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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2003)
Sports: Aggies falter against OSU in Big 12 opener • Page 5 Opinion: Cannabis issues rehashed • Page 11 THE BATTALION Volume 109 • Issue 73 • 12 pages Texas A&M University www.thebatt.com Monday, January 13, 2003 A&M freshman killed in a murder-suicide By Brad Bennett THE BATTALION Rochelle Roquemore, a sophomore chemical engineering major from Sugar Land, will be starting classes Monday without her sister and room mate Jacqueline, a freshman educa tion major from Sugar Land, who was killed on Dec. 29 outside her Spring Loop apartment at the Spring Heights apartment complex in College Station. “Jackie was so beautiful and vibrant it can't be described. She has a right to live,” Rochelle said. Christopher Young, the 23-year-old from Missouri City who killed Jacqueline before taking his own life was being sought by College Station police the night before the shooting, said Lt. Rodney Sigler, public infor mation officer for the College Station Police Department (CSPD). Rochelle said she spoke with Young for more than two hours on Dec. 28 after arriving home at 9:30 p.m. to find Young at the Roquemore’s apartment with a gun, threatening to kill himself. Young had climbed onto the Roquemore’s apartment balcony and broke through the glass door to enter the apartment looking for Jacqueline, who was staying with friends, Rochelle said. “1 thought he was all right when he left,” Rochelle said. Sigler said Rochelle filed a com plaint after the incident. CSPD contacted Young by cell phone the night of Dec. 28. and he told police he was in Houston but refused to cooperate and turn himself in, Sigler said. After police spoke with Young they put out a Welfare Bulletin, a bulletin at a lower status than an All Police Bulletin (APB), informing any official who came into contact with Young that he was armed and potentially dangerous. “We got in touch with everyone we could between here and Houston and told them about it,” said Sigler. “We did everything we could to find him,” Sigler said. Young confronted Jacqueline alone See Murder on page 2 Key Players Jacqueline Roquemore: Victim; 18-year-old A&M freshman Rochelle Roquemore: Sister and roommate ] to Jacoueline; 21- year-old sophomore Christopher Young: 23-year-old boyfrieiu| of Jacqueline from Missouri City, Texas !, Saturday, December 28,20021Sunday, December 29,2002 -Young breaks into Roquemore’s apartment 9:30 p.m. Rochelle arrives home Finds Young inside apartment alone with a gun threatening tol kill himself 11:30 pan. - Young leaves apartment - Rochelle files complaint with CSPD - Rochelle is unable to contact Jacqueline Young arrives at Spring Heights Apartment Complex j at unknown time Jacqueline leaves apartment and meets Young in parking lot 12:48 pum. -Young shoots Jacqueline and then kills himself -Rochelle calls 911 from apartment after hearing snots fired - Jacqueline is pronounced dead after being taken to College Station Medical Center 1 TRAVIS SWEMfiU. TUf BATTALWR Rainy days ALISSA HOLLIMON • THE BATTALION Lauren Cathcart, freshman finance major, Kelly Culver, freshman tion science major battle the weather Sunday afternoon on Mosher biomedical sciences major and Amy Combest, freshman construe- circle. The forecast for this week shows no sign of rain. Cadet given 5 years for child porn By Rolando Garcia THE BATTALION An A&M student and Corps of Cadets mem ber was sentenced Dec. 13 to five years in fed eral prison after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography, said University Police Department (UPD) director Bob Wiatt. Stephen Michael Johnston, 22, a senior psy chology major from Brownsville, was arrested this March as part of a nationwide FR 1 sting called “Operation Candyman.” Johnston was a subscriber to the “Candyman” e-mail group in which an estimated 6,000 users exchanged images of pornography involving children as young as 18 months. Johnston had been in jail in Houston since his arrest. UPD officers executed a search warrant and confiscated Johnston’s personal computer from his residence hall room in Fountain Hall Dec. 10, 2001, and sent it to the FBI. Wiatt said the computer was “replete with child pornogra phy.” Col. Rick Mallahan, assistant commandant of the Corps, said in June that Johnston intend ed to return to school if he did not get sentenced to prison. Johnston was one of more than 80 individu als arrested nationwide in the Candyman sting. An East Texas man who was the leader of the e- mail pornography ring was sentenced Dec. 19 to 30 years in prison. Mark Bates, 33, of Palestine, pled guilty to distributing child pornography. Johnston had earlier pled not guilty to charges of conspiracy to distribute child pornography, which would have carried a max imum 15-year prison term and a $250,000 fine. Subscribers to the Candyman group were expected to contribute images as well as receive them. Two other Texas men arrested in the sting were also sentenced in December. Robert Froman, 49, received 15 years, and Billy Loyd White, 46, received four years. Both are from the Houston area. Car wrecks kill 3 students By Brad Bennett THE BATTALION A&M lost three students in car accidents during the semes ter break. Gokul Lakshman, a graduate student from India studying petroleum engineering, and Kishore Shivdas Naik, a gradu ate student studying aerospace engineering also from India, were both killed Dec. 22 in an accident on the access road of Highway 6 outside Texas World Speedway. Naik and Lakshman, along with Houston resident Grishma Shetty, were broadsided by an 18-wheeler at the Peach Tree cutoff and the eastern Highway 6 access road. According to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) report, Naik’s blue Mazda 626 ran the stop sign on Peach Tree cutoff, a bridge across Highway 6, and was hit on the driver’s side by an 18-wheeler carrying an empty cargo tanker. The report states See Wrecks on page 2 Hackers use A&M phone system By Sarah Walch THE BATTALION Five voice mailboxes at Texas A&M fell prey to foreign phone hackers utilizing the automated system to place collect calls from Saudi Arabia late last week. Officials do not yet know the total cost of the breach. The Physical Plant issued a memorandum Thursday alerting staff to the problem. Physical Plant Assistant Vice President Richard L. Williams called the incident a serious intrusion and said the call transfer option would be disabled on all campus phone lines. Walt Magnussen, associate director of telecommunications, said his office received two telephone calls from Verizon Long Distance and MCI at 7:50 a.m. Thursday. Within an hour, his office had distributed the e-mail notifying all staff of the problem and initiated the shut down of features that had been exploited by the See Hackers on page 2 B-CS still deemed safe after student deaths By Esther Robards-Forbes THE BATTALION The Bryan-College Station community is still considered safe following the recent shooting death of a Texas A&M freshman, say officials at The University Police Department (UPD). Last year, A&M was voted the safest campus in the country based on violent and non-violent crime statistics, said Sgt. Betty Lemay, head of the UPD crime prevention unit. This year the campus is still considered one of the safest, Lemay said. “We are addressing issues from a number of different angles by working with the administra tion and the residence halls,” she said. “We saw a big reduction in theft, and education is a big part of that.” The UPD Web site reports that occurrences of theft and sex offense are down by more than 50 percent in the last two years. Meanwhile, liquor See Safety on page 2 Mi 3B-CS • In a safety survey of 183 cities: - Bryan ranked 49 - College Station ranked 118 •B-CS ranked less than national average in violent crime, but more than national average in property crime • Sex offenses down 50% on TAMU campus in past two years Source: DPS, FBI, www.tamu.edu/upd TRAVIS SWENSON • THE BATTALION