The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 12

THE COURIER-JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1997 EDITOR: HUNT HELM PHONE: 582-4691 FAX: 582-4200 5 of 7 plead guilty in McNeely Lake abductions depending on whether they'd had a gun at some point during the crimes. Evidence showed that Cater and Gaines had used guns. Ellis testified that Cater and Gaines were the leaders. "It was their idea," Ellis said. Court records indicated the defendants intended to steal marijuana from a man on the night of June 1, but that when they couldn't find him, they continued to drive around the county in two cars.

They eventually drove to McNeely Lake, off Cooper Chapel Road in southern Jefferson County, where they confronted James Barker, now 19; Travis Hobious, now 16; Stephanie Robinson, now 20; and Pamela Stewart, now 18. The defendants robbed them at gunpoint, taking jewelry, a wallet and $240. They then forced the two females into the trunk of the victims' car and the two males into the trunk of one of their own cars. They left the women at the lake and drove the two males to Moore High School. There, they ordered them to remove their clothes, then put the two back into the trunk.

They drove for three more hours, at one point paying a woman $5 to take photographs of six of them clustered around the car, while the two kidnap victims lay captive in the trunk. Eventually, all four victims were rescued, unharmed, and police arrested the seven defendants. The two remaining defendants who didn't plead guilty yesterday are Corey J. Bailey, 19, and Corey L. Tal-bert, 19.

Bailey told police he had been at McNeely Lake and Moore High but went home in his own car about 2 a.m. Talbert contends he never got out of his car at McNeely Lake and had nothing to do with forcing the victims into the trunks. The five other defendants are scheduled to be sentenced April 16. Yesterday in Jefferson Circuit Judge Thomas Knopfs courtroom, the families of the defendants and those of the victims sat quietly next to each other all day. Late in the afternoon, defendant Charles O.

Cater addressed the judge. "I wanted to say I'm sorry," he said. Knopf directed him to face the victims' families, and Cater did so while issuing an emotional apology. Cater, 21; Michael J. Ellis, 20; Leon D.

Fletcher, 18; Jason Gaines, 20; and Marvin A. Miller, 20, pleaded guilty to four counts of robbery, two count's of kidnapping, two counts of unlawful imprisonment and complicity. The prosecution has recommended 15-year sentences for Fletcher and Miller; 16 years for Ellis; and 20 years each for Cater and Gaines. They could have faced from 10 to 130 years in prison if convicted in a trial. Gutmann offered the seven defendants plea bargains calling for sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years, By KIM WESSEL The Courier-Journal Five of seven defendants charged in what has been dubbed the McNeely Lake case pleaded guilty yesterday.

One of them them fought back tears as he apologized to the victims, two of whom were kidnapped, threatened, locked in the trunk of a car and driven around for hours. The other two defendants are scheduled to return to court today and could go to trial. The defendants, who are black, were charged with terrorizing four white victims on June 2, 1996. The defendants were ages 17 to 20 at the time and the victims 16 to 19. Two black church leaders contended last fall that the defendants were being prosecuted more zealously because of their race and that of the Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Joe Gutmann said the charges were based solely on the evidence.

The prosecution had offered plea bargains and recommended sentences ranging from 15 to 20 years in prison for the five defendants who pleaded guilty, with the longest terms going to the two who used guns while committing the crime. Mix is sure to assure bluebirds happiness The letter was postmarked Oak Island, N.C., one of the barrier islands near Cape Fear. Inside the envelope was a handwritten note from Don Adams. "Your bluebirds are winter visitors to our area," he wrote. "Food supplies are reduced as the winter progresses.

Also, a late snow or ice storm can kill many bluebirds due to lack of food." He wanted me to to urge cur readers to clean out or put up bluebird boxes during these cold days in February for bluebirds that might return to Kentucky too early and get caught by a storm. Enclosed was a recipe for a homemade bird feed that he says is a bluebird Saving land helps children's home Abramson to offer plan fight crime f't't i 1 Aldermen have their own ideas for discussion By MARK SCHAVER The Courier-Journal Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson plans to present his anti-crime package today, but the aldermen have their own ideas about what should be done to fight crime. Abramson wouldn't reveal specifics of his plan yesterday. He's been working on it since December, when he began a series of meetings with nearly 200 community leaders and residents to discuss what could be done to slow the pace of murders in the city. But Board of Aldermen President Steve Magre released a "wish list" of anti-crime measures that the aldermen would like to discuss, ranging from crackdowns on graffiti to hiring more police officers.

Magre said yesterday he was not trying to upstage the mayor and was only trying to offer some other issues for consideration. "I'm really excited the mayor's putting together a package," he said. "We're ready to receive it and try to keep the momentum rolling." Magre said he would like the may PHOTOS BY KEITH WILLIAMS. THE COURIER-JOURNAL Bellewood Presbyterian Home for Children's administration building, left, will be preserved, but most of the home's other buildings dating to the '30s and '50s will be razed and replaced. Schnatter purchases will keep open space, avoid subdivisions WITHERSPOON CENTRAL "-MM 52 ACRES STATE Purchased for HOSPITAL $1.3 million f.

