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Section designed and copy edited by Alex McGuffe, Samantha Borger and Joanne Liou, Alexandra.McGuffe@BeaumontEnterprise.com
Vidor man, 39, arrested on suspicion of se||c|t|ae11-rear-e|4 girl, 3A
Day care code inspection sears c|t|zeas teact|ea, council to meet, 6A
Condiment conversation on the table Cuba comes to SETexas, 18
VOL. CXXX, NO. 286 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2010 75 Cents
ENTERPRISE com
B
E
A
U
M
O
N
T
are
rea seea
these
eeee|e?
PHOTOS
Beaumont
Police
released a
list of the
citys most
wanted
people.
Have you
seen any
of them?
SEEN Did you taste the treats
served at A Tasting for Some Other
Place? Find out if our photographer saw
you: BeaumontEnterprise.com/seen
MORE What kind of food was served? 5A
BLOG Were your link to SE Texas cuisine:
BeaumontEnterprise.com/checkplease
PHOTO GALLERY Nutty Jerrys in
Winnie, a music and sporting event
venue, is set to open in September. See
photos of the site before it opens:
BeaumontEnterprise.com/multimedia
MORE Read about the venue, 2A
A sceae Irem aaether e|ace
0a a aattr aete
fer these whe ||re te eat
0e act|eas seeak |ea4er thaa aee?
SPEAK UP Should juveniles stand
trial as adults? Cast your vote:
BeaumontEnterprise.com/speakup
lt's t|me te eet rear hea4 |a the eame
BLOG Weve got all the things you
love to love about SE Texas high
school sports in one place:
BeaumontEnterprise.com/huddle
MORE Central seniors step up in sup-
port of sophomore QB, 1C
3% No. I went
online and avoided
state sales taxes
that way.
88% Yes. Parents
cant wait until
the last minute to
buy school supplies.
9% If you dont have kids, its a great
weekend to shop!
Vote at BeaumontEnterprise.com/speakup
See a photo gallery of the mug shots:
BeaumontEnterprise.com/multimedia
Precrast|aat|ea |s Ier ch||4rea
Did Texas set the back-to-school tax
free weekend too late this year?
Dont lose your cool with
that older driver hugging the
steering wheel, looking both
ways before going whenthe
light turns greenor crawling
along infront of you10 miles
belowthe speedlimit.
As the number of people
70 andolder swells from
about 27 millionto 67 million
by 2050, get ready to share
the roadwithmore of them.
Theyll have decades of ex-
perience behindthe wheel,
but lets face it not the
eyesight or reflexes they once
had.
Time to practice swerving,
honking andbraking? Maybe
upthe comprehensive cover-
age?
Not quite. Older drivers
are earning the reputation
kea4 saIetr |s
hetter w|th aee
Study shows older drivers arent most dangerous
Dave Ryan/The Enterprise
Sarah Peck-Pearson, 55, moves things around
in the drivers compartment and passenger
seat before starting her van to head home in
Mid-County. An Insurance Institute for High-
way Safety study this year found that fatal,
non fatal, and property damage accidents
have declined in the older driver range com-
pared to the 18-35 group.
The Associated Press
An adult bed bugs. The tiny reddish-
brown insects, last seen in great
numbers prior to World War II, are
on the rebound.
DANGEROUS, page 4A
Courses for older drivers
The American Association of Retired Persons offers
refresher courses for people over 50 years old. Upcoming
dates in Southeast Texas include:
Aug. 26: Groves Senior Citizens Center, 1 to 5 p.m.
Sept. 16: Best Years Center, Beaumont.
Sept. 30: Sabine Federal Credit Union, 1929 Strickland
Drive, Orange.
Contact these locations to sign up for the courses.
Randi King does not make a
snapdecisionwhenshe asks a
judge to certify a juvenile as an
adult ina criminal case.
The JeffersonCounty District
Attorneys office prosecutor con-
siders the juveniles maturity, the
seriousness of the crime andhis or
her criminal history.
If there is a criminal patternor if
the acts are particularly heinous,
Adults
arent solely
defined by
numbers
Juveniles age doesnt
always dictate how
theyll be tried in court
ADULTHOOD, page 4A
It isnt so mucha questionof
letting the bedbugs bite.
Since they creepout of daytime
hiding places to feast onthe blood
of sleeping humans, bedbugs en-
counter little resistance fromtheir
humantargets. To avoiddetection,
they insidiously inject ananes-
thetic as they bite.
For these reasons, bedbugs can
be hardto detect until a significant
infestationis under way.
