First reported US swine-flu death occurs in Houston

The first reported death in the United States from the swine flu outbreak was that of a 23-month-old Mexican toddler who fell ill in Brownsville and was transported for treatment in Houston, where the child died Monday, city officials said.
Kathy Barton, spokeswoman for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services, did not say which hospital treated the child or give any other details about the toddler.

There still have been no reported Houston-area cases of the disease, which is thought to have begun in Mexico but is being detected around the world. However, Barton said Houston should expect to see cases originate here.
She added that hospitals that handle any flu cases, swine or otherwise, take precautions to prevent its spread, such as masks, frequent handwashing and other sanitation measures.

"Even though we've been expecting this, it is very, very sad," said Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who made the initial announcement of a Texas death on several nationally televised morning shows today. "As a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family."

Germany today reported its first three cases of swine flu. The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States before today rose to 66 in six states, with 45 in New York, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, but cities and states suspected more. In New York, the city's health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.

The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn't been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.
"We're working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful," Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work, told The Associated Press.
The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.

"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Cuba and Argentina banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people and sickening well over 2,000. In a bit of good news, Mexico's health secretary, Jose Cordova, late Tuesday called the death toll there "more or less stable."

Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, has taken drastic steps to curb the virus' spread, starting with shutting down schools and on Tuesday expanding closures to gyms and swimming pools and even telling restaurants to limit service to takeout. People who venture out tend to wear masks in hopes of protection.
New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Britain, Canada and now Germany have also reported cases. But the only deaths so far have been Mexican citizens, baffling experts.
The WHO argues against closing borders to stem the spread, and the U.S. — although checking arriving travelers for the ill who may need care — agrees it's too late for that tactic.

"Sealing a border as an approach to containment is something that has been discussed and it was our planning assumption should an outbreak of a new strain of influenza occur overseas. We had plans for trying to swoop in and knockout or quench an outbreak if it were occurring far from our borders. That's not the case here," Besser told a telephone briefing of Nevada-based health providers and reporters. "The idea of trying to limit the spread to Mexico is not realistic or at all possible."
"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.

Authorities sought to keep the crisis in context: Flu deaths are common around the world. In the U.S. alone, the CDC says about 36,000 people a year die of flu-related causes. Still, the CDC calls the new strain a combination of pig, bird and human.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

300 League City homes damaged during freak weekend storm

07:54 AM CDT on Friday, April 24, 2009

By Rhiannon Meyers / The Daily News
LEAGUE CITY, Texas — Scores of people are gutting their houses after a freak storm dumped as many as 10 inches of rain Saturday in parts of Galveston County.

The weekend storm caused more damage in north county areas than Hurricane Ike did when it came ashore over Galveston on Sept. 13, officials said.

In League City, which appears to be the hardest hit in the northern part of Galveston County, 300 houses flooded, Dena Demaret, assistant emergency management coordinator said.

Half of those received between 6 inches and 2 feet of water, she said.

“It just kept coming in,” said Scott Guzman, who lives in the Claremont subdivision on the city’s west side. “I’ve never seen currents go through a house like that.”

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Parts of League City — including Guzman’s neighborhood — received as much as 8 inches of rain in 90 minutes Saturday afternoon, Public Works Director Larry Herbert said.

The quick, torrential rainfall overwhelmed the city’s drainage system, which is designed to drain off 2 inches of rain an hour, Herbert said.

From the inside of his single-level house on Raven Knoll Court, Guzman watched the water swallow up his yard and seep through his walls.

As the water filled his house like a bowl and pooled in his kitchen, Guzman plucked his computer and other valuable belongings from the floor. Water receded within an hour, leaving behind a soggy mess of his carpet and walls.

Guzman has been living in a hotel since Saturday.

“I’ve never been through anything like this before,” he said.

Raven Knoll Court was littered Thursday with pieces of wet carpet cut into strips, sheets of soggy gypsum wall board, castoff pink insulation, chunks of broken baseboards and dead cars.

“We fared fine during Hurricane Ike, but this rainstorm wiped us out,” Bryan Schneider said.

Claremont subdivision and the other badly flooded neighborhoods are not in federally designated flood zones.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Night lake speed limit mulled

By Tiffany Revelle -- Staff reporter
Updated: 04/22/2009 09:29:58 PM PDT

LAKE COUNTY The possibility of a nighttime speed limit on Clear Lake spurred debate during a Tuesday Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting, despite a request at the beginning of the discussion to reschedule the item.