--BELLEWOOD ft 36-45 ACRES ))P A Tobe IS Purchased BELLEWOOD 15-24 ACRES (. Tt Retained by fx Bellewood JSS favorite (which I will pass along later). I wondered who this man was who loved bluebirds so much that he would send a letter to me all the way from an island off the Carolina coast, trying BYRON CRAWFORD'S KENTUCKY to save some bluebirds from the cold. So I phoned him, and we talked awhile. It turns out that Adams once lived in Bowling Green, where he was an engineer for Chrysler and later in Louisville, where he worked for Continental Air Filters.

He said he became interested in bluebirds 30 years ago while living in Dayton, Ohio, when he helped his daughter build some bluebird boxes for her Girl Scout project. Now 75 and retired to a beach home on the island, he builds hundreds of bluebird boxes and distributes them to neighbors and to other bluebird lovers in the nearby town of Southport and surrounding Brunswick County. "WE TRY to take care of your bluebirds that come down here for the winter," he said. "I have a friend who has a 100-acre farm who goes out with his tractor in the winter and plows up ground so the bluebirds can eat grubs. And there's a third-grade class in Southport whose class project is to make bluebird houses." Bluebirds, Adams said, don't have beaks strong enough to eat many of the seeds that cardinals, finches and other wild birds eat.

The bluebird relies mostly on berries and bugs. So migrating bluebirds that show up too early in Kentucky and woodsmen tell me that a few already have been seen could be in trouble if bitter cold or a heavy snow-and-ice storm strikes. ADAMS PASSED along some personal observations based on his many years of building and erecting bluebird boxes and some tips borrowed from the North Carolina Bluebird Society: He said he prefers unpainted nesting boxes made of cedar with 1.5-inch entrance holes and no perch. Male bluebirds usually start scouting for nesting sites in February and building in March after a female, which does almost all the work, accepts the site. Bluebirds usually will not build within 300 feet of another bluebird nest.

After three to sue eggs are hatched in about two weeks, male and female bluebirds both work frantically to feed their young. Each nestling is fed insects or other soft foods about every 20 minutes. They leave the nest at around 18 days old, most on the same day. Bluebirds sometimes nest three times a year. HERE IS the recipe for "Wild Animal Famous Winter Pudding" that Adams says bluebirds really like: 2 quarts water, 1 cup margarine, 4 cups grits (not instant), 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup chopped raisins (optional chopped fruit and peanut hearts).

In a large saucepan bring water and margarine to boil. Slowly stir in grits (or oats, cream of wheat or cornmeal). Lower heat and cook until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat, add peanut butter, raisins, plus any amount of chopped fruit and peanut hearts you wish. Mix well.

Spoon into small plastic containers and set out at different levels to attract different birds, or place in an open bird feeder. Keep any left over in your freezer, covered. Byron Crawford's column appears on the Metro page Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. To contact him, call or's proposals to be given priority, since they will be more thoroughly thought through than the ones the aldermen suggested after Magre polled them for ideas. Abramson has scheduled a 10:30 a.m.

press conference to present his package. "We've tried to be comprehensive in our approach, realizing very clearly that no one response to the crime issue is, in and of itself, enough to change the course of crime in the community," Abramson said in an interview yesterday. He said his proposals will include enforcement and prevention measures as well as an emphasis on community involvement to fight crime. Among them will be a way to make it easier for people to make anonymous complaints, he said. During his community meetings, he said, people complained they were afraid to report crime for fear of re-taliation.

The public can already call Crime Stoppers, but there was a perception that it was only for less serious crimes like theft and burglary. Abramson said he has borrowed ideas from other cities, including "an item or two" from New York. New York has received a lot of attention in the past year because the number of homicides has dropped See ABRAMSON Page 6, col. 1, this section Hospital Shelbyville after being stricken at his home in Waddy. He had been treated for a minor heart problem about a year ago but had soon returned to work and seemed to be doing well, Yates said.

He was hired to head the 1980 festival. It was a full-time job that included longer and longer hours as the festival approached each spring. In lighter moments during the long days approaching the festival, Mangeot would entertain the staff with stories of past glories and foibles. Yates' favorite story was one from the Great Steamboat Race that Mangeot used to convince people that no detail was too small to focus on. He even told it to the newspa per once.

"One vear." Maneeot said, "one of the steamboats wouldn't let passengers on unless their tickets were punched and we couldn't find a hole puncher. Because of a hole puncher, the world's greatest steamboat race came to a halt." But whatever problems occasionally marred the festival and there were problems, from horses stampeding during the Pegasus Parade, to storms, to a controversy that flared up See DAN MANGEOT Page 7, col. 1, this section Dan Mangeot dies; built Derby Festival into worldwide event to. 'J- mjf A gutter problem is evident on one of the buildings In disrepair at the Bellewood campus on La Grange Road. sold to an outsider who might do something with that property that could harm the integrity of their community." Schnatter's decision to buy much of the Bellewood property was good news for the home.

