I am writing a column for the Sept. 3 edition of the newspaper to explain why this blog is coming to an end. But I wanted to tell of you first. For four years this blog was a big part of my life and career, but with the rise of social media and the newspaper [...]

By default, it once again falls to me to perform a little rumor control. Yes, I am aware a deputy resigned from the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office the same day The Daily News published a recent report on the sheriff’s collection from deputies of their private cellphones. Said deputy’s resignation has nothing to do with [...]

It’s rare to see a not guilty verdict handed down at the Onslow County Superior Courthouse. But Brennan Listle left a free man yesterday when a jury of his peers determined he was not negligent in leaving alone his 22-month-old son in a fenced-in backyard with two dogs, one of which mauled the boy. Read [...]

Due to several requests, I am posting this letter here so that more people can read it without having to befriend me on FaceBook. I will be asking commissioners about this letter, interviewing the sheriff and continuing to gather information this week about the current situation at the Sheriff’s Office. —————————————————— Commissioner W.C. Jarman, Chairman [...]

Family, friends and church members of a Jacksonville man killed last week in Wilmington marched Saturday to draw attention against street violence. Read the news. I never knew Jonathan Jones Jr., but I have met his parents and they are good people. Photos of Jonathan’s life: A memorial table: -

On this day 39 years ago Marine Sgt. Bill Miller was gunned down on Western Boulevard, then an isolated country road. Bill Miller in an early�1970s photograph: His killer, George Hayden, a retired Marine and former local police chief, was convicted in May 2010 of shooting Miller in cold blood. The N.C. Court of Appeals [...]

Photographer Ed Caram was on hand to snap some pictures of a bone – believed to be human – found Saturday at Surf City. Here’s Ed’s description: Surf City Police Officer David Beaver was given a human collar bone Saturday by some Marines at Surf City. According to Beaver the bone was found near 5th [...]

Hurricane Irene has hit Onslow and Carteret counties. I am posting on the newspaper’s hurricane blog at http://hurricaneblog.freedomblogging.com/. Check it out if you have power and the Internet…

Jacksonville High School’s first black quarterback has taken a backseat for four decades to those who have laid claim to his achievements. A humble man, Sammie Rogers, didn’t want to cause a stir by pointing out to folks that�every major sports writer�in the nation from Sports Illustrated to Ebony had got it wrong in calling [...]

- Testimony continues in the trial of a woman accused of stabbing two women in their Hubert mobile home park. Read the news. Due to errors in archived reports, I incorrectly identified one of the alleged victims as having the last name WHITE when her last name is WING. Mike McHugh figured out my mistake. [...]

- WITN has followed up on the Jerome Willingham residency story. He told them he can register in two places since he was a federal employee. I don’t think he was a federal employee in 2003. Watch the WITN story. Read The Daily News article. – Cesar Laurean’s attorney has filed an appeal on his [...]

J.B. Askins promised the jury a shocking piece of evidence found in James Eric Marslender’s vehicle�will leave no doubt in their minds�as to Marslender’s culpability in his son’s death. Cops began in testimony Tuesday sizing up Marslender for a prison jumpsuit, but Ed Bailey is splitting enough testimony hairs to unravel even the�tightest case. Some [...]

The murder trial of James Eric Marslender is underway. Jury selection continues today. Marslender leaving the courthouse: Prosecutors J.B. Askins, right, and Nathan Sweet exit the courthouse Monday afternoon: This is Sweet’s first murder trial, but he has plenty of experience in traffic cases including successfully prosecuting a Marine who ran over a bicyclist last [...]

In an experiment I made 10 “mistakes” in the Monday column I wrote about mistakes. Readers who find an error in a news story act like�they would never make such an error. So I called them out with the article and so far only four�of the mistakes�have been spotted.�� I have been inundated with emails [...]

- Casey Anthony has been acquitted in the death of her daughter. Read the news with an update about her upcoming sentencing for lying to police. I see the problem in this case as being the iffy forensic evidence that was used. I read an interesting article about in the USATODAY while traveling this weekend. [...]

- Anthony Negron, a former Marine and Onslow County Sheriff’s deputy,�has been charged by federal authorities with statutory rape (read the article about the NCIS investigation). I have been working on a story all week about that with reaction from the�family of his victim (notice I didn’t say “alleged”). One of the local TV stations [...]

