saturday afternoon, the Missouri Highway Patrol said. Killed were Feliciano Castillo, 25, of Verona and Duayne Hale, 40, of Hebron, the patrol said. Thomas Castillo, 47, Isidro Sandoval, 20, and Eric Rodriguez, no age available, all of Verona, were injured in the accident.
They were passengers in a 1983 Chevrolet Suburban driven by Feliciano Castillo. Dave L. Kroth, 57, and Ron Wolf, 17, both of Union, and passengers in a 1993 GMC pickup driven by Hale, also were injured. The accident occurred when the Suburban crossed the center line and struck the pickup head on, the patrol said. The injured were taken to Cox Medical Center South.
BRANSON Drury Evening College accepting registration Drury Evening College in Branson will be accepting registration for the fall semester beginning Tuesday through Aug. 26. Tuition is $113 per credit hour for undergraduate courses. Students may register at Ozark Mountain Community Classroom, 125 W. Pacific, from 10 a.m.
to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Other times are available by appointment. For information, call Larry Campbell at 336-6622. WILLARD New students can sign up for elementary school Registration for elementary students who are new to the Willard School District is set for 8 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Students living in the Willard North area should go to the Willard North Elementary Building, and students in the Willard South area should go to Willard South Elementary Building. Kindergarten students should have turned 5 years old on or before June 30, and first-graders should have turned 6 before June 30. Bring a birth certificate and up-to-date immunization record.
For information, call Willard North Elementary at 742-2597 or Willard South Elementary at 862-6308. Waldemer said he plans to call Cassie's mother and her classmates as witnesses. Police said after Brooks was arrested, he confessed to killing Cassie after she came to his sister's house, wanting to play with his nephew. Brooks had been living with his sister, who lived about 150 yards from Cassie's home. Brooks told police he tried to rape Cassie, but she fought him off.
Police said she had been beaten in the head with something like a tire tool. Brooks told police he rented a U-Haul to move her body to the vacant lot where it was found. Chewing tobacco victim to tell story Susan Wade News-Leader Rick Bender has a message for young people and he uses lectures and his face to get the point across don't chew tobacco. Bender, 33, of Roundup, began using spit tobacco when he was 12. By age 26, he had oral cancer.
Four surgeries later, Bender's right jawbone and lymph and saliva glands were gone. He also has only partial use of his right arm because of nerve damage. "I speak volumes without even opening my mouth," Bender said. "I've lost a third of my tongue. I can't even lick my hps." Bender doesn't want the same thing or worse to happen to others so he travels across the country on crusade to educate young peoiJc about the hazards of using sr tobacco.
He doesn't charge much for his ser vices $1 per person in the audience plus travel expenses. His fees are paid by various groups with concerns about tobacco use. His next stop will be at a conference titled "Spit Kickin' Good Time" at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Mid-America Cancer Center, 2055 S. Fremont Ave.
The conference is sponsored by the Springfield American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST). Bender uses his experience and his misshapen face to teach his lessons about using spit tobacco. He refuses to use the well-known term "smokeless" when referring to chewing tobacco. "I hate that term smokeless," Bender said. "It sounds harmless.
It sounds nice and neat and pretty. It's not a nice and neat habit and it sure is not harmless." Nearly 50 area youths have signed up for the conference and no openings are left. Each will receive free passes to the Ozark Empire Fair and 100 free ride tickets. Those who use spit tobacco will receive free oral examinations by a physician. They'll also learn lessons about using spit tobacco and kicking the habit.
Among those lessons: One in four people who use spit tobacco will have a problem such as See TOBACCO, Page 4B ft i A 1 1 i i 4 TV 1 Sv J- V- ijg'Sj1' With Julie Carter on the job, jurors will be able to cast off their fears and uncertainties. Ron Davis News-Leader Julie Carter's smiling face is just what the judge ordered. When J. Miles Sweeney, the presiding judge of Greene County, said he would revamp the wayjuries are picked, he stressed the need for a personal approach between people called for jury duty and the court. Carter is the county's jury supervisor and the first visible step in Sweeney's plan.
She's the face you'll see when you report to the courthouse for jury duty. Expect good service. "I feel this is something that's really helping people," Carter says while checking in panelists. She uses everyone's first names and directs them to their seats with a wave to the coffee make it myself') and lemonade mix. The atmosphere Carter brings to the rotunda is easygoing, fresh.
Her background is in marketing and the law; she worked as a paralegal at a local firm, so she knows the jargon of the courtroom and translates it well for the befuddled. Carter allays the standard list of uror fears: Had to park in a 15-minute zone? Carter makes sure the juror has time to move the car and avoid a ticket. Don't know how long the case is going to take? Carter can say whether it's a civil or criminal matter and if it'll take a day, days, or weeks. She'll also outline what the judge and lawyers will ask in the courtroom. Where to go for bathrooms, snacks, the $6-a-day jury check? Carter's the director.
