Tyler County News

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Photo by Chris Edwards/Tyler County Booster

By Chris Edwards

JASPER COUNTY – The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers are investigating a fatal crash on U.S. Highway 69 near Rockland, that occurred on the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 5.

The preliminary crash investigation indicates that at approximately 3:52 p.m., a Kenworth truck tractor semi-trailer was traveling north and was stopped due to construction and was reportedly struck in the rear by a Ford F-150. After impact, the pickup caught fire.

The driver of the pickup succumbed to injuries sustained during the crash and was pronounced deceased on scene by a Justice of the Peace. Their information is not available at this time.

Following the crash, the Texas Department of Transportation’s Lufkin District issued a statement concerning the crash and safety in work zones.

Texas Department of Public Safety Sergeant Shana Clark on Thursday released the name of the man who died in a fiery Tuesday afternoon accident. It happened at about 4:00 in extreme northwest Jasper County in the Rockland Community. The man has been identified as Matthew Everett Carr, 34, of Woodville.

According to Clark, a northbound 18-wheeler had stopped due to construction when it was hit from behind by the pickup truck, which then went off the highway and caught on fire.

“The work zone was set with rumble strips, barricades, and a flagger directing traffic just north of the Jasper County line on US 69. There was a work crew present at the time of the crash. The TxDOT family would like to express its heartfelt sympathy to the family of those involved and to those who witnessed the crash,” said Rhonda Oaks, of TxDOT.

Motorists are urged to reduce speed and obey all traffic control in and near a TxDOT work zone. Stay alert for moving equipment and workers near the lanes of travel as you approach a work zone. Always be prepared to stop.

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TDCJ Sgt. Lonnie Baxter and officer Heath Fuller with “Toe.” PHOTO COURTESY OF TCSO

From Staff Reports

Last week, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, one of the Gib Lewis Unit canine officers, “Toe,” helped locate a missing woman.

When the Tyler County Sheriff Bryan Weatherford requested assistance in locating a 64-year-old missing woman, the prison’s Scent Specific K9 Team was called to assist.

Toe, along with Sgt. Lonnie Baxter; Assistant Warden Jamarcus Goodall and officers Heath Fuller and Bart Dean, located the woman, who had been missing since the night before in a search effort between the two entities (Tyler County Sheriff’s Office and TDCJ).

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Special to the Booster

NACOGDOCHES – A team of three sports business students in Stephen F. Austin State University’s Rusche College of Business earned a spot in the final four of the Sport Marketing Association’s 2023 Case Study Competition in October at the SMA annual conference in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Eli Standley of Warren, helped secure SFA a spot in the top four by demonstrating solid working knowledge of the issues confronting the case study team and presenting in a persuasive, enthusiastic fashion, according to Dr. Derek Walton, assistant professor of sports marketing at SFA and faculty sponsor for the team.

“Their impressive achievement in the case study competition was not only a testament to their dedication and skills but also a reminder that students from deep East Texas can achieve great things in the sport industry if they set their minds to it,” Walton said.

SMA hosted a record 22 collegiate teams from across the country to create strategies that Super League Tampa Bay can use to help the United Soccer League Super League launch a new women’s professional soccer league. The league will be featured in up to 10 markets throughout the U.S., and Tampa Bay is one of the original clubs that will begin playing in August 2024.

Student teams had 48 hours to create a plan to build a fan base for the new league, differentiate their brand story, develop and cultivate their supporter group, and show how SLTB can leverage corporate and local sponsorship opportunities. They then presented their ideas in several rounds to judges who included executives from SLTB, the Tampa Bay Rays Major League Baseball team and the Tampa Bay Lightning National Hockey League team as well as sports management academicians.

To prepare, the team worked on channeling nervousness into confidence, responding thoroughly, creating a captivating slideshow and using a professional tone, Walton said.

“Our overall approach to the case study was that there is no right or wrong answer, only well-supported, feasible responses,” he said. “Tell a relevant and appropriate story to link with the dilemma being considered in order to develop an emotional connection.”

Matthew Morgan said he applied many of the skills he learned in Walton’s sports promotion class to help his team advance in the competition.

“One of the questions we got in the first round was, ‘Give me your season ticket pitch,’” Morgan said. “Based on the skills Dr. Walton helped me develop, my group and I were able to nail our sales pitch and advance to the final round.”

Eli Standley said his experiences at the conference and competition are helping with both his schoolwork and career planning.

“The SMA conference prepared me in multiple ways for my academic work and my future career,” he said. “It taught me hard work, time management and how to talk to people in a professional way.”

Steven Luenser also said his conference experiences reinforced his planned career path.

“During the case study competition, we had to find sponsors for the new team, and I want to work in the partnership area of sports,” he said. “We also got to hear from people in the sponsorship field talk about their experiences.”

In addition to the competition, students explored the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ practice facility, attended a Lightning game, and engaged in invaluable networking sessions with prominent industry executives from Tampa’s professional sports teams, including SLTB, the Rays and the Lightning.

