Law-enforcement officials across Calhoun County held their breath in December as 2009 ended with only six apparently criminal homicides county-wide. Following 2008's 20 homicides, the area may be catching up with a national downward trend of deadly crimes.

Two of the county's homicides last year took place in Anniston's city limits; the others were in the surrounding communities of Ohatchee, Saks, Wellborn and Piedmont. Five of the six deaths were caused by gunshot wounds.

Other violent deaths, including the apparent suicide of one man believed to be responsible for the death of his wife, bring the total to nine.

Shocking as the circumstances are in each case, the total effect of death from violent crime was much diminished in 2009 from previous years. That likely is little consolation to the friends and family of each person who lost a life.

The Breakdown

• May 14 — McKinley Mac Young, 47, died after he was shot in the face with a small-caliber handgun at his home at 2905 Newborn St. in Saks. Blaine Justice Lovell, 20, of Ohatchee, is charged with murder in the case. Police said the gun was only a foot from Young's face when he was shot.

Lovell was arrested within a week of the shooting by U.S. Marshals in Amory, Miss., and extradited to Calhoun County. He was transferred Dec. 21 to Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery, according to jail records.

• June 11 — An unknown assailant shot Charles Jennings, 46, in the back while he was walking near the 1000 block of West 15th Street in Anniston. Jennings told police he heard the shot and felt a pain his back. He died at Regional Medical Center as a result of the wound.

The case remains unsolved, and police recently said they had no active leads.

• Aug. 1 — Lucretia French, also known as Khris Wisdom, was found facedown and unconscious near the 2000 block of Walnut Avenue in Anniston during the early-morning hours of July 18. She was found bleeding with a large scrape on her left shoulder, and her purse and wallet were found empty nearby, according to police reports.

French was flown to UAB hospital where she remained on life support for two weeks until she died on Aug. 1. Due to head trauma from the attack, she was unresponsive until her death, police said. The case is unsolved, and police in December had no active leads.

• Nov. 15 — The Wellborn community was shocked when a couple was found dead in their home at 416 S. Corning St. Police believe Thomas Hart, 50, shot his wife of nearly 23 years, Wendy Hart, before turning the gun on himself. Family members blamed Thomas Hart's actions on health problems.

The state Forensic Sciences Department in December had not returned an official report. Police believe the crime was a murder-suicide.

• Dec. 25 — The body of Donald Cameron, 47, of Ohatchee was discovered at his home the day after Christmas.

Police found the body after receiving a call from Cameron's mother, who was expecting him to visit her in New Jersey for Christmas.

Calhoun County Coroner Pat Brown ruled the death a homicide caused by a gunshot wound, but the estimated time of death was not released by authorities, who said Cameron likely died more than 24 hours before his body was discovered on the morning of Dec. 26.

• Dec. 31 — Angela Powell, 40, allegedly shot her boyfriend, Steve Ray Morrison, 35, at their home at 834 Charlie Penny Road around 3:45 p.m. The shooting was apparently the result of a domestic dispute.

Morrison was pronounced dead at the scene. Powell reported the shooting to the Sheriff's Office and was arrested without incident when deputies arrived. She has been charged with murder.

Three other people died violent deaths in Calhoun County, though none of the cases seem likely to be prosecuted as homicide. In two cases, men were shot to death in violent encounters with law enforcement officers.

• Sept. 8 — David Trantham, 36, was shot to death in his yard at 5326 Cash St. in Saks. His neighbor, Corey McDonald, 22, admitted to police that he shot Trantham after trying to break up a physical fight between Trantham and his wife. McDonald shot Trantham with a rifle from about 80 feet away, but claimed self-defense, according to his attorney, Tim Burgess. A grand jury in November decided against charging McDonald with a crime in the case.

• Sept. 27 — Law-enforcement officials shot and killed Raymond Versansky, 36, of Wellington, after he led Anniston police officers and Calhoun County sheriff's deputies on a high-speed chase, according to Brown. The chase ended on U.S. 431 North when officers rear-ended Versansky's truck, causing it to flip. The wreck occurred about two miles north of Alabama 144.

Versansky then used a knife to threaten law enforcement, who tried twice to subdue him with a stun gun, said Sheriff Larry Amerson. Both times, Versansky pulled out the prongs and continued to threaten them with the knife, Amerson said. He died from multiple gunshot wounds.