Stowaway
bedbugs
want to bite
Infestations of bedtime
terrors are on the rise
BEDBUGS, page 4A
8r 8|a|r 0e4r|ck 0rtmaaa
BOrtmann@BeaumontEnterprise.com
(409) 880-0733
BEAUMONT
8r Sarah Meere
SCMoore@BeaumontEnterprise.com
(409) 880-0730
8r M|ke 0. Sm|th
MDSmith@BeaumontEnterprise.com
(409) 880-0753
BEAUMONT
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A messoge lrom Enlergy lexos, lnc. 2010 Enlergy Servlces, lnc. All Rlghls Reserved.
Conservng energy shooldn't
cost more thon yoo sove.
4A BeaumontEnterprise.com Wednesday, August 18, 2010
she asks that they be treated
as anadult.
It doesnt make a dif-
ference to the victim whos
dead if the person who
pulled the trigger was 15 or
16, King said. She still lost
her life. Her family still lost a
daughter, a sister.
The certification process
has begun for a 16-year-old
accused in the Aug. 1 fa-
tal shooting of Dang Minh
Nguyen. A hearing date for
the Beaumont teenager has
not been set, but it generally
takes as long as twoweeks to
certify a juvenile as anadult.
Nguyen, 20, was working
as a clerk at Vans Grocery,
3890 Avenue A, when she
was fatally shot in the head.
Two people, including the
16-year-old, have been ar-
rested in the crime. A third
personis sought inthe case.
The 16-year-old was in
Criminal District Judge John
Stevens courtroomMonday
for a burglary of a habitation
hearing when he was taken
into custody on charges of
capital murder.
He was already certified
as an adult in the burglary,
but another hearing must
be held to certify him as an
adult on the capital murder
charge, King said.
Beaumont defense at-
torney Glen Crocker, who
represents the 16-year-old
accused in the Vans Gro-
cery murder, tries to keep
his youthful clients out of
the adult system, where, if
convicted, they would be
subject to not only harsher
punishments, but housed
with a bunch of hard-core
criminals.
Weve got to temper the
initial reactions to remem-
berweredealingwithachild
although they are perpetrat-
ing adult crimes, Crocker
said, speaking in general. I
think its got to be taken on
a case-by-case basis. Not all
childrenare alike.
Crocker, who said he
views the current certifica-
tion process as basically fair,
said it would be an injustice
to have some youths serve
15 years for a felony.
Here, youve got a kid
not eligible to vote, not al-
lowed to buy alcohol, who is
conceivably given what hes
already experienced of life,
15 years.
facters te ceas|4er
Legally, a juvenile must
meet certain conditions be-
fore he or she can be cer-
tified to stand trial as an
adult.
The child must be 14
years old and have commit-
ted a capital or first-degree
felony, or the child must be
15 years old or older and
have committed any level
of felony, according to the
Texas Family Code.
Prosecutors must es-
tablish it is reasonable to
believe that the child com-
mitted the crime and that
the seriousness of the of-
fense or the childs criminal
background is such that the
community is indanger.
For instance, just because
a youth is a good student
does not mean he or she
would not be certified as an
adult on a capital murder
charge.
Ajuvenilecanbecertified
based on the seriousness of
the offense, King said. The
goal of the juvenile systemis
not just rehabilitation, but
punishment.
After considering the
legal criteria, King looks at
what thejuvenilesystemhas
to offer the child or, in the
case of a habitual offender,
if there is anything else to
offer.
The law also requires
that psychological and psy-
chiatric studies of the child
be done. That includes the
childs ability to understand
the offense he or she is ac-
cused of and the ability to
communicate with and as-
sist their defense attorney.
Sometimes its cases
where kids keep doing the
same thing over and over,
King said. Sometimes the
offense is so bad, the young
person should not be in the
community.
Lastyear, JeffersonCounty
courts certified 11 juveniles
as adults in various cases,
King said.
Certainly, its not a deci-
sionwe take lightly, but any-
time a weapon is involved,
anytime a serious injury or
murder is involved, (certi-
fication) is on our minds,
he said.
Such crimes are often is
associated with gang activ-
ity.
Theystart gettingoffense
sheets two or three pages
long, and they dont belong
in the juvenile system any-
more, King said.
A |ast resert
In Judge Larry Thornes
experience, most juveniles
are certified as adults be-
cause they either commit
a grievous offense, such as
murder, or the child is al-
ready 15 or 16 and the ju-
venile system wont have
enough time to work on
theminrehabilitation.
Thorne is the 317th Fam-
ily District Court judge and
is responsible for certifying
juveniles as adults in Jeffer-
sonCounty.
In the case of the habitual
offender, the county has al-
ready spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars and
cant change the behavior,
he said.
Remembering that the
juvenile system is for reha-
bilitation, there are some
kids who cant be rehabili-
tated, Thorne said.
But, taking that step basi-
cally is a last resort after the
resources of thejuvenilesys-
tem have been exhausted,
he said.
We have to ask, Can the
juvenile system not only re-
habilitate, but canthepublic
be protected adequately if
this child is in the juvenile
system? Thorne said.
