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Regional roundup

Car show to benefit

A Special Wish

WELLSBURG — The Brooke County Commission and the Ohio Valley Mopar Club will team to hold a car cruise benefiting A Special Wish Foundation, a group that grants wishes to youth with life-threatening disorders, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday outside the Dollar General Market on state Route 2.

Admission is $3. There will be food, music, door prizes, a 50-50 drawing and dash plaques for the first 50 participants.

W.Va. inmate pleads not guilty to killing MOUNDSVILLE — A West Virginia prison inmate charged with first-degree murder in the 2016 death of his cellmate has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness.

The Intelligencer reports 33-year-old Jonathan M. Jordan entered the plea Monday to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter as part of a deal. Jordan was convicted of multiple counts of arson in 2011 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. In 2016, he was accused of strangling his cellmate, 37-year-old David Simpkins, to death.

Jordan was medically evaluated by as part of the court proceedings. Jordan’s attorneys, Brett Ferro and Marty Sheehan, say he suffers from commanding hallucinations that tell him what to do. The newspaper reports Jordan’s plea adds 15 years in a mental health facility to the end of his sentence.

Women sentenced in

5-year-old girl’s death

CLEVELAND — An Ohio mother who failed to stop her girlfriend from beating to death her 5-year-old daughter and then waited hours to seek help has received a long prison sentence along with the girlfriend.

Cleveland.com reports the mother, 27-year-old Tequila Crump, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday after an all-female jury convicted her of reckless homicide last month in the March 2017 death of Ta’Naejah McCloud.

The girlfriend, 38-year-old Ursula Owens, was sentenced to 25 years after the same jury convicted her of murder and other charges.

Neither woman spoke at sentencing. Their attorneys say appeals are planned.

Prosecutors say Owens beat Ta’Naejah after she wet herself. Owens’ son testified he heard his mother body slamming the girl. Prosecutors say Crump waited 11 hours before calling 911 after the beating.

Lawnmower plunges

off cliff; man killed

ELYRIA — Authorities say a man riding a lawn tractor in Ohio has plunged 50 feet off a cliff and died.

The Chronicle-Telegram reports the Elyria Fire Department in northeast Ohio received a call about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday for a man in the Black River. Rescuers rappelled down the cliff and found a woman holding the man up in chest-deep water.

Officials say the 61-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His body was removed in a boat.

The man’s name wasn’t immediately released.

The 55-year-old woman was placed in a harness and hoisted out of the ravine. Officials say she wasn’t injured.

From staff and wire reports

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