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LocalInvestigators say you can’tdo anything about conartists who prey on yourgood will; just check themout before opening your

allet. B1

uthorities have not yet re-eased the name of a Toney man who died in a house

fire Thursday night, andthe cause remainsundetermined. B1

witness questions thetiming of Dr. David Tipton’sarrival at home on the day 

e found his wife dead. B1

StateThe sponsor of legislationto allow electronic bingo atdog tracks in Mobile Coun-ty and Birmingham is backor another try this year. B3

Nation ASA clears space shuttle

Endeavour for liftoff March11 on a 16-day mission – theongest space station visitever. A4

 White House aide whoerved as President Bush’siddleman with conserva-

tives and Christian groupsresigns after admitting toplagiarism. A2

WorldPrince Harry,the third inline to theBritish crown,is whisked out

of harm’s way in Afghanis-tan after his service is re-ealed. A4

urkey says it has pulled itstroops out of northern Iraq,oncluding a large-scale of-ensive against Kurdisheparatist guerrillas thatas strained relations with

the U.S. A4

Business

Defense contractor ColsaCorp. is expected to com-plete construction thissummer on its third build-ing in Cummings ResearchPark. E1

SportsTuscaloosa prosecutorsoffer to dismiss a disorderlyconduct charge against Al-abama football captainRashad Johnson. F1

Huntsville, AlabamaVol. 98, No. 345, 44 pagesContents © 2008, The Huntsville Times

bby/ C2

ridge/ C2

usiness/ E1

Classifieds/ D1Comics/ C3

Crossword  puzzles/ C2, D8

Cryptoquote/ C2

Deaths/ B3

 Editorials/ A9

 Horoscope/ C2

 Life/ C1

 Lotteries/ A2 Movies/ C5

 People/ C2

 Sports/ F1

 Sudoku/ D3

Television/ D10

What’s inside

Forecast:unny, mild.

Full weather, D10

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Classifieds: 532-4222WE BREAK MORE NEWS AT SATURDAY / MARCH 1 / 2008

Roughridingat the

rodeo. B1

Northrop/EADS

is the top choice to build air tankersBy GARRY MITCHELLThe Associated Press

MOBILE – The Air Force an-nounced Friday it had pickedNorthrop Grumman and itsParis-based partner, European Aeronautic Defense and SpaceCo., to build 179 refuelingtankers at a site at Mobile, cre-

ating an estimated 2,000 jobsand putting the city on the aero-

nautics industry’s world map.The selection of Mobile gave

 Alabama’s port city its secondmajor industrial victory in lessthan a year.

The contract is worth $30 bil-lion to $40 billion over 10 to 15 years and could be even morelucrative – it is the first of threedeals to replace the Air Force’sentire fleet of nearly 600tankers.

Last May, German steel-maker ThyssenKrupp picked a

site near Mobile for a steel plantexpected to create some 2,700 jobs when fully operational,another coup for the city on Mo- bile Bay.

 A project of this magnitude“is a change-agent for Mobile,”Mobile Area Chamber of Com-merce President Win Hallettsaid. “We are now well-posi-tioned to lead the United States’aerospace industry.”

Supporters of theNorthrop/EADS plan said it

could move Mobile into thesame league with Seattle, whereBoeing builds large aircraft,and Toulouse, France, whereEADS makes the Airbus.

“To say this is a great day for Alabama is a monumental un-derstatement,” Gov. Bob Riley said.

“The Northrop Grum-man/EADS project will ex-pand the aerospace industry in

Mobile, as well as provide atremendous amount of oppor-

tunities for additional aircraftmanufacturing suppliers, andgood paying jobs for the peopleof our region,” Mobile MayorSam Jones said at a news con-ference that turned into a cham-pagne-pouring celebration.“This a community-changingindustry.”

The announcement sur-

Shots to buttocksfail to stop twomore break-insBy NIKI DOYLETimes Staff Writer niki.doyle@htimes.com

 A six-foot fence, three dogs,385 pounds worth of teenage boys and three gunshot woundsto the buttocks didn’t stop onealleged burglar from burstinginto two other homes before po-lice detained him Thursday night.

Huntsville police were stilltrying to verify the suspect’sidentity Friday but believe he is36-year-old Marvin Horton,police spokesman Wendell

Johnson said.Horton allegedly jumped a 6-

foot chain-link fence at 2702

Ninth Ave. and dodged Bren-da Glover’s pit bull puppy, Rot-tweiler and German shepherd before forcing open her frontdoor at about 11:15 p.m.

