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Show Suspect Being Held on Charges Of Armed Robbery-Attempted Murder An 18 year old AWOL Marine is being held in Cedar City on a two count charge of armed robbery rob-bery and attempted murder in Cedar City. Neil Timothy Smith, of Louisville, Louis-ville, Ky. and AWOL from the Saniii Ana, C'ahi. Marine Baso has Ijcen charged with the armedi robbery and attempted murder oi Mrs. Tiielma Melling, 64. c4 76 South UK) East. Justice (if th-1 th-1 1'eaio Haldo-.v E. Christensen ha.s I set bail at $T0,X)0.00. Mrs. Melling, was hospitali'cl in the Valley v iow Medical Center Cen-ter with slashes on the throat iiom a switchblade knife. Listed as critical upon admission Uts. Aielling showed satisfactory recovery re-covery and was released Wednes- t day to return to tier home. V Used Phone a Pretext Smith has been accused of entering en-tering the Melling home at approximately ap-proximately 3:0u p. m. Thursday, Thurs-day, Dec. 16 on Uie pretext o wanting to use the telephone. According to the report Smith indicated that he was checking; on a Job at a service station. lie apparently went to the phone and dialed and then announced that die line was busy. Mrs. Melling was tending her seven month old grandchild. The? attacker sat down by Mrs. Mel ling and inquired briefly about the baby then suddenly reached over and began strangling the victim until she became uncon-cious. uncon-cious. It is believed that while Mr. Melling lay unconciuos on the floor tne attacker began rummaging rum-maging through the house. During Dur-ing the time he was in the home Mrs. Melling was also slashed across the tnroat several times with a knife. After regaining concfousnesb". Mrs. Melling was ablti to telephone tele-phone her daughter, Mrs. Craig. Neptune, who upon arriving at the scene, notified authorities,. Blockades Set Up An immediate all pcints bulle- tin was sent out through the Utah highway Patrol Dispatcher Bud Bowman, with a brief dis-cription dis-cription given by the victim of a young, husky man driving's, red car. Law enforcement officers were alerted to block all highways in the southern end of the state land tn inuill..i. -it . -.c icvi cars. At approximately 4:20 p. m. , Trooper oeorge Lang apprehended apprehend-ed Smith and held him for investigation in-vestigation when he was stopped ! in a blockade west of St, George on U. S. Highway 91. In Smith's possestion was a check made out ot Douglas Grim-shaw Grim-shaw and endorsed by Mrs. Melling, Mel-ling, aid blood stains were detected de-tected on his trousers. Srritj, was returned to Cedar City wi.ere he later that evening was identified in a lineup at the alley View Medical Center by Mrs. Melling and later gave a statement to District Court Recorder, Re-corder, while under oath. Could Face Life Sentence If found guilty Smith could face frmo five years to life in the state pentany on the covni cr -. tempted murder alon?. Cedar City Chief of Police who was called to initiate the investi-gaton investi-gaton praised the cooperation of the various law enforcement agencies throughout the area who responded to the call that wis issued Thursday afterniMin. Particularly Par-ticularly was he complimentary of the work of the Highway Patrol Pat-rol dispatcher for the efficient manner hi which the all points bulletin was issued, resulting In the early arrest of the suspect. |
