Marion Mercer, 70, of Wilson, died Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, at Carrons Funeral Home. A private burial for the family will be held at a later date. Arrangements are by Carrons Funeral Home.

Marion Mercer

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State officials are offering rewards totaling $25,000 for information leading to arrests and convictions in two separate Wilson County homicide cases from 2016. 
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Friday the state would offer up to a $20,000 reward for the prosecution of those responsible for a Christmas Eve quadruple homicide and up to $5,000 in the killing of a 52-year-old Bailey man whose body was found in the woods off Cisterna Road near Kenly on June 8, 2016. 
&ldquo;I am very appreciative of Governor Cooper&rsquo;s reward proclamation,&rdquo; said Wilson County Sheriff Calvin Woodard. &ldquo;I am hoping these rewards aid in someone providing information for solving both of these cases and giving closure to the families.&rdquo; 
CHRISTMAS EVE KILLINGS 
Neighbors reportedly heard gunshots around 1 a.m. on Dec. 24, 2016. Nearly 12 hours later, the victims&rsquo; family members found bloodshed inside a Wilson County home and called 911. 
All four victims &mdash; 47-year-old Selby Gene Outland, 54-year-old Tammy Lynnette Pearce, 28-year-old Paul Shane Pearce and 23-year-old Dominique Nicole &ldquo;Nikki&rdquo; Privette &mdash; were found shot to death. 
Some of the victims were shot multiple times, including Privette, who was shot nine times, according to autopsy reports. 
The victims were found in four separate rooms and were wearing pajamas, their autopsies state. The reports indicate that a 9mm and .38-caliber cartridge casings were found at the scene. The front door was kicked in. 
The killings occurred inside Tammy Pearce&rsquo;s home on the 2200 block of Banks Lane, a residential street off N.C. 42 East just outside the Wilson city limits. 
Tammy and Paul Pearce were mother and son, and Outland and Privette, respectively, were their significant others.
In August 2017, investigators arrested 31-year-old Dereck Eugene Harris and charged him with murder in the quadruple homicide. But in February 2020, prosecutors dismissed all four first-degree murder charges against Harris the day he was slated to stand trial. 
Wilson County prosecutors said the case was circumstantial and there were issues with witnesses leading up to the trial. 
During a court proceding to dismiss the charges, prosecutors said certain witnesses were served and hadn&rsquo;t shown up for trial, and another witness changed his or her story the week before the trial started.
Prosecutors said they hoped new evidence would emerge, enabling them to re-indict Harris or refile charges. Evidence showed there was more than one perpetrator.
JAMES GRAHAM JR. HOMICIDE
The body of 52-year-old James Calvin Graham Jr. was found unclothed in a wooded area off Cisterna Road. Graham was shot multiple times, according to a news release announcing the governor&rsquo;s reward offer. 
Four days prior to Graham&rsquo;s killing, Wilson County deputies were dispatched to a suspicious vehicle fire at Buckhorn Landing. Bailey firefighters told deputies that flames were shooting out of the car when they arrived. Officials said no one was seen with or near the car, a silver 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix.
Deputies launched an arson investigation. The following day, June 7, the Bailey Police Department began investigating a missing person case and contacted the Wilson County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office. Deputies later identified Graham as the burned car&rsquo;s owner. 
Detectives searched the area and found Graham&rsquo;s body on June 8. 
Officials said Graham&rsquo;s car was seen turning onto Cisterna Road near N.C. 42 during the early morning hours of June 4. 
Shortly after Graham&rsquo;s identity was released, his family members told The Wilson Times that he failed to show up to church on June 4, a Saturday. Graham was a forklift driver, and he didn&rsquo;t show up to work on the following Monday and Tuesday. Relatives reported him missing on Tuesday, June 7. 
Graham&rsquo;s family told the Times it wasn&rsquo;t normal for Graham to be absent without calling loved ones. While Graham sometimes went fishing, family members said, they never knew of him doing so near Buckhorn Landing or Cisterna Road. 
Anyone with information about either homicide case is asked to call the Wilson County Sheriff&rsquo;s Office at 252-237-2118 or the State Bureau of Investigation at 919-662-4500.