The board agreed to direct the Clear Lake Advisory Subcommittee (CLAS) to discuss the concept and consider the committee's recommendation at a future meeting. CLAS member Brent Siemer said he would put the discussion on the committee's Friday agenda and contact Lake County Sheriff Rodney Mitchell about sending a representative.

"This is ripe for discussion," District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said.

Farrington said at the top of the meeting that he didn't want to identify a specific speed limit yet, but discuss the logistics of implementing any speed limit at night on the lake.

Echoing the concerns of Kelseyville resident Phil Murphy, who requested the board consider a speed limit, Farrington said he had lost friends to nighttime boating accidents on Clear Lake.

Lake County Sheriff Rodney Mitchell thanked Murphy for asking the board to reschedule the discussion. Mitchell told the board he wanted boat patrol Sgt. Dennis Ostini to be involved in the discussion, but Ostini was not available Tuesday.

"I think this is an important discussion to have," Mitchell said. "Whether the board decides to do something to implement a speed limit at night nor not, it should be discussed and some information needs to be

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vetted through that process."
District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith said he had been a member of CLAS, which he said would be the appropriate entity to do the legwork on issues concerning Clear Lake.

"During this process you have to compare apples to apples," Smith said, referring to speed limits on other state watercourses.

Kelseyville resident Bert Atwood said a "safe and sane" approach was needed, calling Murphy's suggested 15-mph speed limit absurd.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Dad charged in 5 kids' drownings

A 32-year-old Houston man's breath test showed he was legally intoxicated two and a half hours after he drove into a water-filled ditch in north Houston on Saturday, drowning five children who were passengers in the car, a prosecutor said today.

Chanton Jenkins was charged Sunday with four counts of intoxication manslaughter and could face 80 years in prison if convicted on all charges. Each carries a two- to 20-year sentence and a fine of up to $10,000, said Harris County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Donna Hawkins.
None of the children in the car was buckled in, according to prosecutors.

Jenkins made a brief appearance today in a probable cause courtroom adjacent to the Harris County jail. A judge determined there was reason to hold him until his next scheduled setting Tuesday in state district court.
At the hearing, a prosecutor said Jenkins' two breath tests registered blood alcohol levels of 0.079 percent and 0.082 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 percent. A blood test is pending.

Meanwhile, authorities this morning resumed searching the banks of Greens Bayou for the body of the fifth victim, 4-year-old Hallie Jenkins.

“The waiting is just horrible,” said Valerie Jones, a cousin of the victims.
Jenkins was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone when he veered off the road in the 2200 block of Greens Road during heavy storms Saturday.
“It was a freak accident. He was talking and said ‘dang!’ and then I assumed he dropped the phone,” said Tracy Easley, who was the mother of victims Hallie and Karrinton.
Jenkins, his adult brother and 10-year-old Jada Barnes managed to scramble out of the 2000 Lincoln LS after the vehicle crashed down an embankment and ended up submerged in about 9 feet of water. Jada was recovering from minor scrapes and bruises Sunday.

The bodies of three boys — 4-year-old Devin Jenkins, 7-year-old Malik Barlow and 11-year-old Dreyton Thompson — were recovered from the Lincoln sedan early Sunday morning by Houston Police Department dive team members.
About mid-day, searchers found the body of 1-year-old Karrinton a half mile from the crash.
Criminal record
Officials said Chanton Jenkins failed a field sobriety test at the scene, officers smelled a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and he was talking rapidly and making different statements as to how many people were in the car.
Jenkins, the father of at least three of the deceased children, has a criminal record in Harris County dating back to 1994. Most recently he was sentenced to 10 months in jail on drug-related charges.

The two men were cooperating with police, said Houston police spokesman Kese Smith.
Family members remembered the children as sweet and fun-loving.
Easley described Karrinton as “the boss of the family.”

“She was the baby in the family and she ran everything. Hallie was the princess. She was the little diva,” Easley said. “She was prissy and she always walked on her tiptoes.”
Devin was a little pistol who liked to challenge everything he was told, Easley said.
Brothers Malik and Dreyton played football and basketball and participated on a step team that their 24-year-old uncle Travis Campbell helped organize.