It makes me think of the
scales of justice. The juve-
nile systemfor the most part
is tilted toward rehabilita-
tion, but in some cases its
not possible, he said.
as the safest drivers on the
nations highways, an insur-
ance industry study shows.
Ina study releasedinJune,
the Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety found that
fatal crash involvement rates
declined37 percent between
1997 and 2008 for drivers
older than 70 a faster drop
than the 23 percent decline
for the 35-54 age group.
In other terms, drivers
older than 70 were 2.9 times
as likely to die in crashes
than35-54-year-olds in2008,
downfrom3.5 times as likely
in1997, the study shows.
The declines happened
even as the 70-plus crowd
drove more miles and the
percentage of them with
drivers licenses increased
from 73 percent to 78 per-
cent, the study shows.
Thats not surprising to
Vern Bourque, a volunteer
instructor for the AARPs
50-and-over driving classes
inSoutheast Texas.
It seems like us old fogies
are getting a little smarter,
maybe, said Bourque, 74.
NowI couldbe wrong, but it
seems like they (young peo-
ple) dont learn from their
mistakes.
Those national trends jibe
with local numbers, said
Georgette Pillitere, a traffic
safety specialist withthe Tex-
as Department of Transpor-
tations Beaumont district.
Pillitere studies fatal colli-
sion reports from across the
districts nine counties.
According to her research,
men between 18 and 35 still
topthe list intraffic fatalities.
The reason: Patience, Pil-
litere said.
As natural aging occurs
and important driver abili-
tieslikeperipheral visionand
reactions slow, older drivers
tend to compensate by mak-
ing safer driving choices like
not driving at night or not
speeding.
They werent raised with
cell phones, theyre the ones
hunched over that wheel
with their hands at 10 and
2, Pillitere said. Thats their
era and its the generations
behind them that arent very
patient.
For older drivers, theres
a marked change in driving
culture, they said.
Mary Lee Howard, 76, said
the patience she learned
from her mother teaching
her todriveat 15is not some-
thing younger generations
have time for.
I think were not distract-
edasmuch: hurryingtowork,
hurrying to the kids, doing
six different things while we
drive, Howardsaid.
Drivingislight-yearsdiffer-
ent from the time he learned
to drive in a stripped-down
Ford Coupe at 14, Bourque
said.
Blame it on the me soci-
ety, he said.
Theyre idiots, Bourque
said of younger drivers, ad-
mitting he drives slower than
everyone else.
Everybody is in a hurry
andIts me, me, me this is
my road. No consideration,
they cut infront of you.
Thentheres just apprecia-
tion from a generation that
lived through the golden age
of the automobile and the
value that came with owning
your owncar, Bourque said.
Thats hard to do with so
many teens whose parents
buy them cars as soon as
they turn 16 and learn to
drive.
Paying a monthly car note
can slowly lead to safer driv-
ing, Bourque said.
Some of the younger
ones take it for granted be-
cause, lets face it: Theyre
not paying for their trans-
portation, Bourque said.
Pete Churton/The Enterprise
As more baby boomers age, the number of traffic collisions
wont increase. A recent study found that fatal, nonfatal and
property damage-only crash involvement rates have declined
the fastest among drivers age 70 and older.
0AN0k00S: Patience could be a virtue when it comes to driving as society speeds up
Continued from page 1A
And the tiny pests are on
therise.
The U.S. Centers for Dis-
ease Control and Prevention
report an alarming resur-
gence of the parasitic insect
that largely was eradicated
from American soil by the
1950s.
James Self, owner of AA-
AmeriTex Pest Control in
Beaumont, had until recently
never encounteredabedbug.
Ive been doing this for 30
years, but uptothe last twoor
three years I never dealt with
bedbugs. I couldnt even tell
youwhat onelookedlike.
He now averages three to
fivecalls per monthtoinspect
for bedbuginfestations, most-
ly at apartments andmotels.
One of the things that can
make bedbugs hard to com-
bat is their ability to hide
in the seams of mattresses,
in box springs, bed frames,
headboards, beside tables,
amidst clutter, and in cracks
andcrevasses.
Bedbugsareconveyedfrom
placetoplacebytravelerswho
unwittinglycarrytheminlug-
gage, bedding, furniture and
other objects.
Theyre big hitchhikers,
Self said.
So beware if youhave been
to the northeast recently on
business or play. East coast
states havebeenplaguedwith
a rash of bedbug infestations.
The New York Daily News
reported Monday one in 10
NewYorkers haveor havehad
bedbugs.
Because they tend to hide
during the day, it can be diffi-
cult totell whenaninfestation
has takenhold.
The first sign is usually un-
explained bites on face, neck,
hands or other body parts.
Andnooneis immune.
