Tyler County News

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By Chris Edwards
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WOODVILLE – For East Texans who love live music (and shame on you, if you don’t) the name Randy C. Moore should set off a few bells.

Since re-settling back into Texas in 2020 with his wife Linda, Moore has been a regular presence on stages throughout the region and the state. Moore is bringing some of his engaging wit and storytelling acumen along with his prowess as a solo acoustic act to Woodville on Sunday, April 9, when he plays the Emporium Stage downtown.

Doors open at 2:30 p.m., and local musician “Wild Bill” Spurlock will open the show. Spurlock, of course, is the namesake proprietor of Wild Bill’s Grill in Woodville, where Moore has performed several times.

For many artists, the love of their chosen medium can be all consuming, and with Moore, it is evident that he lives and breathes music. 

Moore identifies as a country artist, but his sound and tastes come from a variety of places. A veteran of the music industry and Nashville, Moore can rattle off seemingly esoteric facts about everyone from Neil Young and U2 to the late, great Carl Perkins, in a way that makes for fascinating storytelling.

Onstage, Moore can impersonate several artists, including Johnny Cash, vocally, and he covers songs from a variety of sources, but at the end of the day, Moore’s own sound is tempered with a warm, friendly vocal cadence and an intimate identification with the songs – whether they came from his pen or others’.

“An artist is someone who takes something that feels right for them and can deliver it to an audience,” he said. 

Since he relocated to Texas, he and his wife used the pandemic-stricken year of 2020 as a time to resettle and move, or “Texas-ize,” as he calls it. 

“[The pandemic] afforded me the opportunity to reset my studio and reset my songwriting,” he said.

They settled in Nacogdoches, after Moore said they made a conscious decision to move back to Texas, two years before the pandemic put the hold on so many things.

“I just decided I did not want to live in Tennessee anymore, and had done all I could there,” Moore said.

In the time since then, Moore has become a steady presence to audiences across the region, and he is also popping up on some upcoming festivals, including the Wildflower Festival in Richardson in late May and TwisterFest in Oklahoma.

He has also released a couple of albums, Lufkin and Hwy. 59, both of which are filled to the brim with his heartfelt lyrics and inescapable melodies. Such songs as “I Sold a Lot of Beer” and “Big in Texas” have gotten radio play.

Moore said he is also working on an upcoming EP, which he is co-producing with Norbert Putnam, a music legend who played bass on many Elvis Presley recordings. 

For the Emporium show, Moore promises that audiences can “come and enjoy music the way it was meant to be, with a voice, a guitar and some great stories.”

He said he will draw from the repertoire of original tunes, as well as covers. “They’ll hear me play songs from other writers who I’ve met, and whose stories I know,” Moore said.

One artist who he promises to cover is his late influence Perkins, whom he knew quite well. Moore is also working on a screenplay about Perkins’ life, with Perkins’ daughter.

Tickets to the show on Sunday are $20 for reserved seats; $15 for general admission. For tickets, call 409-283-3832 or 409-200-4759.

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By Chris Edwards
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CryerWOODVILLE – A man was sentenced last week to 20 years in prison for stabbing a co-worker.

Richard Calvin Cryer, a 34-year-old Colmesneil man, was convicted of the aggravated assault charge from 2019, and still faces additional charges in Tyler County.

He received the maximum punishment for the crime in a district courtroom before District Judge Delinda Gibbs-Walker. 

Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin said that justice was served. “This defendant is dangerous and unpredictable. Our county is safer with him behind bars,” Babin said, after Cryer was sentenced.

Cryer, who had been employed with Elijah’s Café in Woodville for about two days had exhibited strange behavior, which was consistent with the abuse and use of methamphetamines, according to witness testimony. A fellow employee, Jose Oscar Azcona, was teaching Cryer how to make club sandwiches, when suddenly and unexpectedly, Cryer attacked him and began to stab him with a 12-inch butcher knife, while shouting “Go to sleep, motherf—er.”

Azcona sustained a stab wound to his abdomen and a severe cut to his arm, but was subsequently treated for the injuries. 

Cryer, who fled the scene with the knife, was spotted a few blocks from the restaurant by Woodville Police officer Arin Dees and Chase Nalley, an investigator with the Tyler County Sheriff’s Office. 