Rewards offered in 2016 Wilson County murders

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Without federal financial aid, Elizabeth Herrera says her family wouldn&rsquo;t have been able to send her to college. 
Now, Herrera is on a mission to inform college hopefuls that filling out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid is the first step to receiving financial assistance. 
The 2015 Beddingfield High School graduate attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Covenant scholar and graduated debt-free in May 2019. Herrera is now employed with the Carolina College Advising Corps as a full-time college adviser in Chatham County. The CACC is an AmeriCorps program.
Help from two Beddingfield teachers, Carrie Maravi and Glenn Griffin, made the difference for Herrera in 2015. 
&ldquo;They guided me, they helped me through my UNC application, and if it wasn&rsquo;t for them, I don&rsquo;t know if I would have been at UNC,&rdquo; she said.
Herrera, one of 10 siblings in her family, said she wasn&rsquo;t familiar with college. 
&ldquo;I have realized that it is a cycle of first-generation, low-income students not knowing even what college is or how is it going to promote them, how is it going to promote their living situation or how it gives them access into a higher-paying job after they graduate,&rdquo; Herrera said. &ldquo;It really has become one of my passions to help students and just explain the process and be the bridge between Spanish-speaking parents and the students who don&rsquo;t know what this process is and explaining it.&rdquo;
Herrera said FAFSA completion rates have declined in the past few years.
&ldquo;It is money that is going unclaimed that these students can use,&rdquo; Herrera said. &ldquo;It is out there for them to use if only they were to fill out the application.&rdquo;
Aid isn&rsquo;t just for students going to a four-year university. 
&ldquo;It may just mean getting a certificate or a diploma from a community college just so they can get paid a little bit more on top of just having that high school diploma,&rdquo; Herrera said.
According to the education nonprofit myFutureNC, state students left $107 million in funding on the table by forgoing the FAFSA in 2020. 
David Lyndon, executive director of secondary education at Wilson County Schools, said the district&rsquo;s FAFSA completion rate for the 2020-21 academic year was 50-54%. So far, the 2021-22 completion rate stands at 25-29%.* 
Figures for Wilson County&rsquo;s public high schools seem to show a decline from before to after the COVID-19 pandemic. 
&ldquo;While there are no distinguishable disparities, Wilson County Schools will continue to work closely with students and their families to provide services that guide and assist students in preparing for the transition after high school,&rdquo; Lyndon said. &ldquo;Wilson County Schools is committed to supporting our college-bound students. Informing students about FAFSA is a priority. However, applying for FAFSA is a family decision and one that we can only encourage.&rdquo;
In the district&rsquo;s class of 2020, 303 seniors planned to attend community college, 275 seniors planned to attend a college or university.
In addition to the schools&rsquo; regular counselors, both Fike and Hunt have had Carolina College Advising Corps advisers. In February, Beddingfield brought on a new CCAC adviser to help students with FAFSA applications and other college-related questions.
Herrera said language is a factor for the Spanish-speaking population.
&ldquo;That is another big obstacle, the parent not knowing what they are filling out,&rdquo; Herrera said. &ldquo;It really makes them feel safe when they have someone who is able to speak their language and to be able to give them the information in their language about what they are filling out.&rdquo;
Herrera said she is really passionate about making students aware of what they can get by filling out the FAFSA. 
&ldquo;Beddingfield still holds a big place in my heart,&rdquo; Herrera said. &ldquo;If I am able to make one difference for another student that is in a similar position as I was when I was a high school student in Wilson County, I hope to be able to make their application process a little bit easier.&rdquo;
* = CLARIFICATION, Feb. 27 &mdash; A sentence in this story previously indicated the FAFSA completion rate for the 2021-22 academic year was 25-29%. That reflects the completion rate for the year to date and is not a final figure. The reference has been edited for clarity.&nbsp;

