News Nearby: Massive Business Fire; Prison for Nursing Home Operator

Man Airlifted With Severe Injuries, Fiancé Blames Hit-and-Run Driver 

Jacob Elisha Downer, 29 of Marietta, was airlifted to Grady for treatment Friday at approximately 10:20 p.m. but doesn't remember a thing that happened, according to Gordy Wright, spokesman for the Georgia State Highway Patrol.

Downer was found in the roadway on Meadowview Rd. in Lithia Springs.  There was no visible evidence on his clothing, no witnesses, no one who heard anything, no roadway evidence and no vehicle evidence at the scene, Wright said in an email.

The father of three sustained broken bones, has a severed thigh muscle, and may need bone skin grafts from road rash, according to a report by myfoxatlanta.com. The man's fiancé, Lindsay Davenport, said that it will be at least two months before he'll be able to stand on that leg, according to doctors.

Read more on Douglasville Patch.

Massive Business Fire in Midtown

More than 60 firefighters worked to extinguish a two-alarm structure fire at Doors Unlimited, Inc., in the Loring Heights neighborhood during rush hour Monday afternoon.

Located at 432 Trabert Avenue near 17th Street and Atlantic Station, Doors Unlimited caught fire shortly before 5 p.m. with the initial Atlanta Fire Rescue Department personnel responding within five minutes.

Read more on Midtown Patch.

20 Years in Prison for Rome Nursing Home Operator

Conditions at nursing homes in nearby Rome were so horrendous that residents were near starvation, the United States Attorney's Officesaid Monday after the operator, George D. Houser, 64, of Sandy Springs, was sentenced to federal prison.

Houser, assisted by his wife—Rhonda Washington Houser, 49, also of Sandy Springs—operated the Mount Berry and Moran Lake nursing homes in Rome and a third home in Brunswick between July 2004 and July 2007. The two Rome nursing homes each housed about 100 residents.

Read more at .

‘Panhandler' Convicted of Killing Tourist in Midtown

Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr. announced Monday the conviction by jury trial in the murder case against 29-year-old Wanique Odwin.

Jurors returned guilty verdicts against Odwin Monday on charges of Murder Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault and Possession of a Firearm During a Felony in the shooting death of 48-year-old tourist Kashma Avery and one count of Aggravated Assault against 33-year-old Jay Abernathy who was traveling with the victim.

Read more at .

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