Cryer was on foot, and when he saw the two officers, he dropped the knife, and was detained. Cryer claimed, when on the stand, that the attack was in self-defense, however, the jurors found no evidence to support the notion that Azcona had threatened or harmed Cryer. Furthermore, Cryer had said he “has no regrets” and said that getting stabbed was “good” for his victim.

Babin said that other evidence demonstrated a history of drug abuse and violent criminal activity for Cryer.

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EssaryBy Chris Edwards
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SPURGER – A Spurger man faces a litany of charges after he was arrested for crashing a stolen pickup truck into a school bus.

Last Thursday morning, deputies with the Tyler County Sheriff’s Office were on patrol in the Dam B area and attempted to stop a white Chevrolet truck for a traffic violation, southbound along FM 92, according to Tyler County Sheriff Bryan Weatherford. 

Weatherford said that the TCSO vehicle had its emergency lights and sirens activated, but the driver refused to stop, and at a high rate of speed, ran a stop sign on CR 4375 (also known as Moss Bridge Road) and FM 2992, colliding with a Spurger ISD school bus.

Weatherford said that six students were on the bus and none of them, nor the driver, were injured. The driver of the vehicle, whom deputies identified as Kyle Allen Essary, age 23, of Spurger, fled to a nearby wooded area on foot. Deputies learned that the truck Essary was driving had been reported as stolen from the Colmesneil area.

Essary was caught at 9 a.m., about two and a half hours after the chase began. He was apprehended a half mile away from the scene of the crash. Weatherford said he had emerged from the woods and knocked on a homeowner’s door asking for a ride.

The homeowner called TCSO, and deputies subsequently found him on foot, along FM 2992. Essary was arrested and transported to the Tyler County Justice Center, and charged with felony evading arrest with a motor vehicle; unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and issued six felony counts of endangering a child; one charge for each student who was riding the bus.

Weatherford said that Essary could face additional charges as investigators and Department of Public Safety troopers work with Tyler County District Attorney Lucas Babin on the case.

Weatherford added that many other law enforcement and emergency personnel assisted on the scene, including the Woodville Police Department; DPS troopers; Spurger Volunteer Fire Department; Allegiance Ambulance and the Spurger ISD staff, all of whom assisted in treating and caring for students who were on the bus.

Pct. 3 Judge Milton Powers set bonds for Essary totaling $579,000 last Friday. In addition to the aforementioned charges, Essary also had two active warrants out of Shelby County. Each count for the felony child endangerment carried a $75,000 bond.

At the time of Thursday’s series of events, Essary was out on bond for an earlier March arrest. He was arrested then in Fred for an active blue warrant for Burglary of a Habitation.

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By Chris Edwards
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WOODVILLE – The final weekend for the annual Dogwood Festival is upon us.

Saturday will see the 79th annual iteration of the festival concludes with Queen’s Weekend for the third weekend of the overall festival.

The new Dogwood Queen will be crowned in the evening with the festivities beginning at the Dogwood Amphitheater which will also play host to the traditional historical play. The play is the longest-running outdoor historical play in the entire American south. 

The culmination of all the weekend’s events will take place when a new Dogwood Queen is crowned. Sunnie Wilkinson, from Colmesneil, currently reigns as Queen. 

The festivities that comprise Queen’s Weekend will begin on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. with the Dogwood Dash race, which is sponsored by Citizens State Bank and begins in front of Kirby Gym, located at 505 North Charlton Street. 

From 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., the courthouse square will play host to vendors with a wide variety of goods, foodstuffs and demonstrations on display and at 2 p.m. the parade will take its route along Highway 190 headed east. The parade lineup begins at 1:30 p.m.

Along with the motorcycle and classic car exhibits near the courthouse, which begin at 9 a.m., there will also be some live music on the courthouse square. Local blues-rockers Ina Dilemma will perform, along with some other acts, such as Ginger Ryleigh and Kirsten Hardmant.

For this year’s theme, the directors for the Dogwood Festival went with “Hometown Heroes.”

In keeping with the theme, the festival directors chose Colmesneil resident Alonzo Randolph to serve as Parade Marshal. Randolph is a World War II Army combat veteran, and recently celebrated his 102nd birthday.

The play and coronation for the new queen will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Dogwood Ampitheater.

Whether festivalgoers are longtime Tyler County residents or visitors, the Dogwood Festival offers up a celebration of springtime in the region that provides a testament to the strength and purpose of community and allows an opportunity for great fun for all.