GRAHAM — Alamance Community College presented awards on Thursday, May 2, to student recipients of 2023-24 academic and club awards.
COLLEGE AND CAREER READINESS
Academic Excellence: New Ni Htay, Juana Romero Delgado, Delmis Mariana Lazo Lazo, Maria Guadalupe Ceron Orozco, Benjamin Bouldin, Denise Thomas, Steven Carden and Wanda Thompson.
APPLIED ENGINEERING, AGRICULTURE AND SKILLED TRADESAdvertising and Graphic Design
Passion for Learning: Alex Parker and Maliek Overman.
HEALTH AND PUBLIC SERVICES DIVISIONBiotechnology
Academic Excellence: Jessica Estrada and Cindy Estrada.
Cosmetology
Passion for Learning: Laura Sanchez Ramirez.
Criminal Justice Technology
Academic Excellence: Shannon Hendershot.
Histotechnology
Academic Excellence: Virginia E. Contreras.
Medical Laboratory Technology
Academic Excellence: Christopher Carr and Shana Dalton.
Nursing
Passion for Learning: Starry McCallister.
Academic Excellence: Roshena Chambers.
CAREER AND COLLEGE PROMISEAdvertising and Graphic Design
Academic Excellence: Eric Carson, Radha Humphrey, Melinda Nelkin, Peter Tavares, William (Alex) Arrasmith, Paula Ruiz, Ian J. Benjamin, Cameron J. Lewis, Ajah Coleman, Rana Gabrielle M. Ligue and Michael B. Zang.
Criminal Justice Technology
Academic Excellence: Jaden A. Qualls.
STUDENT CLUBSWiSDEM
Outstanding Leadership: Shantee’ Lubin.
Alamance Bash ‘n’ Clash
Outstanding Leadership: Alejandro Ruiz-Serrano.
History Club
Outstanding Leadership: Zachariah Belchak.
Life Sciences and Tech Club
Outstanding Leadership: Olivia Mahfoud.
Dental Assisting Club
Outstanding Leadership: Deisy Navarro Carbajal.
Phi Theta Kappa
Outstanding Leadership: Joshua Blake Patterson and Melissa Slonin.
Student Government Association
Outstanding Leadership: Azavia Jones and Jamari Russell.
Mock Trial
Outstanding Leadership: Jaryn Green.
Outstanding Advocacy: An Thanh Nguyen.
Outstanding Performance: Lily Sumner.
ACC AMBASSADORS
Outstanding Leadership: Emma Tomaro, Javier Rios Pineda, Gianna Curiazza, Lauren Lovett, Starry McCallister, Ronald Williams, Kayla Worley and Chase Foster.
STATE-LEVEL AWARDSAcademic Excellence Award: Quincie Loy.
Dallas Herring Achievement Award: Lillia Diez.
Governor Robert Scott Student Leadership Award: Anika Carr.
BUSINESS, ARTS AND SCIENCESAccounting
Academic Excellence: Stephanie Orzoff and Xiaoxiu Du.
Art
Academic Excellence: Ruby Stonesifer.
Passion for Learning: Lorelei I. Lambe.
Business Administration
Academic Excellence: Tabitha Faye Wrenn.
Passion for Learning: Abby Lea Adams.
Chemistry
Academic Excellence: Joshua Patterson and Susanna Carr.
Communications Studies
Academic Excellence: Thomas Newson.
Passion for Learning: Jiana Matamoros.
Early Childhood Education
Academic Excellence: Cassandra Lewis.
Passion for Learning: Jessica Crawford.
Education
Passion for Learning: Angelique Johnson.
Academic Excellence: Daniel Oliver.
English
Academic Excellence: Craig Giovani and Nicolle Ramirez.
History
Academic Excellence: Kaylin Leftwich and Faith Brantley.
Information Technology
Passion for Learning: Aiden Stone.
Academic Excellence: Alejandro Ruiz-Serrano.
Mathematics
Academic Excellence: Alex Anderson.
Passion for Learning: Arya Emanual-Alcocer Akhlaghi.
Music
Academic Excellence: Amy Sumner.
