July

Man killed in wreck remembered as ‘pillar of community’

A single-car crash off Interstate 65 in Jemison July 1 resulted in a fatality.

Bunion Porter, 83, of Jemison, was pronounced dead on the scene, shortly after 2 p.m.

Porter and his wife, Irene, were traveling on Interstate 65 southbound when they got off the interstate at Exit 219, never came to a stop, crossed County Road 42 and drove down a 40-foot embankment, according to Jemison Police Chief Shane Fulmer.

Jemison Police Department investigated details of how the car ended up off the embankment, which is near the on-ramp to Interstate 65 southbound.

As the news of Bunion Porter’s death circulated, friends and family remembered the man who many described as a “pillar of the community.”

“Our community and our church has lost a pillar,” Thompson Chapel Assembly of God Church Pastor Mark Bolton said. “He was a very humble man with a servant’s heart.”

Clanton weather recording station oldest in the state

Every morning at 7 a.m. since 1990, C.A. Turner has recorded the daily temperature and rainfall totals in Clanton for the National Weather Service in Calera.

“I have just always enjoyed keeping up with it,” Turner, 87, said. “I have a tablet that I keep the records in and I write down the maximum (high), minimum (low) and current temperature, I write down if it thundered that day and I write down how much rain or snowfall we got.”

Turner “officially” retired from recording the temperatures for the NWS in May, but plans to continue recording the weather observations “for fun” due to his enjoyment of recording the data.

“I thought someone else could take it over because I’m not getting any younger,” Turner said. “I do enjoy it though.”

On Turner’s property sits the Clanton Cooperative Observing Station, officially known as CLNA1, which is one of the longest, consistent reporting stations and oldest in Alabama.

The Clanton station was established in February 1893 near the area of the current Clanton Post Office.

Since 1893, daily measurements of maximum/minimum temperature, rainfall and snowfall for the Clanton area have been recorded at 7 a.m. every morning, with few interruptions.

Stanton Post Office to see retail hours reduced, postmaster retire

The Stanton post office, long a bastion of stability, will undergo drastic changes in the coming months.

The post office will see its retail hours reduced and Postmaster Carol Harrison retire.

Current hours at the post office are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, except for an hour during lunch. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays.

Beginning Sept. 22, however, the post office’s retail window will be open for service only two hours each weekday, Harrison said.

The post office will still be “open” during other times of the day, as customers will have access to mail drop and post office boxes inside the building. The change will not affect mail delivery.

“It’s going to be a big change for people,” Harrison said, and she should know.

Harrison has been postmaster since May 2006 and has been at the post office for 23 years, but she will retire on Sept. 19.

Before Harrison, her mother, Mary Friday, was postmaster, as was Friday’s mother, Mildred Burnett.

Clanton man sentenced to 40 years in cold case murder

A Clanton man found guilty of murder in the October 1998 death of a Clanton woman was sentenced July 24 to 40 years in prison.

Marty Joe Taylor, 52, appeared in court wearing a light-purple jail jumpsuit with chains around his wrists and ankles and thick, black-rimmed glasses.

Chilton County Circuit Judge John Bush delivered the sentencing around 9:40 a.m.

Taylor showed no emotion after Bush returned the sentencing order.

In June, a panel of 12 jurors returned a guilty verdict after deliberating for 35 minutes for Taylor who shot 39-year-old Jennifer Gail Hampton, who used to live on Second Avenue South, on Oct. 18, 1998.

Hampton was found off Hinkle Road in 1998, naked from the waist down, with a single gunshot wound to the back of her head.

After detectives conducted an initial investigation when the crime occurred, and based upon the collected evidence and technology available at the time, the case went cold and no arrests were made.

The case was later re-opened in 2011 by former Chilton County Sheriff and current investigator for the 19th Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office Billy Wayne Fulmer.

Using updated forensics technology, investigators were able to locate Taylor’s DNA profile as a match to DNA taken from Hampton’s body.

Taylor was arrested in 2012 and charged with murder.