On the eve of a protracted murder trial that would have required three interpreters in a logistical nightmare, charges have been dropped against the two�defendants. Read the news here. Victoria Hernandez Santes�and her son Ricardo Martinez Hernandez are waiting for ICE�to deport them to their�native South American county. ������ Dr. Charles Garrett, who has performed [...]

With�a ruling that is sure to shut down cold case prosecutions across the state,�the N.C. Appeals Court has reversed the�2010 conviction of George Hayden�for first-degree murder in the 1972 shooting death of Marine Sgt.�Bill Miller. Read the news. An excerpt from the ruling: In sum, the State’s evidence of defendant’s means to commit the murder [...]

For the last several days, Off the Cuff and my business email account have been�super spammed by some idiot with just enough computer knowledge to launch an all-out spam assault on the blog and�a�fire off a barrage of virus-laced emails, but so stupid he�left his�own email at the root of it all. The same person [...]

Despite having lost their Hilda Road home to a tornado April 16, John and Mary Ann�McArtor enjoyed Easter with Patricia McNally, their long-time friend and neighbor across the street. View short video of tornado recovery. Watch short video of governor’s visit. Me, interviewing Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown and Jeff Hudson, the county manager:

A received this email too late for print, but wanted to share it with y’all in its entirety. It is clear by it and the people I spoke with today that Mr. McMullen meant a lot to a lot of people in his neck of the woods. Mr. Kay, � I was pleased to see�your�coverage [...]

Just saw on the blog dashboard that this is the 1,001 post for Off the Cuff. Wow! The blog began April 2, 2008. Carolyn Futrell was about to go on trial for posioning�a 7-year-old girl and Cesar Laurean was about to be picked up on a lonely street in a small Mexican town. Real quick, [...]

I spoke to another reliable witness of the Feb. 17�shooting in Swansboro Acres. Off-duty deputy Adam Stock was trying to talk sense into Austin Zundel with a�pick-up truck between them.�Zundel cleared the corner of the truck and hit Stock with his shotgun and then lowered the barrel in Stock’s�direction, according to the witness who observed [...]

Daily News chief photographer John Althouse snapped this photo Thursday afternoon of a Swansboro house fire. Thankfully no one was injured and the house�suffered primarily�smoke damage. Could have been much worse. Good job, local firefighters who responded to this structure fire on 4H Camp Road shortly after 4:30 p.m. Swansboro, Hubert, West Carteret and Bear [...]

- Robert Lewis has been convicted of possession of a weapon of mass destruction and death for having an illegal homemade firearms silencer. �He will spend the next 13 to 16 months in prison. The judge seemingly ignored all mitigating factors in deciding the punishment. Lewis, shackled to another inmate (the guy in the orange [...]

Three very powerful closing arguements were delivered Thursday afternoon in the manslaughter trial of a father accused of leaving a handgun in reach of his toddler who shot himself. The jury continues its deliberations this morning. Robert Lewis swears in before testifying Thursday: District Attorney Ernie Lee and J.B. Askins�talking at recess after Lee dropped�into [...]

� Less than 24 hours after Ryan Casler was sentenced to life in prison his mugshot appeared on the N.C. DOC website. While his case has been adjudicated and his fate sealed (with no apparent mistakes for fodder on appeal), his defense attorney was right, unanswered questions remain in the aftermath of Casler�s conviction. No. [...]

I am not Loose Lips. It has become appearent from comments on the blog that some readers think I am the same person who posts comments as Loose Lips. To be clear, I am not Loose Lips or any other poster. I say what I have to say with my name attached to it. Many [...]

Richlands Mayor Marvin Trott once called me “a little jerk.” In the context of our argument, I took it as a compliment. Trott died Sunday. I last spoke to him Friday night when he swore me to secrecy that he had been taking medicaton�and was in less than stellar�health. He had something important he wanted [...]

-I am looking into an Onslow County connection in the shooting death of a Jones County man. More on that when it develops. – I was unprepared when a story last week got a little too close to home.�The role a reporter plays in unfolding crime stories is often difficult at best and demanding at [...]

- The court-martial of Pvt. Law countinues today. He is accused of using a heavy drill bit to murder a fellow Marine aboard base. Daily News military reporter Hope Hodge has been doing a bang-up job covering the proceedings aboard Camp Lejeune. A selected portion�from her latest article: Teague said he had been with Law [...]

A shooting at the Rock in Jacksonville on New Year’s Eve sent two people to the hospital. The Rock in a photo I took New Years Day (click the thumbnails for larger pictures): Crime scene tape and a metal detector left in a bouncer’s chair: And of course, the gloves: The club used to be [...]