Passion for Learning: Kayla M. Pollock.
Office Administration
Academic Excellence: Saphara McClure.
Psychology
Academic Excellence: Zoie Norris and Dakota Ayers.
Sociology
Academic Excellence: Quincie Loy and Olivia Pozytko.
Spanish
Academic Excellence: Brooke Hodnett.
CAREER AND COLLEGE PROMISEEnglish
Academic Excellence: Alexis Kenyon.
History
Academic Excellence: Gabrielle Duhaylungsod, Jada Boney, Taylor Pierce, Caroline West, Caiden Woody, Preston Bayes and Dalton Clayton.
Mathematics
Academic Excellence: Vicente Pedreros.
Music Appreciation
Academic Excellence: Francisco Perez Jaramillo.
Psychology
Academic Excellence: Geneva Reece.
Spanish Interpreting
Academic Excellence: Allison Fogg, Diana Lopez Monge and Emily Rivera Silva.
RALEIGH (AP) — A man convicted of killing his landlord's adult son with a sawed-off shotgun is entitled to a new trial because the presiding judge failed to instruct jurors about a possible self-defense argument, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
A three-judge panel vacated the first-degree murder conviction of Ronald Wayne Vaughn Jr. in the 2017 shooting death of Gary Somerset. Vaughn was on the porch of the Lincoln County trailer he was renting and had the weapon when Somerset yelled “Let's end this” and rushed at him, according to Tuesday's opinion. The two and Somerset's mother had been in a heated argument. Vaughn was sentenced in part to life in prison without parole.
Possessing a gun like the one Vaughn used —a Winchester .410 caliber shotgun with a sawed-off barrel that makes it easier to conceal and potentially more destructive — is a felony, and Vaughn was also convicted on that count.
The state's “stand-your-ground” law says a person is justified in using force and has no duty to retreat when the person “reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself.” But it can't be used in some occasions when that person was committing a felony at the time.
A state Supreme Court ruling after Vaughn's 2021 trial narrowed that exception, saying there has to be a determination an injury wouldn't have happened except for the person possessing that weapon.
Court of Appeals Judge Allegra Collins, while acknowledging that the trial judge lacked that state Supreme Court ruling, wrote in Tuesday's prevailing opinion that the jury should have been instructed on the stand-your-ground provision.
Somerset had been living temporarily in the home with Vaughn, and moments before the shooting, his mother gave Vaughn a notice to leave the trailer, which he ripped up, according to the opinion. Vaughn tried unsuccessfully to call 911 with his iPad, the opinion said, and from the porch told Somerset and his mother that they were the ones who needed to leave.
“The evidence viewed in the light most favorable to Defendant could have supported a jury determination that Defendant’s use of deadly force was justified and that there was no causal nexus between the disqualifying felony and his use of deadly force,” Collins wrote.
The prosecutor also told jurors erroneously that the stand-your-ground provision didn't apply in the case, she added. Judges Hunter Murphy and Valerie Zachary agreed with her opinion.
The appeals panel found no error in his conviction for possessing of a weapon of mass death and destruction, which resulted in a prison sentence of up to almost 2 1/2 years. The judges ordered that Vaughn now be resentenced in light of his pre-trial confinement credits.
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BURLINGTON — The city of Burlington has a new online tool, the Burlington Development Dashboard, that tracks development of commercial properties, apartment complexes, manufacturing facilities, new subdivisions and other major construction projects across the city.
The tool provides a detailed, interactive dashboard that includes information such as project status and a link to development plans. Users can track a project as it progresses through the development process from plan submittals though construction, Planning Director Jamie Lawson said. Currently, the dashboard tracks development back to 2021.
“We are excited to announce the launch of the Development Dashboard that will provide the community with the ability to learn more about what is going on in Burlington in a user-friendly online platform,” Lawson said.
The Burlington Development Dashboard was created by the city’s GIS Division in partnership with ESRI Enterprise. It uses data from Burlington Smart, the city’s online permitting portal.
To view it, visit www.BurlingtonNC.gov/DevelopmentDashboard.