A former lieutenant with the Burke County Narcotics Task Force gets probation and is ordered to pay back monies he took in Burke Superior Court Wednesday.

46-year-old Jody Price of Morganton was given a suspended sentence of 13 to 25 months following his guilty plea to embezzlement by a public official or trustee.

Judge Robert Ervin from Burke County placed Price on a 4-year probation period with the order that he pay 13-thousand-329 dollars in restitution- funds he reportedly took from the narcotic’s task force for his personal use.

Price was relieved of his duties in March 2018 upon discovery he was misusing the funds.

Burke Sheriff Steve Whisenant requested an investigation by the NC SBI which showed from August 2017 to March 2018, Price mishandled a portion of funds for the Task Force’s operations.  

Already an inmate, a Morganton man receives a separate prison term following an assault at a Burke County prison in 2014.

40-year-old Olantomus Goode will serve three to five years after being convicted of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.

The ruling coming down in Burke Superior Court Wednesday by Judge Robert Ervin.

The assault took place at Foothills Correctional Institute June 13^th 2014, when Goode was involved in an altercation with a fellow inmate.

Reports say the victim was sitting at a table when Goode began swinging a sock containing a sink spigot from his cell.

He struck the victim in the head multiple times.

Previously, Goode was incarcerated for felony robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon.

A  second incident at Foothills Correctional Institute in Morganton last year results in the sentencing of a Gastonia man.

21-year-old Jose Rios will serve a seven to nine year prison term following his conviction for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.

During Burke Superior Court, Rios pleaded guilty to the charges Wednesday.

Rios is currently serving a 28-year sentence for two second-degree murder convictions in Gaston County from July 2017.

The most recent sentence will come at the end of his current term.

On March 7 2018, Rios stabbed a corrections officer at Foothills four times with a nearly 7-inch shank; striking him in the lower neck, shoulder, and in the back.

He attempted to stab another officer before fleeing into a housing wing of the unit before being apprehended.

The injured officer remained hospitalized for 5 days because of lung injuries. 

Rios will be deported to his home country of Honduras upon his release from prison.

For the first time this flu season in NC, a child who was 4 or younger died from a flu-related illness last week – that reported Thursday by the state department of health and human services.

Also a child between 5 and 17 died, as well as a young adult between 18 and 24; raising the death toll for the season to 119.

So far, 73 of the victims were 65 or older.

According to health officials, 11 people died from the flu last week, and 10 more were added to the list from previous observations.

At the same time last season, there were 263 flu-related deaths.