Fewer students apply for college aid

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Scenery at the intersection of Pine and Nash streets has changed drastically with the BB&amp;T towers&#x2019; December implosion, but new development is on the horizon for the roughly 6.2 acres in downtown Wilson. &#x201C;The general site development and what the public will see as movement on that site will start in the next 30 to 60 days,&#x201D; said NSV Development principal Andrew Holton. &#x201C;There are a couple of regulatory boxes we still have to check, so that is not a firm time frame, but that is the goal.&#x201D; Truist &#x2014; formerly BB&amp;T &#x2014; announced plans in August 2018 to replace the aging office towers on Nash Street with a new $35 million facility around the corner. The project included a land swap with the city giving up the former Paul V. Berry Hickory Grove Park for the towers&#x2019; site. Two months later, the Healthcare Foundation of Wilson announced plans to partner with Wilson Family YMCA to launch an after-school program for area middle school students. In October 2019, city officials announced plans to give part of the Nash Street property for the YMCA and Healthcare Foundation facility and allow NSV to redevelop the Pine Street corner for retail and residential use. &#x201C;The synergies of having a corporate office anchor like Truist, having a YMCA and the multi-family units all on the same campus will be a massive shift for that whole part of the Nash Street corridor,&#x201D; Holton said. &#x201C;The complement of uses, the activity that is going to spill out into other community and retail uses in the downtown corridor is going to be phenomenal.&#x201D; <h5>MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT</h5> Initial project plans called for more than 200 residential units and up to 20,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. Holton said the plan has evolved to incorporate more living spaces, leaving less square footage for commercial development. &#x201C;We had a conversation with city downtown staff this week and are trying to really understand where the gaps in the market are, so the Nash Street space can unlock a different type of tenant and identify folks who have been looking for a finished white-box retail space,&#x201D; he said, noting &#x201C;white box&#x201D; is an industry term referring to a commercial space that offers a blank slate ready for tenants to upfit. &#x201C;We&#x2019;re doing analysis now, and my hope is in the next 90-120 days, we&#x2019;ll have a good sense of who are some of the folks most interested in this being a part of this project and moving forward.&#x201D; Construction on the new YMCA and the parking garage will start first, Holton explained, with the mixed-use development following. &#x201C;The Y&#x2019;s time frame is what wags the dog, so we&#x2019;ve said all along that we want that to get up and rolling while doing everything we can to support their schedule,&#x201D; he said. &#x201C;Once we get that process rolling, we&#x2019;ll try to accelerate the multi-family so it is the smallest window possible for completion of the parking deck, multi-family and the YMCA.&#x201D; <h5>PARKING GARAGE</h5> It&#x2019;s been just over a year since city officials announced plans to add about 700 new spaces in a parking garage to serve the Pine Street project. The Wilson City Council approved design plans for the $15 million project in January to ensure the garage fits in with surrounding development. During its Feb. 18 meeting, the council approved plans to provide Truist with 445 parking spots while the garage is being built and 590 spots in the deck, which is slated to be complete by May 31, 2022. According to the agreement, 570 of those spots will be available for non-permit holders outside the bank&#x2019;s reserved hours of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. &#x201C;I don&#x2019;t want to be so bold (to say) that this project wouldn&#x2019;t have happened if not for the parking garage, but it is pretty darn close to that,&#x201D; Holton said. He added that parking is a significant hurdle with building residential units, and Truist required so many spots for employees that without a parking garage, land wouldn&#x2019;t be available for other uses. &#x201C;By concentrating parking in a smaller footprint on the site, it makes all the other elements make sense and stimulate this whole area of town,&#x201D; Holton said. &#x201C;It is going to be so exciting when you see the new structures arising and all the energy that is going to be there. This development brings more value than just the addition to the tax base.&#x201D; <h5>YMCA AND HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION FACILITY</h5> Healthcare Foundation Executive Director Denise O&#x2019;Hara said the youth facility shared with the YMCA is being designed to ensure it serves all Wilsonians. &#x201C;While someone may not have children, I don&#x2019;t think there is any more important asset than our youth, because they are the future of our community,&#x201D; she said. &#x201C;They are the ones who are going to be the rock of our community in the future, and it is important to give them opportunities where they have mentors they can learn from and experience things that will make them better adults.&#x201D; Council members on Feb. 18 officially conveyed 2.48 acres of the former towers&#x2019; site to the Healthcare Foundation for the roughly 75,000-square-foot building that will be at least three stories tall. O&#x2019;Hara and YMCA Executive Director Kathie Davis said members from both organizations&#x2019; boards have continually met with architects to develop a design with shared spaces to maximize building efficiencies. The facility&#x2019;s amenities will be announced in the coming months; $22 million has been earmarked for the project. &#x201C;We want the after-school middle school program to grow, and the Y is committed to sustaining that program, so we want to make sure the spaces can be used appropriately for that,&#x201D; O&#x2019;Hara said. &#x201C;A lot of time has gone into that, and we&#x2019;re currently engaged in giving shape to all those spaces to make sure this facility can be best optimized for future use.&#x201D; Plans call for construction to be complete so the after-school program can launch in August 2022. Davis said that timeline offers light at the end of the tunnel for students and families enduring challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. &#x201C;I was on a call yesterday where we were talking about the isolation and learning disruption of this pandemic, so this will be a generation of catching up,&#x201D; she said. &#x201C;We want to be leaders in this catching up process, but it will take support of the entire community to be successful and hopefully make this absolutely trailblazing effort into a national model.&#x201D;

