The Hot Summer: Murder & Porn

Statistics show crimes of violence rise during the summer months. Florence had not had a murder in 2011 until two weeks into the summer season. There seems to be more than meets the eye to this homicide, but we won't discount the heat in its ability to make tempers flare.

The 221 South Blair Street home where 17 year-old Joshua Honey was shot and killed early yesterday morning lies between the heavily traveled Huntsville Road and Veterans Drive. Deputy Chief Tim Shaddix of the Florence Police Department has said the investigation has several leads.It shouldn't take long to solve the murder of this young teenager, but the senseless violence can never be undone. Our sympathies to Joshua's family.

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Alexander Spence White is a young man who seems determined to make the wrong choices. White was living at the upscale address of 123 White Oak Lane in Florence's Oak Hills Subdivision when he was arrested in January 2008 for drug possession and carrying a concealed weapon. In January of this year, the now 22 year-old White was living in Decatur when charged with violating the conditions of his probation.

Six months later, White was still free and had returned to Florence when he made the mistake of allowing a computer tech to see the approximately 65 images of child porn stored on his computer. Judging from past sentences handed down in Lauderdale County for such crimes, Alexander Spence White won't be receiving probation this time.

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We commented some time ago on the new owners/editor of the TimesDaily discontinuing the bi-weekly local history column. We've recently learned that one of the regular contributors to the series was told "they didn't need her kind of writing anymore."

How sad when a newspaper group from a different geographic area will take our money, but not care about our history. That's why we call it the TotallyDecatur.



Shoalanda