“If you knew them, you would have just fallen in love with them,” said Malik’s godmother Tywanna Harris.
The two were inseparable.
“If Dreyton had a chance to get out of that car, I bet he thought, not without my brother. That was just his mentality,” said the boys’ aunt, Sonya Diamond.


READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Houston firefighters have discovered a body in the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Southeast Houston

By Michelle Homer / KHOU.com
HOUSTON -- Houston firefighters have discovered a body in the rubble of a collapsed hotel in Southeast Houston. Two injured victims were pulled out by rescue crews. Two other injured victims were pulled out by rescue workers.

The two-story complex near I-45 and Griggs was in the process of being refurbished into low income housing when it collapsed Tuesday afternoon.

"One of the buildings has pancaked and fallen," said Asst. Fire Chief Tommy Dowdy.

He said they spotted the victim's body just after 5 p.m.

Rescue crews are now working to confirm there is no one else still trapped in the rubble.

Fire crews used cameras to search through the piles of wood.
Initial reports said as many as seven people could be buried in the piles of debris. Dowdy later said they believe everyone else has been accounted for. They conducted a search and found no other people.

"We have conducted the search and marked the areas that were searched with paint," Dowdy said.

There was some confusion at the scene because some members of the construction crew spoke only Spanish.

Dowdy said HFD rescue crews underwent additional training for building collapses and bought special equipment after 9/11 including cameras, which helped in the search.

Both of the injured victims were taken to area hospitals.

Their conditions are unknown.

Dowdy said it's too early to speculate about the cause of the collapse.

LINK FOR UPDATES HERE

Donation At The Doorstep

Lake County Youth Center Supervisor Nick Logoteta shows off a PlayStation2... (The Record-Bee)
CLEARLAKE Lake County Youth Center Supervisor Nick Logoteta was happily surprised Monday when he left the facility for just a few minutes and returned to find a fun and entertaining donation. An anonymous donor, suspected to be an officer of the Clearlake Police Department, left a PlayStation 2 game system along with a Guitar Hero controller and more than a dozen games Monday afternoon.

"These kinds of donations mean so much to our local children," Logoteta said. "It lets them know that people in the community care about them."

The youth center, which is located on Golf Avenue in Clearlake, has a schedule of activities and snacks that are offered on a weekly basis. Mondays are reserved for board games and nachos. Tuesdays there is painting and chicken sandwiches. Wednesdays is a "free for all" with chili dogs or nachos. Thursdays are reserved for pool and ping pong tournaments with corn dogs or hotdogs and Fridays are movie days with popcorn and pizza.

Membership fees have been changed, Logoteta reported. "Instead of $10 a month per child or $20 for two or more children, we have changed the prices to $50 for entire year for one child or $75 for two or more children. But still, here at the youth center, we turn no child away for lack of funds. That's where the community really comes in with support for our sponsorship program," he said.

The sponsorship program enables the center to provide for all children of the community despite financial

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limitations of the family. For more information regarding donations to the program, contact the Lake County Youth Center at 994-7281.
According to Logoteta, the youth center is enjoying healthy participation. "We have a lot of kids who are into sports. We have a couple playing baseball and couple playing softball. We have a lot of kids here who are doing the right thing and staying out of trouble and we probably sign up a new kid each week," he said.

A field trip is being planned for youth center participants. "We are trying to plan a trip to Yogi Bear campground and amusement center," Logoteta said. "We are planning the trip for this summer. We are trying to start our fundraising now so as many kids who want to go can."

Operation hours, which are specific to meet requirements mandated by the state, are 2:15 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 2:15 to 5:10 p.m. on Fridays. The center welcomes children age 10 to 16 years of age.

Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.

Realtors say area offers a lot

With the nation’s real estate slump having finally hit Houston, Clear Lake City Community Association president Roberta Toppin has been proactive.
“I’m just talking to people and telling them don’t run away,” Toppin said. “Just stay here.”

Even though home prices have fallen some in parts of Clear Lake City, it remains a seller’s market in the 46-year-old master-planned community, according to local real estate professionals.
“Home sales are doing great in Clear Lake City,” said Susan Johnson, a real estate agent. “We’re not hurting like some of these other places.”

Some homes in Clear Lake City are selling in five to 10 days, Johnson said.

“There’s no new construction that we’re really having to compete with,” she said. “Our resale homes are selling. There’s just not that much inventory on the market.”
Clear Lake City remains popular for home buyers because of its proximity to Johnson Space Center, aerospace companies and area chemical plants, Johnson said.