Though making the final four at the competition was nice, another memorable moment made the trip’s highlight reel, Morgan said.

“We got to kick field goals on the Buccaneers’ practice field!”

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Educators, law enforcementspeak to fentanyl problem

By Chris Edwards
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SPURGER — Last September, Brandy Melo received a call that no parent wants to receive. One of her sons called her to inform her that her 13-year-old son Kaysen Villarreal was dead.

Villarreal was the victim of an unintentional fentanyl overdose. The teenager had attended a sleepover, and was given a blue pill, which his friends informed him was Aleve. Melo tearfully recounted her late son’s story, and the nightmarish way she found out about his death.

The young overdose victim was more than just a statistic, as his mother recounted in an interview that was screened at a community meeting hosted by Spurger ISD last Tuesday night. He was a son, a brother and a teenaged boy with a zest for life.

Villarreal’s story is common to poisoning deaths among young people. According to statistics available from 2021, from the Centers for Disease Control, nearly 72,000 Americans were killed by fentanyl, a synthetic opioid.

According to a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics, opioids, including fentanyl, are the most common cause of poisoning deaths among children, aged five and under.

At the meeting, which was hosted to inform community members about the dangers of the deadly drug, two regional law enforcement officials Matthew Quinn and Brit Featherston, who work as prosecuting attorners with the Eastern District of Texas, presented the film featuring Villarreal’s story, along with facts and infographics about fentanyl.

Part of the problem, according to Featherstone, as to why the drug is becoming such a problem, is there is a lack of media attention and/or information, in general, about it within the public sphere.

The fentanyl that is being put into, or “laced” within black market drugs, such as heroin, meth and illicit pharmaceuticals is different from the pharmaceutical of the same name that is administered in clinical settings, Featherston said. The fentanyl in question is manufactured in China and India, and cartels are able to maximize profits by utilizing the drug into other drugs to increase the desired effect (i.e. the “high). Featherston said that cartels can make up to six times the profit from fentanyl, due to the small amounts needed, than from a drug like cocaine. The drug is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

The resulting overdoses “is just part of doing business” for the dealers, Featherston said. Typically, fentanyl overdoses don’t fit the profile of the typical drug user, or addict, and that, according to Featherston and Quinn, is another reason why there has been relatively little attention focused on the problem.

Further compounding problems with the drug from a law enforcement perspective is the fact that it takes advanced testing protocols to detect fentanyl’s presence, Featherston said.

Information available from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) states that seven out of 10 pills with fentanyl are potentially deadly, and that in 2022, the agency seized more than 59.6 million fentanyl-laced fake pills, and in excess of 13,200 pounds of fentanyl powder, which is enough to result in more than 396 million lethal doses. That fact, Featherston said, is enough to kill the entire population of the United States.

Spurger ISD has the overdose reversal medication naloxone (Narcan) on hand, according to SISD superintendent Jeff Burnthorn. The drug, Burnthorn said, is “at least an arrow in the quiver to deal with this problem.”

Burnthorn and SISD counselor Arlene Robinson organized the meeting, and their measures were lauded by the visiting lawmen. Featherston said all school districts should invest in Narcan in case an overdose is suspected.

The drug blocks the effects of opiates on the brain and restores breathing. It will only work on a person if they have opiates in their system, but otherwise will not harm. The way fentanyl works to cause an overdose, Quinn explained, is that it works to shut down pulmonary function.

Among the information presented at the meeting was the fact that fentanyl, itself, is ranked as the number one killer of persons aged 18-45 in the United States.

Another story that painted a picture attesting to the “it could happen to anyone” idea of the drug’s tragic outcome centered around Blain Padgett, a Sour Lake native, who, according to Featherston “did everything right,” concerning his diet, workout routines and other health practices, toward accomplishing his dream of someday playing college football.

Padgett, who died on March 2, 2018, took what he believed was a hydrocodone pill from a trusted friend and teammate at Rice University. The pill, which Padgett took for shoulder pain, contained the deadly drug, and he overdosed.

The teammate was arrested and federally charged. Since then, laws have strengthened pertaining to fentanyl distribution. Even if someone unknowingly gives a person a drug containing fentanyl and death results, that person is liable to spend a minimum of 20 years in federal prison, or 10-99 years in prison under Texas law.

“This drug is affecting people just like you,” Quinn said, after he told a story that hit close to home for him. Quinn spoke of a relative, a young woman, who became addicted to prescription pills. When she could no longer obtain prescriptions, she began buying her drugs on the black market, and the pills contained fentanyl, which led to a fatal OD, he said.

This year, Quinn said, the DEA is estimating that 120,000 Americans will die as a result of the drug.

Robinson spoke to the crowd at the end of the meeting and encouraged everyone in attendance to involve the community in the concern over the drug. The drugs, she said, are already present in Tyler County, and are already a problem.

“We need to see the community intrested in this,” she said.