Its leaders decided four years ago, after advice from a consultant, that demolishing the 40- to 60-year-old buildings and rebuilding them made more sense than trying to renovate them, said Greg Mathews, president of Bellewood. To that end, the Bellewood board decided to sell a large portion of the property, but didn't want it to be turned into a subdivision. Bellewood, which is near the intersection of La Grange and Ever- i i jl lite i'Mina vSsai I Kwv-" 1 1 -3 By SCOTT WADE The Courier-Journal John Schnatter, chief executive of the Papa John's pizza chain, is working out a deal that will preserve at least 88 acres of open land in Anchorage, and also give the Bellewood Presbyterian Home for Children a much-needed financial boost. Schnatter is buying more than half of the home's 60 acres at least 36 and perhaps up to 45 at a price likely to be between $1 million and $2 million. The boundary lines are still being worked out, and the deal will probably be closed in 60 to 90 days, his lawyer said.

Last week Schnatter bought 52 adjacent acres from the estate of David L. Witherspoon for $1,275,000. And yesterday he said he plans to save the land from development. Schnatter, who lives in Anchorage, said he plans to "do nothing" with it except grow some crops or graze some horses. The deal will also give Bellewood, a home for troubled young people, the money it needs to demolish and replace most of its buildings, which have been declared outdated.

In addition, Schnatter said he intends to help Bellewood renovate a building next to the Anchorage Presbyterian Church so it can be rented to Anchorage as a new City Hall and to the Anchorage Public School for office space. The building is across La Grange Road from the Anchorage School. Schnatter said he also wants to help the one-school Anchorage school system build a soccer field on five acres next to the building to be renovated. Schnatter said in an interview that it's important for him to preserve the land he is buying. If anything, he said, it might be turned into a park, but it definitely won't be a "crowded subdivision." Schnatter said another reason for buying the land is to help Bellewood with its mission.

Chris Sternberg, Schnatter's personal attorney, said: "This is a very special deal for John. They love Anchorage and plan to stay there a long time. He decided he didn't want to see that property Hit-and-run suspect Jefferson County police say a man has come forward to say he was involved in the hit-and-run death of a 9-year-old boy who was struck by a pickup truck Friday night while walking along Westport Road. B7 BELLEWOOD Founded: Bellewood Presbyterian Home for Children was founded in 1847 in downtown Louisville. It moved to its current location in the 1870s.

It is one of the oldest homes of its kind in the country. History: Was a Presbyterian orphanage. Evolved into home for troubled teens. It is a private, not-for-profit institution affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. (U.S.A.) Mission: Counseling teens and their families.

Facilities: Eight buildings, erected in the 1930s and the 1950s. Population: Up to 32 boys and girls aged 1 3 to 21 About half are wards of the state; others are placed by their parents. BY STEVE DURBIN, THE C-J green roads, has eight buildings two built in the 1930s and six built in the 1950s. Schnatter's move is good news for Anchorage officials, Mayor Peyton Hoge said, and for all residents who want to preserve the city's rural character. Hoge said the current City Hall is so crowded that when the council goes into a closed session, members of the public have to stand outside the building.

He said the current City Hall, built in the 1840s, will be used for other civic activities, including the city's historic society. "I don't have any concerns or fears," Hoge said of the purchases by Schnatter. He treats land reverently." Holy Week and Jews A Catholic priest and theologian from Chicago discussed ways that anti-Semitism can creep into Chris- tian worship during the Easter observance for centuries the week of the year "most feared by Jews." B3 By BEVERLY BARTLETT The Courier-Journal Dan Mangeot, the longtime president of the Kentucky Derby Festival who built it into an event known worldwide, died yesterday of a heart attack. He was 57. "He was a legend," said Jo Ann An- dera, director ot tne lexas Folk Life Festival, who considered Mangeot a friend and mentor.

When she got into the business and met Mangeot in the early 1980s, "he was someone that everyone was in awe of because of the stature of his event." But she said he was also someone who was not above taking a call from a beginner who needed advice. In fact, despite the Derby Mangeot Festival's impressive growth during the 17 years of Mangeot's leadership, friends and co-workers yesterday remembered him as much for his human qualities as for his leadership abilities. "He was very serious on the outside," said Stacey Shepherd Yates, festival spokeswoman. And in some people he generated a reverence that was near fear, she said. But to the mostly young festival staff, "he was a father figure really, a teddy bear." Mangeot died at 9 a.m.

at Jewish Kosmos rezoning Jefferson Fiscal Court aereed to rezone 120 acres along Dixie Highway from residential to industrial for Kosmos Cement which reached an unusual compromise with residents and environmentalists. B2 -V jvi. INSIDE INDEX Neighborhood news B2 Weather B2 Regional briefs B6 Crime B7 Deaths B7 Casino-license fight A competitor claims the Caesars World riverboat casino project in Harrison County, has changed so dramatically that its request for a gaming-license extension should be denied. B4 1.