On Monday, May 23, a grand jury indicted a Franklin man on one count of murder, stemming from the brutal death of a Cartoogechaye man last year.

Randall Boyd Fouts, 44, has been charged with the first-degree murder of Thomas Larry Ramsey. Fouts was arrested on Tuesday.

Ramsey, who was 61 at the time of his death, was found at his Johnson Road home in the Cartoogechaye community on the morning of Aug. 12. According to his autopsy report, Ramsey died from strangulation by asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head. The victim had also reportedly been bound by the hands and feet with electrical chord.

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Superior Court judge sentences Franklin man for death of Mathis in vehicular accident

Counts include felony death by vehicle, serious injury

Superior Court Judge Phil Ginn handed down his sentence for a Franklin man who lost control of his truck and drove off a road last October, killing 19-year-old Parker Mathis and seriously injuring Jesse Welch, 23.

Donald Thomas Courtney, 20, of Hidden Valley Road pled guilty to one felony count of death by vehicle, one felony count of serious injury by vehicle and one misdemeanor charge of driving while impaired.

The workgroup tasked with drafting an ordinance regulating slope development in Macon County has completed the technical content of the proposed statute. At a meeting last Thursday, members of the workgroup presented the proposed ordinance to the county planning board, which will now review the document before sending it on to the county’s board of commissioners for consideration.

The workgroup, a sub-committee of the planning board, has been studying the issue of slope development regulation for almost two years. After a joint meeting in February, commissioners directed the planning board to make drafting the ordinance one of the top priorities for the year.

Superior Court Judge Phil Ginn handed down his sentence for a Franklin man who lost control of his truck and drove off a road last October, killing 19-year-old Parker Mathis and seriously injuring Jesse Welch, 23.

Donald Thomas Courtney, 20, of Hidden Valley Road pled guilty to one felony count of death by vehicle, one felony count of serious injury by vehicle and one misdemeanor charge of driving while impaired.

Courtney was sentenced to serve 20 months of incarceration in a North Carolina Department of Corrections facility for his injury by vehicle charge. Courtney received a suspended sentence of three years of supervised probation for the charge stemming from Mathis’ death and must serve two days in the Macon County Jail for five consecutive years on the anniversary of Mathis’ death.