Glover said she went to bedearly, but her two sons, 17-year-old David and 18-year-old Jerry, were up playing video gamesand heard the dogs bark sec-onds before the burglar crashedinto their home.

Glover woke up and heardthe man fighting with her sons, who managed to wrestle theman into a headlock. Shegrabbed an umbrella before en-tering the scuffle.

“I told him to leave, and hesaid, ‘No, I’m coming in thehouse,’” she said. “He still keptcoming, and I told him, ‘I’m

going to go get my gun if youdon’t leave.’”

The three tried to push theman back out the front door, buthe wouldn’t budge, Glover said.

 When the burglar didn’t heedher warning, Glover retrievedher .38-caliber pistol and gavehim a final chance to leave be-fore firing a shot into his back-

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Huntsville Times

Trail of a burglarSuspect forces entry,

fights with two young boys,the mother of the boysshoots him.

Suspect forceshis way in, fights withhomeowner who detainshim until police arrive.

  Suspect forcesopen door, fights withhomeowner.

Flu, other ills putrecord numbersat city’s facilitiesBy STEVE DOYLETimes Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com

 A nastier-than-usual coldand flu season in North Al-abama has area hospitalsstuffed to the gills.

Crestwood Medical Centerand Huntsville Hospital are both scrambling to keep pace with record numbers of pa-tients battling the flu, strepthroat, pneumonia and gas-trointestinal illnesses, offi-cials said.

Huntsville Hospital sawsome of the highest patient volumes in its history in lateFebruary, with more than800 of its 881 licensed bedsoccupied, said Chief Execu-tive Officer David Spillers.Crestwood is just as busy, with

136 of 150 patient beds full inrecent days and big crowds inthe emergency room and in-tensive care unit, said Chief Nursing Officer Martha Walls.

The problems peaked Feb.20, when equally slammedhospitals in Birmingham andNashville began steering trau-ma patients to HuntsvilleHospital for treatment,Spillers said.

For about a two-hourstretch that Wednesday,Huntsville Hospital askedparamedics to divert patientsto Crestwood’s emergencyroom.

“That was to give (doctorsand nurses) time to catchtheir breath and get ready forthe next round,” Spillers saidThursday. “The people downin the emergency depart-ment work just as hard asthey possibly can, and no one

LET’S MAKE IT THREE

Remodeling?Building?

See it all. C1

Patients

strainhospitalcapacity

2 men now freeafter testimony of dentist disputedBy SHELIA BYRDThe Associated Press

MACON, Miss. – At a small-town courthouse in one of ruralMississippi’s poorest counties,Dr. Michael West swore under

oath that a dead girl had bite

marks all over her body and thatthey were made by the two frontteeth of the man charged withmurdering her.

Such testimony had becomecommonplace for West. Thedentist considered himself anauthority on forensic odontol-ogy and had taken the stand atnumerous trials as a paid expert

for the prosecution.

On the strength of West’s tes-timony and little else, a jury in1995 convicted Kennedy Brew-er of raping and murdering the3-year-old girl and sentencedhim to death.

Three years earlier, Westgave similar testimony in anearly identical rape-and-mur-der case involving another 3-

 year-old girl from the same

town. West testified there were bite marks on the victim’s wristand they were made by LevonBrooks. Brooks, too, was foundguilty and was sentenced to lifein prison.

Today, more than a decadelater, both Brewer and Brooks

Mobile lands Air Force contract

Robin Conn/Huntsville Times

Bob Jones players Kylie Cook, left, and Jala Harris celebrateafter winning the state Class 6A girls championship Friday.

Cheersand tearsDetails in Sports, F1

Robin Conn/Huntsville Times

Butler players celebratetheir Class 5A boysstate championshipFriday afternoon.

Ellen Hudson/Huntsville Times

Madison Academy’s Dante Bow-man holds the 3A boys champi-onship trophy as the team re-turns to Madison Friday morning.They won the title Thursday night

 – their third title in a row.

Albertville shootingAn Albertville man shoots

one of two backyard prowlersFriday.B2

 Please seeBULLETS onA7

 Please see PATIENTS onA7

 Please see MOBILE onA7

 Please see VERDICTS onA7

Panel takes bite out of false verdicts

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likes going on divert.”“But sometimes you just

run out of room at the inn.”Ironically, Spillers and his

counterpart at Crestwood, Dr.

