A head-on crash in Paintsville, Kentucky Thursday morning kills one person, and injures two others. Police say the crash happened on Kentucky Route 40 and that Robert Meade, of Hager Hill, was driving eastbound when his car hydroplaned, causing him to slide into oncoming traffic. He hit a car traveling westbound, and Meade was pronounced dead at the scene. Paul Greiner, of Paintsville, was driving the other car with his wife, Jan, in the backseat with their grandson. Paul and Jan were taken to Paul B. Hall Hospital, in Paintsville, with non-life threatening injuries, their grandson was not injured. 

Two Sullivan County constables have been indicted on assault and misconduct charges. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says a grand jury has indicted Ralph T. King and Marshall Harrison Buckner. TBI investigators determined that King and Buckner assaulted an employee at a Kingsport business while executing a writ of possession of February 1, 2019. A Sullivan County grand jury returned indictments last month charging the two with one count of assault and two counts of official misconduct. They were arraigned Thursday on the charges in criminal court. Both of them are constables in District 11 which covers a large part of Kingsport. Their terms expire this year, but they have both filed to run as independents. Independent constable candidates will appear on the ballots in the August 6 election. 

Additional charges have been filed in connection to the fatal shooting at a Wise County Cemetery earlier this month. The Wise County Sheriff's Office has arrested and charged 29-year-old Marshea Noell Absher, of Norton, with abduction, conspiracy to commit aggravated malicious wounding, and conspiracy to commit abduction. One person was killed and two more were injured in the ambush shooting at a cemetery on Limestone Road, off of Stephens Road. The WCSO has confirmed that Absher was the woman who deputies found inside of a car after she had been shot in the back. She is being held without bond at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Duffield. The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Wise County Sheriff's Office at 276-328-3566. 

The Wise Central High School band director is facing multiple child pornography charges in Southeast Kentucky. Dalton Bates is charged with 20 counts of possessing or viewing matter portraying sexual performance by a minor, and he is also charged with distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor. The arrest report says an online undercover Internet Crimes Against Children Investigation discovered that Bates had been using unnamed social media sites to message others about sharing material of child sexual exploitation. Both images and videos were found in Bates' account portraying minors in sexual acts. The report says that he admitted to operating the account and messages to investigators. He is currently being held in the Letcher County Jail on a $100,000 bond. He was set for an arraignment hearing this morning at 8 a.m. 

A man is facing murder charges after allegedly killing a pregnant Wise County woman. 33-year-old James Isaac Jones, of Pikeville, North Carolina, was arrested on Thursday and charged with one open count of murder, of Cassia Renee Duval, and one count of murder of an unborn child. Jones and Duval had been living together at a home in Pikeville, and according to Duval's father, a Wise County Sheriff's Office Investigator, they had been dating for at least eight years. The 29-year-old Duval was found dead in a vehicle on January 29 at the intersection of Pikeville-Princeton Road and Nahunta Road in Wayne County, North Carolina. Her unborn child was a girl, to be named Aspen. Jones is now being held with no bond in the Wayne County Jail.  

A mayor in Hawkins County is accused of stealing more than a quarter of a million dollars from his grandmother. Christopher Scott Jones, the mayor of Mount Carmel, was indicted last week and arrested on Monday after the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began the inquiry last August. The 48-year-old Jones is accused of stealing $300,000 from his grandmother and her estate between November 2014 and January 2016. He is being held in jail on $300,000 bond. 

A Hancock County deputy is facing theft charges after accusations of stealing from apartments. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says that 36-year-old Dusty Lamb turned himself in Monday afternoon following an investigation that started in October 2019. Lamb is accused of stealing several appliances and other items from the Cumberland View Apartment Complex in Sneedville. He is charged with theft over $1,000, conspiracy to commit theft over $1,000, and theft under $1,000. Lamb was booked into the Hawkins County Jail and his bond is set at $15,000. 

Virginia Fornication Law repeal is one step closer to law. Lawmakers in Virginia are closing a legal loophole that could charge unmarried people with a crime for having consensual sex. The House of Delegates passed a bill this week that aims to repeal the crime of fornication, which makes it illegal for people to have consensual sex outside of marriage. Currently, fornication is a class 4 misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $250. Delegate Mark Levine, of Alexandria, introduced House Bill 245 to repeal what he called a Victorian-era law. The Virginia Supreme Court declared the law unconstitutional in 2005. 

Five people were hospitalized and charges are pending after a Monday afternoon crash in Johnson County. Tennessee Highway Patrol says the crash happened on Highway 67 near the intersection of SR 67 and Sawmill Lane between Butler and Mountain City at around 1 p.m. Monday. A Nissan Titan driven by 52-year-old Lori Thomas of Henderson, Tennessee, was traveling east when she crossed the center line and struck a tractor-trailer and a Nissan Pathfinder traveling in the opposite direction. Thomas and her two passengers, a 74-year-old woman and a 3-year-old boy were taken to the Johnson City Medical Center and Niswonger Children's Hospital. The 42-year-old woman and 62-year-old man that were in the Pathfinder were also taken to the hospital. The extent of their injuries is unclear, and the driver of the tractor-trailer was not injured. Lori Thomas has charges pending against her according to the THP. 

The two bodies found in Jonesborough in June 2019 are now being investigated as a murder-suicide. According to the Jonesborough Police Department, 68-year-old Michael Huggins and 56-year-old Nadine Yares were found at 130 Lorena Lane on June 26, after a welfare check on the home. The JPD has not said who is suspected to have killed the other, but more information is expected soon. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been assisting Jonesborough Police in the investigation.