The family of a South Carolina man have taken umbrage to the idea he killed Jennifer Hamilton Morton. According to the mother and step-mother of Garrett Mahn, DNA tests were conducted and have cleared their son. The police will not confirm or deny this, and will not grant The Daily News access to the files. [...]

State v. Jarrell Wilson is in the history books and Wilson is in prison for the rest of his life. ADA Kelly Neal and defense attorney Wally Paramore presented some of the best closing arguments I’ve seen. (An interview appointment kept me from seeing most of ADA Matt Silva’s argument.) Paramore�showing how Christopher Watts could [...]

Three $20 bills. That’s what witnesses say Gabe Ape and Chris Watts died for. But I think it was all about proving who was the tougher guy. Refering to Jerrell Wilson’s gun, Ape told Wilson “if you got it, squeeze it.” His answer was a bullet. Wilson’s attorney, Jacksonville lawyer Wally Paramore, alluded during his [...]

Just to let y’all know, some spammers hacked a bunch of websites, including this one, which is why the sight looks jacked. Hopefully the tech guys fix it, otherwise it means a lot of typing for me…

I got an e-mail from Toni O’Neil over at Possumwood Acres yesterday, and I’d like to post it here for those people who wanted updates on Rocky the squirrel’s condition. Toni’s e-mail: Hi Ashley – what a wonderfully touching article you wrote about the little squirrel found by the firefighter – it has brought so [...]

My favorite stories to write are the ones about animals. I think I’ve mentioned my “urban farm” before, so it’s understandable animal stories are near and dear to my heart.But it’s not very often you get to write a story like the one that ran in Monday’s paper about the Forestry ranger who rescued a baby [...]

1.) A Maysville man with outstanding warrants in Onslow County bared all for travelers on U.S. 70 when he allegedly stripped naked under the belief a person had placed a “voodoo hex” on him. We kid you, not. Read the full story, here. 2.) These two lovely ladies were arrested Wednesday for an alleged armed [...]

The girlfriend of Joshua Mathis, a Marine arrested last week on charges of motor vehicle theft and breaking and entering, has been arrested. Gasp! I’m so surprised! … like anyone didn’t see this coming when the police said the vehicles were found in Arkansas, where she lives.

Web Editor Amanda Hickey will kick my a$$ if I don’t update this blog, so I’m digging deep into my gray matter to come up with something for you. An opinion post about the retired cop shot with a pellet gun would probably be appropriate, but I’m holding off until all potential interviews are out of the [...]

So we here at JDNews do a pretty decent job of getting most breaking news to you before anyone else. There are times when we are beaten to the punch by the TV stations, but it’s usually a pretty even race. There is one area, however, where TV beats us almost every time: anything happening [...]

Good news, folks! Off the Cuff will soon be active again, with crime reporter Ashley McErlean leading the charge.

Off the Cuff has come to an end. Since April 2008, the blog has been a big part of my life and I thank you – all of you even the wisecrackers – for reading and commenting.

Jacksonville Police Chief Mike Yaniero and I sat down Thursday to iron out a few things and talk about good times past. Similar to the hiccup I had with NCIS in early 2008, there have been a few minor points of contention between JPD and myself that I feel we worked out during our hour-long [...]

A killer whale involved in two other human deaths has claimed a third victim. Read news here. Best comment on the article at jdnews.com: “The guests were evacuated and the park closed? The entire park? I mean, it’s not like the whale was going to climb out of the tank and go all velociraptor on [...]

A Carteret County woman said her $30,000 pregnant retired racehorse was killed by someone with a personal vindetta. Read the news here. Below is a photo of the dead horse provided by the Carteret County Sheriff’s Department: Anyone with information please call the authorities.

According to a press release from Camp Lejeune, Pvt. Jonathan Law is currently at the Camp Lejeune Brig awaiting charges related to the death of Cpl. Joshua E. Hartzell, 22. Here is the press release we received:   MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. – Private Jonathan Law, 21, is in the custody of military [...]

I have banned Ragu / Ghost Recon again.The reason is a little selfish, I admit. The guy is just plain annoying. I have given him several chances, but it doesn’t do any good. I showed a former college professor of mine some comments by Ragu and he said the way Ragu begins every comment with [...]

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown has said that several people are in custody for break-ins in the Sneads Ferry area. Brown anticipates it to be a very large theft ring with stolen goods totalling in the thousands. Several agencies have been called in to help acquire the stolen goods. Further information is not yet available.