The nearby access to marinas also is ideal for boating enthusiasts, she said.
The Clear Creek school district also continues to be a major draw for buying a home in Clear Lake City, Johnson said.
“We have people that move here just to be able to put their children into our school system,” she said.

The four subdivisions and approximately 4,600 homes that comprise the Clear Lake City Community Association are “still healthy,” said Glenda Stroud, the association’s vice president. The association’s subdivisions are Camino South, Meadow Green, Oak Brook and Oak Brook West.

“I feel very comfortable with where we are,” said Stroud, who has lived in Camino South subdivision for nearly 41 years.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Lampson makes short list for NASA top job

By STEWART M. POWELL WASHINGTON BUREAU
April 1, 2009, 10:22PM


Nick de la Torre CHRONICLE

WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, once a county assessor and school science teacher, has emerged as a contender for the top job at NASA, sources on Capitol Hill have told the Houston Chronicle.
The 64-year-old Stafford Democrat, whose Houston-area congressional district included Johnson Space Center, has joined a short list of prospective nominees for the $177,000-a-year post.

Former astronaut Charles Bolden Jr., a retired Marine Corps major general, also remains in contention, in part because of support from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., chairman of the Senate panel that oversees NASA.
Lampson did not return telephone calls seeking comment. A spokeswoman for President Barack Obama, Gannet Tseggai, said the White House has no comment.

The selection of a NASA administrator has dragged on for months. It has been complicated by political divisions within the NASA community, rival candidates favored by Texas and Florida lawmakers and a White House distracted by a national economic crisis.

A bipartisan group of 14 lawmakers — including seven Texans — recently wrote Obama to express their concern about the absence of a NASA administrator.
Freshman Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, who defeated Lampson in November’s congressional election, said he found the lengthy delay “extremely troubling,” especially with NASA’s budget being considered by the House and critical decisions over program milestones mounting.

“I’m very concerned that five months after the election, we’ve still only heard rumors from the administration regarding the next NASA administrator,” said Olson, who serves as ranking Republican on the House panel that oversees NASA.
Lampson’s congressional allies have been privately urging Obama to consider the former congressman ever since his 2008 defeat. The Texas Democrat has remained a strong candidate because he was “so familiar with NASA as a member of Congress,” said Rep. Charles Gonzalez, D-San Antonio. “I know that members of the Texas delegation, as well as (other) members of the House, were writing letters in support of Nick Lampson for a position at NASA.”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Clear Lake Woman Takes on Cancer With Festival & Run

Heart and sole of the matter
'By DIANA NORTH CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT

At a very young age, Jori Zemel displayed numerous gifts. She had the eye of a fashion designer and a desire to teach.
Jori surely would have remained an artist, writer and animal lover. But her mother, Nina Zemel, admits that had she lived, her daughter might have been embarrassed that a foundation is named after her.

More than eight years after Jori’s death at age 14, the Jori Zemel Children’s Bone Cancer Foundation will conduct the seventh annual Heart & Sole Music Festival and Cancer Walk April 19 at noon at Clear Lake High School, 2929 Bay Area Blvd.

“She’d be embarrassed that anything was named after her because she didn’t like a lot of recognition,” said Nina Zemel, who is vice president and co-founder of the foundation.

The festival will occur at the school Jori would have attended and where Nina Zemel worked as a counselor until last year.
Live music, clowns, an obstacle course, a climbing wall and other activities precede the three-mile walk that takes participants past the home Jori shared with her parents Brook and Nina and her older brother Ryan.

In 2002, when the Zemels established the foundation in their daughter’s honor, their mission was simple — to save the lives of children with bone cancer, known as osteosarcoma.

“This is one of the most horrific disease that anyone can get,” Brook Zemel said. “There’s chemo, there’s amputations and major surgery. It usually metastasizes into their lungs and it’s like, piece by piece, your life is being surgically removed from you.”

Fighting the disease at their daughter’s side, the Zemels spent many hours researching and seeking medical expertise and even experimental drugs to keep her alive.

Their search revealed a discontinued drug used in clinical trials that showed promise. Called Mifamurtide, or L-MTP-PE, they were told there was none left. But their refusal to give up led them to the owner of the company, who disregarded legal advice and located vials in an out-of-state pharmaceutical warehouse.