Pam Hudson, were in Mont-gomery that day to learn thefate of a proposed Madisonhospital that would give thecounty 60 extra hospital bedsand its third emergency room.

Unable to get a quorum of  voting members, the state Cer-tificate of Need Review Boardpostponed action until March19.

Don Webster, chief opera-tions officer for HEMSI am- bulance service, said seven pa-tients who requested transportto Huntsville Hospital duringthe divert period were taken in-stead to Crestwood.

“The paramedics explained

it to the patients and their fam-ilies, and nobody got upset,” Webster said. “There is a goodprocedure in place when eitherhospital has to go to a divertprocess.”

Barbara Bush, Crestwood’sinfection control coordinator,said the hospital off AirportRoad has treated 111 flu pa-tients since December, plusscores more with strep throat,pneumonia and other winterailments.

“We’ve seen an increase (influ patients) every week sincethe beginning of January,”

Bush said Friday. With so much sickness

swirling around, Crestwoodput up signs at every entrancereminding visitors to washtheir hands and cover theircoughs. The hospital also offerssterile masks to ER and in-tensive care unit visitors.

The federal Centers for Dis-ease Controland Preven-tion has saidthis year’s flu vaccine is only partly effec-tive againsttwo of thethree flustrains thatare makingpeople sick.The flu sea-

son typically runs from late De-cember to late March.

Crestwood’s emergency room treats 115-120 patients aday on average, Walls said, buthit 159 patients recently. Mak-ing matters worse, some hos-pital employees have had to callin sick with the flu and other

illnesses.“Our staffing has been

stretched,” Walls said Friday,“but we’ve managed quite well.This particular flu has taxed theemergency room more thanthe inpatient side.”

Spillers said Huntsville Hos-pital’s patient census is stillhigher than normal, but downfrom last week’s peak.

Things should be betternext winter, he said, becauseHuntsville Hospital will befinished with its $27 millionemergency room expansionproject. A new ER wingopened in August, but the oldsection was closed until thissummer for remodeling.

 When the dust settles, thestate’s busiest emergency room will literally be the size of a gro-cery store, with nearly 50 ad-ditional patient beds and moretreatment rooms.

“That would have helpedimmensely” with the currentflu problems, Spillers said. “Ithink it’s pretty clear that theshots didn’t cover all the virus-es this year.”

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The Huntsville Times, Saturday, March 1, 2008 A7

ide.The first shot didn’t register

ith the man, so Glover fired ateast two more shots before heinally turned and ran back outhe door. Glover’s husband

called police.“What really freaked me out

is when I shot him (the firstime), he wouldn’t leave,” Glover

aid.The burglar took off across

he street, jumped a 4-footence and kicked in the door of 

2703 Ninth Ave. The home- wners pushed him back out

the door fairly quickly, saidGlover, who watched the manflee her house.

He then ran down the streetand jumped through the win-dow of 2712 Ninth Ave., wherethe homeowner, 50-year-oldOtis Ethridge, held the manuntil police arrived.

Horton struggled with offi-cers while they handcuffed him,Johnson said.

He faces multiple charges when he’s released fromHuntsville Hospital, where he was taken to be treated for thegunshot wounds. Police said hisinjuries weren’t serious.

Johnson said it’s unlikely any charges will be filed against any of the homeowners who strug-gled with Horton, including

Glover.“Usually, if there’s any ques-

tion regarding self defense, ourinvestigators present it to thedistrict attorney’s office andconsult with them,” he said. “Idon’t think that will happen,though.”

Nothing was taken from thehomes, all of which had fences.

Police said they weren’t sure what caused Horton to al-legedly break into the homes.Incident reports show that of-ficers believe he was under theinfluence of drugs.

None of the Ninth Avenueresidents were seriously in- jured, although Glover and hersons have some minor scratch-es, bruises and knots.

The incident wrapped up a

difficult day for Glover, whosegrandmother died Wednesday.But Glover said it’s just anoth-er day on Ninth Avenue, whereshe often has had to ask home-less people to move out of herdriveway when she comeshome.

Her car stereo has beenstolen, and a thief snatched herhusband’s boots from the frontporch, but she’s never come face-to-face with someone deter-mined to get in her home.

“I got the gun for protection when my kids were little,” shesaid. “I always thought I wouldhave to use it out and about, notin my own house. I never ex-pected that.”

Bulletsontinued from page A1

PatientsContinued from page A1

prised even the state’s con-gressional delegation, whichhas lobbied on Mobile’s behalf for months but knew theNorthrop team was widely considered the underdog in thecompetition, after Boeing.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, called it “stunningnews.”

