Top 10 of 2007

Murder, opening of I-99 section top list of local stories for the year

By Walt Frank, wfrank@altoonamirror.com
A murder outside a Logan Township day care center and the continuing saga of Interstate 99 were selected as the top local stories of 2007.

The top 10 stories were voted on by the Mirror editorial staff.

The following is a look at those stories.

1. Mother shot at day care center

Feb. 9 was just another Friday morning at Time to Succeed Child and Early Learning Center at 1525 E. Pleasant Valley Blvd. in Greenwood.

The peaceful morning changed quickly when Carlos Antonio Ortiz, 37, of 850 22nd St. arrived. He shot and killed Beth S. Sprankle, 24, of Duncansville, the mother of two of his three children, in the parking lot. Her two children were in the car.

Ortiz then fled about 50 yards away before killing himself.

Attorney Mark Zearfaus, who represented Ortiz, said his client had been obsessed with the outcome of court cases surrounding the custody of his children. The custody battles may have prompted Ortiz to shoot Sprankle to death, Logan Township Police Chief Ron Heller said.

An effort to improve security at the Blair County Courthouse gained momentum after the incident.

Ortiz had become a regular visitor to the courthouse because of the custody battle with Sprankle and an ongoing controversy involving his daughter, who was removed from Ortiz’s home by Blair County Children and Youth Services.

Ortiz was volatile, and the violence he exhibited could have erupted in the courthouse, employees said.

After the shooting, a delegation of employees approached county commissioners and asked for improved security.

In July, the county installed a security system featuring an X-ray machine to screen purses and briefcases at the main door, a card-key access system that allows a few people to gain access to the courthouse after hours and a wireless alarm system that alerts law enforcement to trouble anywhere in the courthouse.

2. Part of Interstate 99 finally opens

After years of delays, PennDOT opened the portion of Interstate 99 linking Blair and Centre counties Dec. 17.

Northbound travelers can get on I-99 at Bald Eagle and travel 15 miles to Skytop. Southbound motorists can access the new portion of I-99 at Port Matilda.

The remainder of the new highway is expected to open in 2008 after a massive acid rock cleanup is completed.

The cost of that cleanup has risen to $79 million, an increase of nearly $30 million over what PennDOT officials estimated less than two years ago.

The rock, discovered three years ago, has contaminated streams and groundwater and delayed construction of the 1.5-mile stretch of highway outside State College.

PennDOT began hauling away the acid rock in August.

3. Arson fire destroys church

A May 6 fire destroyed Altoona Alliance Church at South 17th Street and McMahon Road, resulting in $2.7 million in damage.

The fire started shortly after Sunday services concluded. Two boys were in an activities room playing with a trigger lighter when balls of cotton on a display board caught on fire. The boys put out the fire, then stuck the poster board behind cabinets.

However, the cotton reignited and spread up a wall into the roof area.

The 13-year-old Hollidaysburg boy and 14-year-old Altoona boy were charged with arson, endangering property, causing and risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief and recklessly endangering another person. The 14-year-old received an additional charge of failure to prevent a catastrophe.

The boys were to serve six months’ probation, according to a ruling in juvenile court.

Church board members forgave the boys, saying that they did not intend to hurt church officials or the church.

The church held services in Altoona Area School District facilities for two months before relocating to the former First Presbyterian Church building on 12th Street downtown in July.

Also in July, the church membership voted to sell its property on 17th Street and to look elsewhere to rebuild.

4. Shaw found guilty of murder

Nathan Shaw was found guilty of first-degree murder in the Dec. 26, 2005, stabbing death of Jared Klein, 6, and was sentenced to life in prison after a hung jury spared him the death penalty.

Shaw was found guilty of killing Jared, the son of his former girlfriend, Christine Muoio, in her Tyrone home.

During the trial, Muoio testified that Shaw was upset because she would not resume a relationship with him. She said he came to the house and duct taped and beat her. Jared came to her aid, Muoio said, and Shaw punched and choked him before taking her upstairs.

After the assault, Muoio said she came downstairs and found her son dead.

The boy died from a single stab wound to the neck. A pathologist testified that Shaw beat and strangled the boy before his death.

Shaw also was convicted of charges relating to his attack on Muoio and the theft of her car. Those charges included two counts of aggravated assault, as well as rape, indecent assault and theft.

The jury deliberated for about four hours, then told Judge Daniel Milliron they could not reach a unanimous decision required for a death sentencing.

5. Iraq war claims more local soldiers

The war in Iraq hit close to home again in 2007 as three area soldiers — Curtis Forshey, Larry Parks and Michael Hook — became casualties.

Sgt. Curtis J. Forshey, 22, of Hollidaysburg died March 27 in an Army hospital in Homburg, Germany, leaving behind a wife, Laura, and their 3-month-old son, Benjamin.

Forshey, a 2003 graduate of Hollidaysburg Area High School, was serving his second tour in Iraq with the 494th Transportation Company, a part of the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Ky., when he got sick.

Within a week of finding out he had leukemia, he died from a brain aneurysm, a complication of his treatment.

Pfc. Larry Parks Jr., 24, of Altoona died June 18.

He was in Iraq for 38 days when he and his tank crew were struck by an improvised explosive device in Sadr City. Parks was assigned to the 1st Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 31st Infantry Division.

Parks, a 2002 graduate of Altoona Area High School, served as a member of the Newburg Volunteer Fire Company, two blocks from his home.

Army Spc. Michael A. Hook, 25, of Altoona was among 14 U.S. soldiers who died in northern Iraq Aug. 22, when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a nighttime mission.