Jori finally did receive the experimental drug, but it came too late to stop the spread of the disease that claimed her life. However, in part because of the Zemels’ efforts, children undergoing treatment for bone cancer at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center today are receiving the drug, which is most effective when used in the early stages.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Note left on body is a clue in itself.

The handwriting on a note left near the body of a hit-and-run victim suggests that it may have been written by a woman, League City police said today.

Investigators believe that the 20-word message written in ink left next to the body of Maurice Jones, 34, of League City, may have been written by a woman between 20 and 40 years old, Sgt. David Hausam said. It’s unclear how police made that assessment.

Hausam cautioned that it was by no means certain that a woman wrote the message and only a handwriting analyst could make that determination.
Police have not decided yet to take that step. “It’s a possibility,” Hausam said. “If nothing progresses it’s going to be a step we will eventually take,” Hausam said.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Space Shuttle Moved To Launch Pad

STS-125 Astronauts in Florida for Training
Thu, 02 Apr 2009 07:36:59 AM CDT


STS-125: Mission to Service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
Veteran astronaut Scott Altman will command the final space shuttle mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.

During the 11-day mission's five spacewalks, astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning into at least 2014.

In addition to the originally scheduled work, Atlantis also will carry a replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit for Hubble. Astronauts will install the unit on the telescope, removing the one that stopped working on Sept. 27, 2008, delaying the servicing mission until the replacement was ready

Hit-and-run victim had complicated, tragic life

By Rhiannon Meyers
The Daily News
Published April 2, 2009

LEAGUE CITY — You might expect Maurice Devron Jones’ life to have been as simple as his death was tragic.

At 34, he worked the night shift at a McDonald’s restaurant. He walked to and from work and spent nights watching late movies on a sheet-covered couch at his mother’s house.

But as the story of his death at the hands of a hit-and-run driver draws national attention, the story of his life reveals a complicated past.

Accused of Murder

As police continue to search for the person who left Jones dead in a roadside ditch and a hastily written note of apology beside his body, his mother fields phone calls, some from strangers as far away as California, offering condolences in the death of a son whose life was a series of tragedies and challenges.

Those challenges included the 11-1/2 months he spent jailed on charges he murdered his Dickinson roommate — he was later acquitted — and the loss of the relationship with his 11-year-old daughter, Jada, whom he hadn’t seen in four years, his mother, Roberta Jones, said.

Before he died, Maurice had been trying to convince Jada’s mother to let him see Jada, Roberta said.

“I had 34 years with Maurice, but for his daughter — she won’t have that,” she said.

Aside from the note, which police speculate could have been written by a woman with a family, investigators have found few clues left behind by the driver.

Nothing came of interviews with employees of auto body shops, glass repair shops and carwashes, said Sgt. David Hausam of the League City Police Department. Investigators, so far, have little to go on to figure out who killed Maurice Jones.

Growing Up

Born at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston on April 23, 1974, Maurice spent most of his life in the League City area.

Roberta was a single mother who worked constantly to support Maurice and his younger sister, Jamie. Although Maurice’s father was a part of his life, they were never close, Roberta said.

Maurice and Jamie, on the other hand, were as close as siblings can be, and the two frequently wreaked havoc on their mother’s house.

“You know how women like to collect things like china?” she asked. “I never could have any china in that house.”

Teachers always told Roberta that Maurice was a sweet child, she said.

He loved history classes. He religiously watched National Geographic shows and collected the magazines, she said.

As he grew older, Maurice became a ladies’ man. No matter how many times his mother told him, “No phone calls after 10 p.m.,” the phone would still ring at 2 a.m. and there would always be a female voice on the other end, she said.

Toward the end of high school, Maurice met Heather Gilmore, then a 16-year-old single mother living in the same apartment complex.

Despite their off-and-on relationship that spanned 18 years, Maurice always remained a father figure to her son, Gilmore said.

When Maurice graduated in 1993 from Clear Creek High School, Roberta wanted him to go to college, she said.

He was so good with numbers and math, she knew he was destined to be an engineer, she said. But, Maurice had other ideas. Instead of college, Maurice took a job with an electrician in Clear Lake.

‘It Broke My Heart’

During one of his off periods with Gilmore, Maurice moved in with Michelle Stapp of Dickinson.

On Feb. 22, 2003, Stapp was found dead inside the house with a power cord around her neck. Police named Maurice as a suspect.