“Alabama’s on a roll,” he said.“Our economy is good.”

Shelby said theNorthrup/EADS plane ap-peared to be the better optionall along. “It is larger. It’s moremodern. It’ll carry more, andin the long run, it’ll save usmoney.”

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile,said the contract award is“fabulous news.”

“We’re talking about bil-lions of dollars over decades of  work,” Sessions told a crowd-ed room of local officials in atelephone call. “I know there will be a lot of challenges as we

move forward from here.”

Mobile has long had a thriv-ing port and industrial sector.Then last May ThyssenKrupppicked a site near Calvertnorth of Mobile for a steel plantthat had been widely courted by other states.

For more than two years,local and state officials sup-ported the refueling tankerproposal by the partnership of Northrop Grumman/EADS, which would bring with ithigh-paying jobs. The indus-try recruiters pointed to the

city’s closeness to the Gulf of Mexico shipping lanes and itsavailable airport space, high- ways and railroads.

In June 2005, Riley joinedEADS North America execu-tives to announce the firm’splans for an engineering facil-ity at Brookley Industrial Com-plex, the city’s largest manu-facturing employer, in antici-pation of assembling its KC-330 refueling aircraft there.

The engineering facility, which opened in January2007, is involved in the com-pany’s Airbus engineeringplans and will continue to op-

erate.

MobileContinued from page A1

are out of prison, and prosecu-tors have all but pronouncedthem innocent. The reason: A third man confessed to both

illings after DNA connected

im to one of the rapes. As for West, his analysis of bite marks in the two murders– and in hundreds of other Mis-sissippi criminal cases over theyears – is under attack.

 A panel of forensic expertsthat examined the Brewer casesays the wounds on the victim

ere not human bites at all, butere probably caused by craw-

ish and insects nibbling on thecorpse, decomposition, andrough handling when the body 

as pulled from the pond wheret was found. Brooks’ lawyers say 

est got it wrong in their case,too, by identifying scrapes asbites.

The turn of events hasshocked the community, espe-cially the victims’ families, anded to accusations that West de-iberately falsified evidence.

“You have people who en-gaged in misconduct and man-

factured evidence and we’veroved it,” said Peter Neufeld,o-director of the Innocenceroject, which has won the ex-neration of more than 200 in-ates nationwide and assem-

bled the expert panel that ex-amined the Brewer case. “Thesetwo cases are going to be an eye-pener for the people of Mis-issippi about some of the prob-ems they have in criminal jus-tice and how easy it will be tomake it right.”

 West, a 55-year-old in privatepractice, did not return nu-merous calls to his Hattiesburgoffice.

Brewer, now 36, and Brooks,48, were found guilty in the slay-ings, respectively, of ChristineJackson and Courtney Smith,

ho were killed 18 monthsapart. Both girls were daughtersof the men’s girlfriends, and bothived in Brooksville, a poorcommunity of about 1,100 peo-ple. Both defendants were poor;Brewer is said to be mildly dis-abled mentally.

Forensic experts had testifiedor the defense at the trials of Brooks and Brewer that themarks on the victims were notmade by human teeth. But thetestimony seemed to make lit-tle difference.

Earlier this month, Justin Al-bert Johnson, a 51-year-old

rooksville man who had beena suspect early on, was arrest-d and charged in one of theurders. Investigators said he

onfessed to both killings afterNA analysis proved that his

emen was in the victim in therewer case.Brewer, who was released on

bail last year, a few years after

DNA tests excluded him as therapist, was finally exonerated by a judge on Feb. 15.

“I ain’t worried about the past.I’m thinking about the future,”Brewer said. But he offeredsome advice to prosecutors:“They need to get the truth be-ore they lock up the wrong

somebody. It doesn’t feel goodto be called a rapist and mur-derer.”

 As for Brooks, he has a courtdate on March 10, when pros-ecutors are expected to drop thecase against him. He is already back home, living with his 83-year-old mother.

In its February 2007 report,

the Innocence Project panel of top forensic odontologists from

ngland, Canada and the U.S.oncluded that West had mis-nterpreted the purported bite-

ark evidence in the Brewerase.

Panel member Dr. DavidSenn, a forensic odontologist forthe county medical examiner inSan Antonio, told the AP thatthe experts were “scratchingtheir heads to figure out how heould come to the conclusionse came to.”

VerdictsContinued from page A1

HuntsvilleHospital CEODavid Spillers