Their environment isyou,
Self said. They dont care
where you live or how you
dress or what perfume you
wear.
The good news is, they
arent known to spread dis-
ease. But thats small comfort
to people plagued with the
pests, who leave itchy bumps
and welts, as well as the anxi-
ety and stigma that comes
withinsect infestation.
However, there are steps
people can take to avoid
bringing them home from
trips.
Chris Van Deusen, a
spokesman for the Texas
Department of State Health
Services, saidtravelers should
inspect their hotel rooms for
signs of thebugs.
Look for them before you
unpackyourstuff,headvised.
Look around the bed, the
baseboard, take the sheet off
andlook at the piping around
the edge of the mattress, look
betweenthemattress andbox
spring andinany kindof little
crevasse.
The bugs themselves are
small, flat insects that look a
littlelikedeer ticks, Self said.
They can also be detected
by their exoskeletons, which
they leave behind when they
shed their skins. The experts
say to leave the job of eradi-
catingthemtotheexperts.
Self explained that al-
though some might be
tempted to save money by
dealing with the pests them-
selves with home remedies,
the population will burgeon
inside mattresses and other
furniture where foggers cant
reachthem.
The longer the popula-
tion is allowed to spread, the
tougher it will be to wipe it
out, Self said, andinfestedfur-
niture and mattresses might
havetobediscarded.
Treating items with insec-
ticide might kill the bugs, but
chemicals can be toxic to hu-
mans and pets, so it is often
better to discard them. A call
to a reputable pest control
specialist also ensures you
dont poisonyour family.
According to the CDC,
while the economic cost of
bedbugs isnt known, losses
from health care, loss of pro-
ductivity, loss of revenue and
other factors can be substan-
tial.
Save money and time and
go right to the problem, Self
advised.
A00l1000: Rehabilitation is a factor for consideration
Continued from page 1A
80800S: Leave the job of
eradication to the experts
Continued from page 1A
FOR THE RECORD
DBAS
Wolfford Insurance Agency,
5455 Texas 105, Beaumont,
Kaylynn Wolfford
Signature Resources, 346
Twin City Highway, Port Nech-
es, TSG Signature Resources
Pro-Vent Cleaning, 5870
Cole, No. 5, Beaumont, Jami-
son D. Malbrough
Gulfway Flea Market, 3100
Gulfway Drive, Port Arthur,
James House
Shelias Gifts Unlimted,
1618 Roberts, Beaumont,
Shelia Segura Faulk
CC Land Services, 4215 N.
Major Drive, Apt. 401, Beau-
mont, Christy Clark
Bankruptcy petitions filed
Beaumont and Lufkin
districts
Robert W. Post and Desiree
J. Post, Jefferson County,
Chapter 13
Billy R. Bentley, Angelina
County, Chapter 13
Fredrick L. Davis and Sha-
ron K. Davis, Nacogdoches
County, Chapter 7
Arthur D. Foret, Jefferson
County, Chapter 7
Enrique Martinez and
Blanca E. Martinez, Jefferson
County, Chapter 7
Basilio Galvan, Angelina
County, Chapter 7
Stephanie Nichole Roberts,
Jefferson County, Chapter 13
Fred Stewart and Vanessa
M. Stewart, Jefferson County,
Chapter 13
She was screaming, so I
did it, a young man accused
in the Aug. 1 fatal shooting
of convenience store clerk
Dang Nguyen, according to
a probable cause affidavit in
the capital murder case.
Theyoungman, a16-year-
old juvenile who is not be-
ing identified, was arrested
Monday, as was Shawn Nel-
son, 18. Nelson is in the Jef-
ferson County Jail without
bond.
The two are accused of
stealing $200 from Vans
Grocery store on Avenue A,
then shooting Nguyen, 20,
in the head. She was taken
to a local hospital where she
died.
During the police investi-
gation, a witness toldofficers
that he was with Nelson and
the teen before robbery and
fatal shooting, according to
the affidavit.
The witness went with the
teen to a house in the 4600
block of El Paso where they
picked up an unidentified
man and Nelson, who had
several guns, according to
the affidavit.
Nelsonandtheteentalked
about committing a robbery,
andaskedthe witness topar-
ticipate, according to the af-
fidavit. The witness refused
and was dropped off before
the other three men left in
the vehicle.
Sometime after the shoot-
ing, the witness said he
learned details about the
shooting from the teen, who
also said Nelson kept the
firearms used in the shoot-
ing.
8r 1eresa M|e||
TeMioli@BeaumontEnterprise.com
(409) 880-0745
Teen describes shooting in affidavit
Guiseppe Barranco/The Enterprise
Beaumont Police investigate the scene of a shooting late Sunday after a woman was shot in
the head. The woman was transported to the hospital and died from the wound. A teen and
an 18-year-old man have been arrested in the case.