'Wanted pair caught in Georgia' and more Chattanooga region news

photo Christina McLendon and Oscar Delgado

Wanted pair caught in Georgia

NASHVILLE - Two people wanted on murder charges in the killing of a Marion County, Tenn., man were caught in Georgia, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman said Wednesday afternoon.

Kristin Helm said Oscar Delgado, 33, and Christina McLendon, 31, were captured in Blackshear, Ga. Blackshear is in Pierce County not far from Waycross.

Delgado and McLendon were charged with first-degree murder after Jeffery Jonathan Mora was found severely injured at an abandoned building off U.S. Highway 41 in Marion County, Tenn., Saturday.

Mora was taken to Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga, where he later died.

Marion County Sheriff Ronnie "Bo" Burnett said Wednesday afternoon that a Marion County detective was interviewing the suspects. Burnett said he might know something today about extraditing the suspects.

Senator's killer dies in prison

Tennessee corrections officials said Byron Looper, an inmate serving a life sentence for the 1998 shooting death of state Sen. Tommy Burks, was found dead in his cell in the Morgan County Correctional Complex.

A Tennessee Department of Correction statement said the 48-year-old Looper was found dead about 11:10 a.m. EDT Wednesday. The commissioner has asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate the cause.

Looper, a former Putnam County property assessor, was convicted of murder in the 1998 fatal shooting of Burks as he sat in his pickup truck. Looper legally changed his middle name to "Low Tax."

Justice Holder plans retirement

Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Janice M. Holder is retiring at the end of her current term.

Holder, the first woman to serve as the high court's chief justice, said Wednesday that Aug. 31, 2014, will be her last day. She was appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court in December 1996, elected in August 1998, and then re-elected in 2006 to her current eight-year term.

Holder, the third woman to serve on the high court, was chief justice from September 2008 to August 2010.

Two arrested on drug charges

JACKSON COUNTY, Ala. - The Jackson County Sheriff's Office has arrested two Scottsboro residents on drug charges.

Sonya Mcalpin, 45, was charged with unlawful possession of controlled substances (methamphetamine), unlawful possession of marijuana second-degree and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

Darren Holt, 47, was charged with unlawful possession of controlled substances (meth), unlawful possession of marijuana first degree and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

The Tuesday arrests came after Alabama Game and Fish officers checked a parked vehicle and found alcohol and about 8.3 grams of meth ice, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and a loaded handgun, authorities said.

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