Her job, which began at the first of the month, will grow as the justice system prepares to move to the new courts building, online for a Jan. 1 opening. Sweeney and Carter have plenty new to offer. Jury forms will be revamped, to streamline the process of getting basic juror information age, job and family background to the lawyers and judges. Sweeney wants to produce videos to air on public access.
The programs would let Carter demystify the jury-selection process to a cable audience. This could tie in with Sweeney's recent appointment of cable company TCI of Springfield's Tom Mast as media coordinator for cameras and microphones in the courtroom. And when a case is over, Sweeney and Carter plan exit questionnaires for urors: Was it a good experience? How could it be better? You'll have a voice. So far it's been an invigorating experience for Carter. Sure, she says, there's the occasion- with a smile home with law "I get to know the judges and the way they operate their courtrooms," she says.
Carter's next big assignment: computer training. A new jury-management software package arrives soon. It'll allow jurors to wear badges with bar codes containing the who, what, when and where of a potential panelist. badniglitandCartcrfinashereelfintherotunda at 8 a.m., greeting a batch of the summoned, What does she do then? "Drink a lot of cof- fee," Carter says, "and smile." A Nippon TV crew has been prowling hereabouts in recent days, learning about the Neals and especially focusing on another Missouri angle: The U.S. Navy pilot who torpedoed the sub was Jesse D.
Taylor, who lives in Maryville. The Japanese sub, designated the 1-52, was a secret ship on a secret mission. It was doomed by an even more significant secret: Allied cryptographers were deciphering coded messages sent via radio by Dan Dyer News-Leader Greene County Jury Supervisor Julie Carter demonstrates just one of her tools in taking the pain and confusion out of jury service: smiling. When the courthouse makes way for the new courts building on Jan. 1, Carter's job will expand.
Jury supervisor at Julie Carter, 33, is a Springfield native who's always been interested in the law. Her father is Topper Glass, a civil-case lawyer. When she's not in the rotunda with jury panels, Carter can be found in courtrooms on the second and third floors of the courthouse. al jerk in ajury pool, "and you have to be real diplomatic." Carter has no problem in the di- plomacy department. MAX movie inspires WWII submarine hunt Correction The Battlefield police chief was misidentified in a Thursday Friends Neighbors story.
The chief's name is Leonard Harrison. Fair results in the household arts category listed Sunday included some results from last year. Complete household arts results from this year will be published at a later date. The News-Leader regrets the errors. The News-Leader strives for accuracy and fairness.
We will correct any errors or misunderstandings created by stories, headlines or photographs. Readers may request a correction by calling the assignment desk at 836-1258, day or night. Like thousands of retired couples visiting Branson, Fred and Doris Neal took in the MAX big-screen movie tour of the sunken Titanic. Unlike others, however, the Neals went to the theater this past January not merely to be entertained but rather to be enlightened maybe even be inspired about undersea treasure-hunting. And what they saw helped spur the couple, who live near Harrison, to be come principal investors in an expedition that has resulted in discovery of a World War II Japanese submarine sent to the bottom of the Atlantic laden with two tons of gold and other precious cargo.
Word of the fascinating find is spreading slowly in the U.S. press but is generating huge headlines elsewhere especially in Japan, where the sub set sail in 1944, and in Germany, where it was headed until blasted by an American torpedo. Japanese and German military. The drama unfolded like this: At the height of World War II, an imbalance existed between the major Axis powers. Germany had developed impressive technologies (jet-powered warplanes, ballistic missiles, etc.) but was short on raw materials.
Japan held resource-rich territories but its technicians lagged in weapons development. See O'BRIEN, Page 4B 1 iiMiii Mike O'Brien FOR YOUR INFORMATION Our city editor is Chick Howland. 836-1 170, or fax, 837-1381 page edited by Laura Williams. 83fi-liQQ ElSSd SSSPSSy: Southwest Missouri is in a "Code Yellow BaCk-t0-SCh00l: The Springfield Victory Mission needs Safety for Children: Parents may obtain a record ol Alert." O-positive and all negative blood types are needed volunteers to help with its Back-to-School Campaign by their child's fingerprints through the Police Department's today. Visit a Red Cross Blood Mobile or the Red Cross packaging school supplies Aug.
15-17 and distributing the "Child I.D." program, available at the Ozark Empire Blood Center, 1211 S. Glenstone Springfield. supplies Aug. 18. To volunteer, call Chris at 831-6387.
Fair. Fairgoers also may get wristbands for their kids.
