Accused murderer Quincy Darnell Hughes, 37, plead guilty Wednesday morning to the first degree murder of Cindy Lou Pavey on Dec. 2, 1991, almost 18 years ago.

Hughes and his attorney, Timothy Capps, made a deal with Jackson County States Attorney Mike Wepsiec to drop two cases, aggravated robbery and residential burglary, Hughes is also facing.

Hughes waived his right to have a sentencing hearing at a later date and Judge Ronald Eckiss sentenced him to 30 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections.

Hughes also gets credit for time served since Jan. 15, 2008 and gets day for day while at IDOC, which means for every good day he serves he gets a day reduced from his sentence.

Hughes was also sentenced to three years mandatory supervised release after he gets out of IDOC.

Austin Hardwig of Vergennes recently graduated the Illinois Fire Service Academy on Oct. 17, 2008.

Look for some changes coming to Murphysboro... some big and some small.
As almost everyone in town is already aware of Walgreens has bought out Tom's Mad Pricer on the city's east side.

Many years ago I was in my office after firing the latest in a series of bad sports editor when I received a call from a Mike Layne at Murphysboro High School.
Mike, the head coach of the MHS volleyball program, informed me they were just about to start the very first Murphysboro volleyball tournament ever and asked why we did not have someone there to cover it.