Two years later, police arrested Maurice in Killeen, where he was living with his sister, and brought him back to Galveston County. He sat in jail for more than 11 months because no one could afford to bail him out.

Roberta was one of the first people Maurice called from jail, she said.

“I said, ‘Maurice, did you do it?’ And he said, ‘Mama, I swear — I swear to God — I didn’t.’”

Police said Maurice confessed to the murder shortly after his arrest but the tape of that confession was left out of the trial because of a dispute about whether he had waived his right to an attorney before giving a statement.

Roberta said police and a court-appointed attorney tried to convince Maurice to confess but he maintained his innocence.

“It broke my heart to see him sit there and cry,” she said.

When he was acquitted of murder charges in March 2006, Maurice told The Daily News he owed his freedom to God.

“I started to pray,” he said. “I read my Bible, and I started to go to the (county jail’s) law library. Once I learned what all my rights were and really understood how it all worked, it changed everything for me.’”

Though he was acquitted, Jada’s mother refused to let Maurice see Jada, Roberta said.

It’s always bothered the man who loves children he couldn’t have a relationship with his own daughter, Gilmore said.

READ THE FULLL STORY HERE.


Galveston Daily News Comments Thread

League City Hit and Run Driver Kills Man-Leaves Note

By Rhiannon Meyers / The Daily News & Allison Triarsi / 11 News

LEAGUE CITY, Texas — The mother of man killed in a hit-and-run Sunday said someone left a handwritten note of apology beside her son’s body.

"They said that they were sorry and that they had a family," said Roberta Jones. "But he had one. you know and he was my family."

Two days after Maurice Jones was found dead in a ditch along Dickinson Avenue, police were still searching for the person responsible.

They won't release many details about the note, but it contained information that leads them to believe the suspect might be a woman under age 40 with a newborn baby.

"It's a pure speculation that it was a female, but the handwriting appears to be of a female origin," said Scott Saldridge with the League City Police Department.

Jones, 34, was hit by a vehicle as he walked home from his night shift at a fast-food restaurant.

“It’s just so much,” his mother, Roberta Jones, said. “Maurice was pretty much everything.”

Police have limited information about what happened to Jones after he got off work at the McDonalds restaurant at FM 518 and state Highway 3 at 10 p.m. Saturday.

They know Jones started walking home along Dickinson Avenue, a narrow road that runs alongside a busy railroad, said Sgt. David Hausam of the League City Police Department. They know he chose to walk alongside the east side of road so he would be facing oncoming traffic, Hausam said.

“He did everything right,” the officer said.

Around the 1100 block of Dickinson Avenue, a vehicle headed south veered left, crossed the road, struck Jones then plowed through the ditch and came to a rest about 40 feet off the road, said Hausam, discussing the evidence collected from tire tracks.


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Jones was less than a mile and a half from home. A League City police officer found Jones’ body in the ditch about 7 a.m. Sunday.

Jones died from blunt force trauma, said John Florence, spokesman for the Galveston County Medical Examiner.

"I pray that the person who did this, you know, would more than just say 'I'm sorry,'" said Roberta Jones.

Since Sunday, hundreds of people have stopped by Roberta Jones’ home on Oregon Road to offer condolences for her son, who was best known for his contagious smile, she said.

Jones, a native of League City and a 1993 graduate of Clear Creek High School, moved home with his mother two weeks before his death, she said.

After high school, Jones worked for an electrical company and for various carpenters, but he had recently fallen on hard times, his mother said. He was let go from his carpentry job, and his sky blue pickup was out of commission, she said.

He was walking to and from his job at McDonalds, where he’d been working for a week, until he could get his truck fixed, she said. He spent nights after work on a sheet-covered couch, watching movies on his mother’s television until he drifted to sleep, his mother said.

“He was trying to get his life back together,” she said.

When he didn’t come home Saturday night, Roberta Jones said she thought her son had been too tired to walk home after work and decided to spend the night with one of his many friends.

“If he would’ve called me, I would have come got him,” she said.

His family is heartbroken by the loss of the man they say was the glue that held family together, said Earlene Green, his aunt. Quick with a piece of scripture, Jones was always the mediator in disputes, she said. Always the family handyman, Jones had most recently been helping his mother care for his aging grandmother, Green said.

He is survived by his daughter, Jada, 11.

A funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at New Beginnings Church, 1950 state Highway 3 in League City.

This story is available through KHOU, Ch. 11's partnership with The Galveston County Daily News.