State
Monday - June 30,199
M(
Report: Two charged in triple
killing had been paroled early
JACKSONVILLE, Texas (AP) —
Two men accused of executing a 13-
year-old girl and two others last
April were paroled last year under
mandatory prison release guide
lines, the Jacksonville Daily Progress
reported Sunday.
Kenny Boyd, 22, and Rodney
Moore, 23, were released after serving
a fraction of previous sentences for
manslaughter, the newspaper said.
Boyd was paroled in December,
about four months before the killings
in rural Center, after serving about
four years of a 12-year term. Moore
was paroled in September after serv
ing just over three years of an eight-
year term.
“In my 13 years as a prosecutor,
Kenny Boyd is without question the
scariest defendant I have ever seen,”
said Shelby County District Attorney
Karen Price.
Boyd, Moore and two others are
accused in the April 22 murders of
Keith Moore, 25, his wife’s sister,
Christy Calhoun, 13, and Brian Keith
Brooks, 26. Keith More and Rodney
Moore are not related.
The three victims were shot in the
back of the head in what is believed
to have been a drug-related attack,
police said.
^ ^ It was like they
were all out to get
them and they
weren’t going to leave
any witnesses.”
Jimmy Matthews
Center police chief
Vivian Watts and her daughter
Collandra, who live in a trailer be
hind the house where the three
murders took place, also were
wounded when the gunmen fired
into their home.
The four suspects face charges of
capital murder and attempted capi
tal murder.
Boyd is being held at the Shelby
County Jail on $1.45 million bond.
Rodney Moore’s bond hasn’t been
set. Two other suspects, Jecarro
Keion Bennett, 19, and Rickey Ty
rone Lathan, 19, are being held on
$300,000 bond.
Center Police Chief Jimmy
Matthews, a 30-year police veteran,
called the attack “the scariest thing I
had ever seen.”
“They were all shot in the back of
the head, execution-style,” Matthews
said. “It was like they were out to get
them and they weren’t going to leave
any witnesses.”
Nineteen bullet casings from a
semiautomatic assault-style rifle
were found at the scene, he said.
Matthews said the slayings were
probably drug-related. It was the first
triple slaying in Center.
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Hog Wash
Photograph: Rony Angkriw
Rebecca Elmore, age 7, gives water to a pig while waiting for showtime at the Saddle
& Sirloin Pig Futurity held at Pierce Pavilion Saturday afternoon. Three-hundred pigs
competed for trophies and cash prizes.
Commission investigates Temple-Inland for fraud
Plaintiff alleges corporation submitted false financial reports, knowingly underpaid federal income taxes
LUFKIN (AP) — The Securities and Ex
change Commission is investigating possi
ble income tax and financial reporting
fraud at Temple-Inland Inc., according to
court records.
Jeffrey S. Ammon, 38, alleges in deposi
tions filed in a wrongful termination lawsuit
that the Diboll-based corporation knowingly
underpaid its federal income taxes by $80
million to $100 million and submitted false fi
nancial reports to its shareholders during one
or more of the six years he worked in the com
pany’s tax department.
He filed the lawsuit Aug. 4, 1995, in Travis
County, but it was transferred later that year
to Angelina County, where Diboll is. In the
lawsuit, Ammond contends he was fired for
refusing to release allegedly false information
to the Internal Revenue Service, the SEC and
Temple-Inland’s shareholders.
Temple-Inland denies the claim and says
Ammon wasn’t fired, but resigned.
Temple-Inland, whose 1997 gross sales are
projected to exceed $2.8 billion, has major in
terests in paper, packaging, building prod
ucts, timber, timber lands and financial ser
vices. Its Diboll headquarters are 104 miles
north of Houston in East Texas.
The SEC issued subpoenas in April for
Temple-Inland and Ammon to produce re
lated documents “pursuant to a formal order
of investigation entered by the commission”
in the matter, according to documents in the
file of Ammon’s lawsuit.
In one subpoena, the corporation is or
dered to produce “all documents related to
the calculation of Temple-Inland’s income tax
liability,” while another required Ammon to
produce all documents “related to the calcu
lation of the income tax provision in Temple-
Inland’s financial statements for fiscal years
1991 to the present.”
In a telephone interview from his home in
Ridgeland, Miss., Ammon told The Lufkin
Daily News that he has talked to the IRS and
SEC about his allegations.
But neither agency would comment on
the matter.
“I can neither confirm nor deny the exis
tence of any investigation,” said Patricia
Thompson, a branch chief in the SEC’s Divi
sion of Enforcement.
Fannie Smith, assistant public affairs offi
cer for the IRS’s North Texas district, told the
newspaper that privacy laws prohibit her
from confirming or denying whether the IRS
is investigating.
Ammon testified April 29 before state Dis
trict Judge David Wilson that he already had
either shared documents relating to the case
or discussed their contents with the IRS, the
SEC, his wife, his parents and his friends.
Wilson issued a temporary injunction
ruling June 10 that prohibits Ammon from
releasing any of the information to any
other third parties except investigating
federal agencies.
Tony Bennett, Temple-Inland’s vice pres
ident of public and government affairs, and
Richard Warner, the corporation’s general
counsel, would not comment on any aspect
of the case.