Wilson's landscape evolving with YMCA project

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Barton College has announced the naming of the David S. Hicks Family Sports Operation Center. A $1 million gift made by alumnus David S. Hicks matches the largest alumni gift in the college&#x2019;s history. President Douglas N. Searcy said the college is grateful for Hicks&#x2019; generosity and commitment to his alma mater. &#x201C;Upon completion, the David S. Hicks Family Sports Operation Center will provide an exceptional space to support our expanding athletics program and will be recognized as a premier collegiate athletics facility among NCAA Division II programs,&#x201D; Searcy said. The center has undergone a significant Phase I renovation from its original use as the 39-year-old J.C. Harris Cadillac dealership located near the college&#x2019;s main campus. &#x201C;When presented with this vision and opportunity from President Doug Searcy and&#xA0;Tom&#xA0;Maze, assistant vice president for leadership giving, I was excited to step up and help provide Barton College with the best possible facility and resources to recruit, retain and develop top student athletes,&#x201D; Hicks said. &#x201C;Our family is delighted to be able to make a meaningful gift to the campus, with the goal of providing student-athletes, coaches and staff new opportunities for additional success. We couldn&#x2019;t be more thrilled to support such an impactful project in the life of Barton College.&#x201D; While Hicks attributes his values and faith to lessons he learned from his parents while growing up on a small tobacco farm in Spring Hope, he said his skill set for career success was forged during his Barton experience. Hicks said Barton &#x2014; then Atlantic Christian College &#x2014; proved to be the perfect environment for him to find his passion for business and finance. He balanced his academic studies in the School of Business with his fraternal commitment to Alpha Sigma Phi while working part-time jobs throughout his college years. Hicks noted that through leadership opportunities on campus, including serving as president of his fraternity, he also learned about developing relationships, building camaraderie and encouraging teamwork. He said these crucial soft skills have complemented his business acumen and served him well throughout his career. Hicks completed his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration in 1984 and immediately began working at Wachovia Bank in the finance division. By 1997, Hicks took a leap of faith and established North State Acceptance, a specialty finance company that purchases and services retail sales contracts from car dealerships. The company also offered personal loans for emergencies, college and other needs. His company grew from a single location to 12 offices in five states before he decided to sell it in 2013. Today, Hicks continues to influence the business market through a variety of business ventures, including the purchase and redevelopment of the former Hardee&#x2019;s and RBC Centura North American headquarters campus in Rocky Mount. The location is now the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles headquarters. Hicks and his wife, Jill, have three sons. Zack, Barton class of 2014, works in the family business, and his wife, Melanie, teaches at Southern Nash High School, where she also coaches softball and volleyball. The Hickses also have twin sons, Austin and Spencer. Austin is a junior at Barton this year, and Spencer is a junior at N.C. State University. &#x201C;The Hicks family represents so much of what is great about Barton College,&#x201D; said Archer Bane, executive director of institutional advancement. &#x201C;As passionate alumni, the willingness to make such a generous gift not only is a vote of confidence for the strategic vision of our institution, but it signals to other alumni that we welcome and want their involvement and support.&#x201D; The David S. Hicks Family Sports Operations Center features a large, glassed-in conference room and offices for coaching staff. The building&#x2019;s interior currently includes football and men&#x2019;s and women&#x2019;s lacrosse locker rooms and additional athletic training rooms. There also are two outdoor practice fields adjacent to the building. Following Phase II, the sports operations center will include an indoor turf facility as well as additional group meeting rooms and offices. &#x201C;I am incredibly proud to be involved with my alma mater, and I challenge fellow alumni and friends of the college to join me in investing in Barton,&#x201D; Hicks said. &#x201C;We have an opportunity to immediately impact the lives of the current students, faculty and staff and programs while also helping to shape the college&#x2019;s future. Right now is the perfect time to get more involved.&#x201D;

