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THE WETUMPKA HERALD Elmore County’s Oldest Newspaper - Established 1898
Wetumpka, AL 36092
WEDNESDAY • JUNE 7, 2017
THEWETUMPKAHERALD.COM
50¢
VOL. 119, NO. 23
Man alleged to have strangled woman, thrown body in well By DAVID GRANGER Managing Editor
District Judge Glenn Goggans set bond for David Helms at $133,000 and formally charged the 41-year-old Wetumpka man with murder and second-degree escape, both felonies, and criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, after Helms was arrested Monday when county authorities discovered the body of 59-year-old Jane Huddleston of Wetumpka in a well where she was placed after apparently being strangled with a dog collar.
14), about three miles west of Helms appeared in the courtthe Claud community. Elmore room at the Elmore County County Sheriff Bill Franklin Judicial Complex wearing jail-issaid the victim had some sort of sue stripes with the pants cut off ligature around her neck which at the knee. He said little, but looked somewhat like a dog colthat he had been refused water by lar. sheriff’s department employees Franklin said the investigation after asking for it “about four or that resulted in the discovery of five times.” Helms Huddleston’s body began early After a tip from an inmate and a brief investigation, Huddleston’s body Monday morning after a county jail was found Monday morning in a well inmate approached corrections officers at 79355 Tallassee Highway (Highway with information about a homicide.
Sunday sales, jails and missing agenda items discussed by council By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
The Wetumpka City Council saw agenda items on Sunday alcohol sales, an agreement with the county for continued jail use, a rezoning of land off U.S. 231 and a bid for landscaping at the city airport. The alcohol sales ordinance received its first reading by City Attorney Regina Edwards. The item was listed as “to authorize the sale of alcoholic beverages on Sunday for off-premises See COUNCIL • Page A3
Councilman says city taking losing gamble, but city’s mum on possible litigation By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
The city’s not saying much about ominously worded “possible litigation” that has appeared now on two city council meeting agendas, and resulted in two separate instances of executive session, the latest at a special-called meeting last week. The meeting, held, May 31 at 4 p.m. in the City Administration Building, got off to a late start and attendants in professional attire mulled about the chambers, breaking off into groups talking, while See LITIGATION • Page B6
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“It all started (Monday) morning when my chief deputy contacted me to let me know that a corrections officer had been given a note by an inmate that pretty much said what Mr. Helms had done to Mrs. Huddleston,” Franklin said. “From time to time, we’ll get notes like that and a lot of times there’s no validity to them. Inmates are just trying to somehow help themselves out. This was a rare instance where just about everything the inmate said he was told turned out to be true.” See ARREST • Page A3
Tallassee NOW! exhibitions to center on Dixie Art Colony By DAVID GRANGER Managing Editor
Four art exhibitions – two centered around Elmore County’s historic Dixie Art Colony – are set for Friday and Saturday, June 9-10, during this weekend’s Tallassee NOW! festivities. According to Mark Harris, the exhibitions will take place at the 304 Barnett Blvd. branch of Trustmark Bank, located just west of the Fitzpatrick Bridge. The bank is the old Bank of Tallassee, whose president, Roberts Blount, commissioned Kelly Fitzpatrick to paint four large, oversized murals for the bank’s lobby. The exhibitions all Submitted / Dixie Art Colony Foundation open at 6 p.m. on Friday Arthur Srewart worked to finish the murals that now reside in the lobby of Tallassee’s Trustmark Bank after Kelly with a reception set for Fitzpatrick died of a heart attack after beginning the work. the lobby of Trustmark Bank until 7 :30 p.m. be open from 10 a.m. until of Trustmark and will sketched out and started All exhibitions will also 2 p.m. on June 14 and 17. center on the four murals painting one when he sufbe open from 10 a.m. to Blount commissioned from fered a heart attack and had The exhibitions are: 2 p.m. on Saturday. Two to be taken to the Veterans • Dixie Art Colony: A Fitzgerald in 1952. of the exhibitions, Dixie Look at its Lasting Legacy: “Kelly was working on Administration Hospital in Doodles and Tallassee The exhibit will take these in his studio,” said Montgomery. That’s where – Now & Then, will also place in the main lobby Harris. “He had them all See DIXIE • Page A3
New vest passes WHS student’s bulletproof test By COREY ARWOOD Staff Writer
A Wetumpka High School junior was interested in making body armor stronger, so he took its existing design, developed a stronger one and then took his design to Los Angeles to win awards at an international science competition. Lucas Lynn said he, his science teacher, Dr. Virginia Villarty and her grandson stayed in a “nice Marriott Hotel” downtown LA near the Los Angeles Convention Center where the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair was being held. Intel, in this case is the Silicon Valley based computer processor developer, and the competition is billed as the largest of its kind worldwide. Lynn said there nearly 80 countries represented and nearly 1,800 individual competitors. Of those, Lynn placed second in the special awards category, which he said meant it was sponsored by societies, companies, universities or similar institutions. The institution that sponsored his award was the Society for Experimental Mechanics Inc. and to the tune of $1,500. See BULLETPROOF • Page B6
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Wetumpka High School student Lucas Lynn explains the methodology of his improved bulletproof vest to visitors to his booth at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, held May 15-19 in Los Angeles.
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