The military said the crash appeared to have been caused by mechanical failure, not hostile fire. The helicopter had just picked up troops after a mission. Four crew members and 10 passengers were aboard.

Hook, 2001 graduate of Altoona Area High School, was a member of the 25th Infantry Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade. His fiancee, Susan Fetterman, gave birth to their son, Mason, Sept. 19.

6. Sheetz beer sales saga

Beer sales were on, then off, then on, then off and then on again at the Sheetz convenience store and restaurant at 17th Street and Pleasant Valley Boulevard.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board conditionally issued a license in 2004 to Ohio Springs Inc., a Sheetz-related company, to sell beer and malt products after public comment and objections raised by the Malt Beverages Distributors Association of Pennsylvania.

Beer sales started Feb. 1, but Feb. 23 the Commonwealth Court ruled by a 4-3 vote that Sheetz doesn’t meet the legal standards of a ‘‘retail dispenser,’’ which must sell alcohol for on-premises consumption. Sales were halted.

The association contended that its interpretation of the law is consistent with the established beer distribution system, where stores like Sheetz are granted ‘‘the market niche’’ of selling to consumers in bulk for home sales.

Failure to enforce the on-premises sales requirement effectively turned Sheetz into a beer distributor without the restrictions of a distributor’s license, the association contended.

Beer sales resumed Feb. 28 when the PLCB appealed Commonwealth Court’s ruling to the state Supreme Court.

Sales again were halted April 3, when a Commonwealth Court judge ruled that sales could not continue while an appeal is pending.

Sales then resumed Aug. 28, when the state Supreme Court lifted a stay on Sheetz beer sales while it heard the PLCB’s appeal of the lower court ruling.

The legal battle isn’t over, but Sheetz officials remain optimistic that the Supreme Court will rule in their favor. It likely will be several months before the Supreme Court hears the case and several more months before it renders a decision.

7. Bedford Springs Resort opens

The Bedford Springs Resort opened its doors July 12 for the first time in two decades.

The hotel sat vacant for years before developer Mark Langdale announced in 2005 that he had secured enough private funding for the project.

Plans called for construction of the 30,000-square-foot Springs Eternal Spa and restoration of the Bedford Springs Golf Course next to the hotel.

The 2,200-acre four seasons resort features 216 guest rooms — starting at $250 a night, conference areas, a restored indoor Olympic-sized swimming pool and a restored 18-hole golf course.

Former state Sen. Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair, said he worked with four governors to fund the Springs restoration. He eventually received about $30 million from the state, plus federal funding for water and sewer upgrades and for relocating Route 220 behind the resort.

The end price tag of the project was about $120 million.

8. Boys die in shootings

Three boys died as a result of accidental shootings in the area in 2007.

Zachary Alvarez, 9, of the Ebensburg area died Aug. 27 of a single gunshot to the head.

Alvarez, a Central Cambria Elementary School student, was found in his parents’ bedroom. He died the next day at Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown.

The boy’s body was found next to a stool he apparently used to get his .22-caliber ‘‘beginner’s rifle’’ from his parents’ closet.

Investigators said the boy was alone in the room and loaded the gun with ammunition stored in a separate area of the room.

Taylor D.G. Batzel, 11, of Newville, Cumberland County, died Aug. 5 from a single rifle wound to the chest.

He was visiting family at 2115 Fourth Ave. in Altoona when he was shot.

Juvenile charges of involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person were filed against a 13-year-old boy, a relative, in the incident.

City police responded to the home to find several children but no adults present. Officers removed several firearms from the home.

Michael Lee, 11, of Mount Union died Nov. 9 when he was accidentally shot and killed by a 9-year-old Altoona boy in a city home.

Lee died instantly from a .22-caliber rifle bullet to the head.

The shooting occurred in an attic, where the boys were alone — although they weren’t alone in the house.

The shooting was ruled accidental.

9. Drug raids continue

Law enforcement officers were kept busy again in 2007 with more than 100 people arrested for drug-related crimes in the region.

Members of the Drug Task Force participated in numerous smaller drug raids, with most arrests dealing with crack cocaine and heroin.

There were a few large raids in Blair County. The largest, conducted April 27, resulted in 29 arrests. An additional 23 suspects were picked up Oct. 1, and 19 were arrested Sept. 24.

In neighboring counties, law enforcement officials arrested 18 in Bedford County April 16 and apprehended 11 suspects in Centre County May 31.

10. Tammy Grimes found guilty

A Blair County jury took less than 30 minutes Dec. 14 to find Tammy Grimes of Tyrone RD 5 guilty of theft and receiving stolen property for taking an ailing, 19-year-old dog named Jake from a yard, then refusing to return him to his owners.

Grimes, founder of the group named Dogs Deserve Better, said she was not surprised by the verdict and said her legal charges would not deter her efforts in support of state legislation that will prohibit chaining dogs outside from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Grimes’ arrest Sept. 11, 2006, and subsequent trial attracted supporters nationwide and enabled her to expand her organization to include 150 representatives in the United States, Canada and France.

Jake, renamed Doogie by Grimes, was owned by Steven and Lori Arnold of East Freedom.

Grimes became involved when a neighbor of the Arnolds complained to a representative of Dogs Deserve Better that the dog was prone in the Arnolds’ yard for three days, unable to move and without food and water.

She took the dog to Altoona Veterinary Associates for treatment.

Grimes said she never intended to deprive the Arnolds of their dog, but she refused to turn him over to the Central Pennsylvania Humane Society or the Freedom Township police department.

Grimes insisted they investigate possible animal cruelty charges against the Arnolds, but she instead was charged with theft and receiving stolen property.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 946-7467.