The same county deputy may have posted a record making three drunk driving arrests during a five-hour period during the early morning hours of September 30.

In two of the arrests, the offenders were also charged with driving on suspended licenses. All of them were in the Macclenny area.

Just after midnight, Deputy Daryl Mobley was called to the intersection of Lowder St. and Miltondale to check out a 1998 Chevrolet pickup parked in the southbound lane of Lowder with its engine running and lights out.

Stephen Bledsoe Jr., 35, of Macclenny was passed out at the wheel and admitted only to smoking a few marijuana cigarettes earlier. He failed field sobriety testing and was charged with DUI, refusal to submit to a blood and urine test, and having a suspended license.

About two hours later, Deputy Mobley arrested Derrickal Major, 26, of Macclenny after observing him driving a 2002 Saturn erratically on US 90 near MLK Dr. He also ran a stop sign at the intersection.

He failed sobriety testing in the parking lot of CVS and his blood alcohol level measured .200 at county jail, more than twice the legal limit.

Late about 5:30, the officer responded to another suspicious vehicle call, this one off James Barton Lane northwest of Macclenny.

There he found a 2006 Chevrolet pickup stopped with its engine running and evidence on dewy grass that it had been steering in and out of ditches.

A youth engages a small dog at an animal control adoption event held at the farmers market in Macclenny earlier this year. Animal control will be adopting pets from its booth at the fair as well.

Only about one in four animals that arrive at the Baker County Animal Control kennel survive the experience, and the remaining animals end up at the New River landfill after being euthanized.

Some are seized due to neglect or abuse, others are picked up for running loose in violation of the county’s leash law, and yet others are brought to the shelter on Steel Bridge Rd. by owners who can no longer care for them.

Since October 1, 2011, according to the county’s count, 1421 animals, mostly dogs and cats, were housed at the kennel. Of those, 1053 or 74 percent were euthanized.

“Please note that this number includes animals euthanized at their owner’s request and animals injured, sick, diseased or feral,” said County Manager C.J. Thompson.

Jay Canaday, who works full-time and runs a dog rescue from his Glen St. Mary home known as the London Sanctuary, said he’s grown frustrated by the low-priority that animals seem to have in Baker County, both in the eyes of the general public and animal control.

The county manager, in part, agreed.

“There’s no doubt it’s been a low priority of the population as a whole,” said Mr. Thompson. “If animals were a priority, people wouldn’t be dumping them on the side of the road and then they end up at the shelter.”

A Mississippi man was charged September 17 with DUI manslaughter and other counts stemming from the death of a Macclenny woman and her unborn child in a late night accident on March 29 of this year.

The Florida Highway Patrol completed a homicide investigation and submitted the results to the state attorney’s office in the case against Randall Hunter Morrow, 25, of Courtland, MS.

Mr. Morrow, an industrial welder, was driving a 2007 Dodge utility truck east on Andrews St. in Glen St. Mary when it ran a stop sign at CR 125 and slammed into a northbound 2004 Toyota driven by Virginia Kirk, also 25.

The impact killed Ms. Kirk, a Northeast Florida State Hospital aide who just ended her evening shift.

The accident occurred just before midnight when Mr. Morrow and a co-worker left the nearby residence of acquaintance Clinton Harvey. They were returning to a motel near Jacksonville airport.

The charges include DUI manslaughter for Ms. Kirk’s death, vehicular homicide for the death of the unborn child, DUI impairment and DUI with injury or property damage.

Pritchett

A circuit judge sent a Bryceville woman to prison for 16 months after she pleaded no contest on September 12 to violating probation stemming from drug possession and sale cases dating back to 2009.

Melissa Pritchett, 41, gets credit for 149 days she has been in county jail since violating terms of a two-year probation by being arrested for drunk driving and failure to pay restitution.

Court records show that Ms. Pritchett sold methadone in the parking lot of Walmart to a buyer working for the sheriff’s department in March, 2009, and earlier that month sold methadone and other controlled drugs in a pre-arranged meeting in the parking lot of Ace Hardware in east Glen St. Mary.

She was arrested a third time in November, 2010 for possession of drugs after her vehicle was stopped for erratic driving on US 90 in downtown Macclenny. She was taking her children to school at the time.