Reinhardt nursing program moves to heart of Jasper

Max Caylor / Photo

After bogging down in JeepFest’s mudpit Sunday afternoon, this man decided to have a little fun when he surprised the crowd with a daring back flip off the bumper. Trey Barnes dazzled the crowd with a backflip off his front bumper going head over heels into the blog. See more photos of JeepFest on pages 11-12A.

Staff reports

The 9th annual Sheriff’s JeepFest saw the off-road event in Marble Hill with a modest increase in registered Jeep owners and what appeared to be smaller spectator crowds.

Organizers reported Monday that 2,340 owners registered Jeeps for events between the Thursday night ride and final day on the trails and obstacle course Sunday.

Spectators can park and watch the obstacle course and see other entertainment for free so there is no accurate way to get a total, but it was thought to be a smaller general public crowd this year.

        A Calhoun man with active warrants  from Chatham County was arrested at the Sheriff’s JeepFest grounds Saturday after driving a Chevy Tahoe onto the obstacle course and getting stuck in the mud pit.

Sheriff Donnie Craig said the man had not registered for JeepFest but snuck his Chevy onto the obstacle course. The sheriff said, “We all noticed the Tahoe out there” and officers were going to see what was going on when the driver got stuck in the mudpit.

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       David Knight, paranormal hunter, at the historic Kirby-Quinton log cabin on Main Street in Jasper. Knight says he uses dowsing rods to locate and communicate with spirits, and believes this cabin is a “hot spot” of spiritual activity. 

        It was easy to see that David Knight’s enthusiasm was genuine, and he wholeheartedly believed what he was telling me – that the spirt world is real and he can communicate with it. His eyes widened and lit as he spoke.

“I was born with a gift,” said Knight, a Pickens resident who moonlights as a paranormal researcher and vlogger with over 1,500 videos on platforms like YouTube and GodTube. He’s also an ordained preacher. 

“I can see and hear spirits, which get really loud sometimes, that’s why I got into the paranormal in high school. I wanted to understand more about that world.” 

         See full story in this week's print or online editions. 

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THE STATE V. HAMILTON (S19A0722)

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld a Barrow County judge’s order granting a new trial to Paul Lamar Hamilton, who was convicted by a jury of shooting and killing his nephew. Relying on his statutory authority to sit as a “13th juror,” the judge granted the new trial after determining that the jury’s verdict “was contrary to the evidence and principles of justice and equity.”   

According to the evidence, Hamilton owned a mobile home at 1302 Charlie Hall Road in Barrow County.