A 36-year-old man from Catawba County accused of a 2012 murder and subsequent burning of the victim's body pleaded guilty and was sentenced to at least 20 years in prison during Catawba County Superior Court on Monday. Jermaine Wilkes pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, concealing/failing to report a death and burning personal property on the day that his murder trial was to begin for the June 2012 murder of 22-year-old Brianne Ginty. On the evening of June 7th 2012, firefighters from Sherills Ford Fire and Rescue responded to a vehicle fire on Hopewell Church Road in Catawba and found a vehicle registered to Ginty severely burned with skeletal remains inside the vehicle. DNA samples had to be taken to identify the bondy as Ginty's. Wilkes was sentenced to serve 20 to 26 years in the North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections following his guilty plea. He has been incarcerated in the Catawba County Detention Center since his arrest in June 2012.

McDowell investigators are looking for equipment stolen from a construction site. McDowell County deputies need the public's help in locating two stolen generators and the suspect who took them. MC-3, a Charlotte construction company reported last week that someone removed a Troybilt 7000 watt generator and a PowerBoss 3500 watt generator from a construction site on Airport Road in Marion. Total value of the stolen equipment is estimated at $1200. Anyone having information about the theft or suspect is urged to call the McDowell County Sheriff's Office at 652-2237.

Contractors are doing some manhole refurbishing this week in the northern part of Morganton. Contractors will be fixing manholes on Williams Street, Holly Place, Laurel Hills Drive, Wedgewood Drive and Wedgewood Court. The work is part of a larger capital improvement program started in July to address infiltration and inflow in to the City's sewer system. For more information, call the Water Resources Department at 828-438-5276.