Barton College graduate donates $1 million for athletic center

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With several diehard BBC fans in my life, I had heard of &#x201C;The Great British Baking Show&#x201D; over the years, but it never piqued my interest enough to add it to my Netflix queue. However, after a mind-boggling number of pandemic-binged shows, I settled down to watch an episode last October with my fianc&#xE9; and his mother. We all soon became enthralled with a seemingly endless stream of ingredients, methods and recipes we&#x2019;d never even knew existed. Even though we spent a fair bit of each episode Googling one thing or another, we marathoned season after season while realizing our British counterparts apparently are taught way more about the culinary arts than the average American. For the uninitiated, each episode consists of three baking challenges within a theme such as breads, chocolate or pastry. The contestants usually are given the parameters of two of those challenges to develop a recipe and practice before the weekend competitions, but the third challenge is often an obscure recipe with vague directions that often leave the participants producing less than stellar baked goods. At the end of the episode, one of the bakers earns the title of star baker while a second is sent packing. Well, fast forward to season 11 that took place in early 2020 with the contestants, hosts, judges and crew all quarantined for the duration of filming. It was interesting to kick off 2021 watching this season and realizing that while nearly a year had transpired since the episodes were filmed, COVID-19 is still altering our daily lives. As such, my fianc&#xE9; and I began discussing our Valentine&#x2019;s Day plans. Ultimately we opted to forgo eating out, instead testing our own British baking skills by making a few recipes from the show. Prior to watching the show, I&#x2019;d never really contemplated making pastry from scratch, and my only recollection of the word &#x201C;pasty&#x201D; is from Harry Potter. I soon realized that a pasty is basically a hand pie &#x2014; think fancy Hot Pocket &#x2014; to provide workers with a portable and filling lunch on the go. One of the contestants, Laura, made one that the judges described as heavenly tasting, so we looked up the recipe on thegreatbritishbakeoff.co.uk and set about translating the ingredients and measurements into ones we understood. Despite being woefully unsure of our pastry-making skills, we spent Valentine&#x2019;s Day creating this deliciously posh pie that we both decided we&#x2019;d happily have again. Here&#x2019;s hoping you enjoy it as much as we did.

An American attempt at British baking

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2020. What a year it was. People across the world were ready to see 2020 close and a new year begin.&nbsp;
Though we are not out of the woods yet, we welcome 2021 with cautious optimism. The start of a new year, particularly this year, is a great time to talk about prevention of cancer and other illnesses and setting goals we can actually achieve. But this year, instead of talking just about diseases like cancer and heart disease, we need to focus on surviving pandemics as well.
Despite the fact that our health and well-being are threatened by foes old (cancer) and new (COVID-19), there are basic preventions we can take to improve our chances of survival. A very wise person once said, &ldquo;The only behavior we can be responsible for changing is our own.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Not surprisingly, most of the ways we can prevent illness and increase survival is by changing our own behaviors. Here&rsquo;s an example: No matter which major disease runs in our families or our communities &mdash; heart disease, stroke, cancer (and now COVID) &mdash; we have a better shot of preventing, surviving and even thriving beyond these illnesses if we eat right, control our weight, don&rsquo;t smoke or chew tobacco and exercise and sleep well. It has never been clearer that these behaviors lead to better outcomes. The difficulty lies in setting those goals and keeping to them.
We&rsquo;ve all heard, &ldquo;Where there&rsquo;s a will, there&rsquo;s a way,&rdquo; but &ldquo;willingness&rdquo; is very different from &ldquo;willfulness.&rdquo; We all know someone who has tried to quit smoking or start exercising and failed many times. But then one day, he just put the cigarettes down or lost weight by changing eating habits.&nbsp;
What was different about this time? People successful in changing habits often respond with, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know, I was just ready.&rdquo; Willingness is accepting where you are and what it&rsquo;s going to take for you to change. When you&rsquo;re ready, you&rsquo;re willing, and suddenly you&rsquo;re able. &nbsp;
Rather than make lofty goals for 2021, try focusing on something smaller, doable and linked to better health. Choose goals that you may be ready to tackle. That can be as simple as adding an apple to your diet every day or wearing a face mask when you are outside of your home. Or maybe you park in a parking spot farther away from the store so you can increase the number of steps you walk.&nbsp;
Plan to add healthful habits every day. And really plan it, as in go to the store and buy apples. Pack them in your lunch. Don&rsquo;t let them sit on the counter degrading. Focus on adding something easy and healthful, and then with intention and mindfulness, achieve that goal. Don&rsquo;t forget to congratulate yourself when you do achieve the goal.
In 2021, focus on becoming more healthful, one small, measurable step at a time. As these build into a path to greater health, disease risks will go down or give you the opportunity to improve the outcomes for any disease you may battle. We, as a nation, are in this pandemic together. Let&rsquo;s raise each other up and support a healthier, happier nation as we move forward into a healthier, happier 2021. Wilson Medical is here to help. &nbsp;
Call Courtney Harlow, oncology director, at 252-399-8741 for information on smoking cessation.
Catherine Gaines is physician assistant in the Duke Cancer Network.&nbsp;

Marion Mercer

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