“The company has a policy whereby it
does not comment on specific allegations in
matters which are the subject of pending lit
igation,” Warner said in a statement. “The
company, however, is prepared to and is in
the process, as a part of the litigation, of fully
defending both the lawsuit and the allega
tions contained in it.
Weather Outlook
WEDNESDAY
1 THURSDAY 1
1 FRIDAY
Partly cloudy
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Partly cloudy
I ^
Partly cloudy
High: 98°
' 1
High: 100°
High: 99°
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Low: 75°
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Low: 75°
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Low: 75°
£ iAtsk i.
Small-town jewelry factory
thrives in unique surroundings
Sk@teh
By Quatro
ROARING SPRINGS (AP) — The
intricacies of jewelry design always
appealed to Kelly Keltz, though it’s
not the typical line of work for
someone rooted in rural West Texas.
When his farm went bust more
than a decade ago, struggling Motley
County didn’t offer many options.
For a farmer-cum-artisan who want
ed to stay close to home, however,
Thacker Jewelry was a dream.
“It was very important to stay in
a small town,” said Keltz, who
carved molds for 11 years at Thack
er Jewelry’s factory here in Roaring
Springs. “It’s great that this oppor
tunity was here.”
Thacker Jewelry employed 45 of
the town’s 270 or so residents dur
ing the oil boom, when money
flowed like the namesake springs
nearby. Since the mid-80s bust, the
workforce has slipped to 15.
“The town has continued to sur
vive even when the oil boom took a
nosedive,” said Jeff Thacker, who
owns the business with brother Joe.
“We were able to get through that
and keep our heads above water.”
Inc. Magazine listed the company
among the nation’s fastest growing
500 during the heyday. The Thackers
grossed as much as $5 million before
the economy crashed.
The company, which consists of
the factory and a retail outlet in
Lubbock, an hour to the southwest,
grosses around $3 million annually,
Joe Thacker said.
People still stream in from across
the state to see the rings, necklaces,
bracelets and earrings displayed in
the tiny Roaring Springs showroom,
set up in what was a bank lobby un
til 1932. Joe Thacker estimates that
his storefront provides a third of the
town’s annual sales tax revenue.
Motley County’s only other in
corporated town, Matador, earns
roughly the same amount of sales
tax as Roaring Springs despite being
three times larger.
Flooding
refills
aquifer
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -Recen
rains raised the level of the Ed
wards Aquifer by 10 feet in I
days and should continue to r
thi' natural underground reservoir .
for two more months, officialssav, U.SJ
The recharge leaves the SanAn-
tonio’s sole source of drinkingwa-
ter at its highest level since I
1994. The rains, which produced
severe Hooding in the Texas!
Country, also are allowing farraets
cultivating tens of thousands of
acres west of San Antonio to re
(luce their relianceon theaqufer
"There ha ve been a lot of inf > /?|
tors who have turned their punfi do t[
off and probably won’t turn to Free tl
on for the rest of the yearfsai'dm. Lai
Steve Walt hour, hydrologist with laced
the Edwards Aquifer Authority, mt tl|
“These are the guys who generally
irrigate up until around the Fourth :/,ode|
of July.
“This is about the time of year
that we start getting into heavy
lawn watering, and we don’t have
that now.”
Officials say the aquifer level at
the Bexar County index well I
jumped from 666.3 feet above sea
level June 20 to 676.9 feet Friday
That compares with the June his
torical average of 662.7 and a sir
year low of 627.5 feet in the midst
of a drought a year ago.
The aquifer’s all-time highoi
703.3 feet was recorded in Jutif",
1992, and its low was 612.5 feet pj ttsbur |
in 1956.
Also showing an improvemen Cube
are aquifer-fed springs.
Flows from the Comal Spring
in New Braunfels rose from 273 cr P
bic feet per second (cfs) on June?
to 320 cfs on Wednesday, jus
above the June average of 288 cfs
That’s 34c*
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Stew Milne, Editor in Chief
Helen Clancy, Managing Editor
John LeBas, City Editor
April Towery, Lifestyles Editor
Kristina Baffin, Sports Editor
James Francis, Opinion Editor
Staff
Jody Holley, Night News Editor
Tim Moog, Photo Editor
Brad Graeber, Graphics Editor
Jacqueline Salinas, Radio Editor
David Friesenhahn, Web Editor
Members
City- Assistant Editors: Erica Roy & Matt Weber;
Reporters: Michelle Newman, Joey Schlueter &
Jenara Kocks; Copy Editor: Jennifer Jones
Lifestyles- Rhonda Reinhart, Keith McPhail
& Jenny Vrnak
Sports- Matt Mitchell & Jeremy Furtick
Opinion- John Lemons, Stephen Llano, Robby Ray,
Mandy Cater, Leonard Callaway, Chris Brooks,
Dan Cone, Jack Harvey & General Franklin
Night News- Assistant Editor: Joshua Miller
Photo- Derek Demere, Robert McKay, Rony
Angkriwan & Pat James
Graphics- Quatro Oakley, Chad Mallam &
Ed Goodwin
Radio- Tiffany Moore, Will Hodges, Missy Kemp,
Amy Montgomery, Sunny Pemberton, Joey
Schlueter, Michelle Snyder & Karina Trevino
Web- Craig Pauli
Office Staff- Stacy Labay, Christy Clowdus &
Mandy Cater
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