• Dec. 29 — Oxford police officers shot Sonny Dale Wheeler Dec. 29 after he allegedly fired at them during a confrontation at his home on Caffey Drive North.

Police Chief Bill Partridge said the confrontation stemmed from a report of domestic violence that brought officers to the home. The officers found Wheeler pinned on the floor by another man, Partridge said. When Wheeler was allowed to stand, he retreated to a bedroom, where he fired a rifle through the door, striking one officer in the face with a pellet of birdshot, police said.

The incident still is being investigated, and the officers involved are suspended with pay.

County catching up with state and national trends

While the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center released numbers earlier this year showing a 13 percent statewide homicide decrease from 2007 to 2008, Calhoun County saw just the opposite in that time frame, with a 15 percent increase. In 2006 and 2007, the county had 16 and 17 homicides, respectively. But those numbers dropped off in 2009, and there seem to be no sure answers as to why.

Calhoun County wasn't the only area to see the decline in homicides in 2009. Preliminary FBI crime figures for the first half of the year show crime falling across the country, even in a time of high unemployment, foreclosures and layoffs. Most surprisingly, murder and manslaughter fell 10 percent for the first half of the year.

"I have no real explanations other than (homicides) come in peaks and valleys," said Partridge. "It's more of a morals thing. If you get people together who are drinking, and in hot weather … often that's the formula that leads to homicide."

Partridge said preventing homicide is difficult because officers can't police inside the home if police aren't involved prior to the crime.

Anniston police Lt. Rocky Stemen said homicide is a crime that's never predictable.

"A lot of times, in a bad economy, property and personal crimes increase," he said.

Amerson said violence escalates with high unemployment rates and drug use, but "when dealing with the complexities of human behavior, I don't think there's a way to resolve (why people commit violent actions)."

Higher population rates

Homicide rates seemed not to be affected by 2009's economic spiral. An expert who studies crime trends said population factors could be affecting homicide rates.

"The segment of the population associated with highly violent crimes traditionally hasn't been heavily employed anyway," said Richard Kania, who heads Jacksonville State University's criminal justice department. "The people losing jobs now are not the problematic part of the population. Usually, it's young people or those caught up in the drug culture … people who are not as affected by a downturn in the economy."

Kania, a criminologist who studies crimes related to deadly force and violence, said typical homicide suspects are young, in their late teens and early 20s. He said a plateau in that age group's population could be a reason homicide rates are shrinking.

"Some studies look at the number of kids starting high school. You can predict by the number in high school the homicide rate with some accuracy. And that group has not seen as big of growth in population (in recent years)," Kania said.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the national violent crime rate declined between 1999 and 2008 by 41 percent. In the 2000 Census, children 4 years old and younger were a smaller group than each of the age brackets above them. The oldest children in that smaller group are now entering what Kania calls "the crime-prone years."

"The statistics now should be at their peak, as the high percentage of kids who were 5 to 14 then are now 13 to 23 — the most violent years," he said. "There should be a continuing decline in violent crime as those kids age out and a smaller percentage of the population enters the high crime-prone years."

He said the population of the younger group peaked in the 1990s and has been declining ever since.

The shrinking of that age group, however, is not the only factor that could explain the declining homicide rate, Kania said.

"Single-parent households are a major factor and very strong predictor of boys getting into serious trouble," he said.

According the Census Bureau, the number of single-parent households has held steady from 1994 to 2006 at about 9 percent. However, the size of U.S. households has declined, so fewer children are living in the single-parent homes, Kania said.

"I believe that a ratio of adults-to-kids in a household also is a factor in delinquency, but I am not sure of any studies showing that, or the opposite," he said. "It just seems likely that the more kids per adult will mean less supervision and reduced parental influence, and fewer kids per adult will allow for more supervision and greater parental influence, and that should reduce delinquency, too."

Tackling drugs and domestic issues

Kania said a focus by law enforcement on societal blights such as substance abuse and domestic violence help fight violent crime.

"Drug-suppression policies have helped some," Kania said. "If police can break up drug markets, drug-related homicides will decline. But it doesn't guarantee that they will go away."

He said emphasis on domestic violence prevention can also significantly reduce the risk of homicides. Amerson said the Sheriff's Office tries to curb violence through prevention.

"We're more prone to domestic violence arrests, rehab opportunities, protection from abuse orders and mental health intervention. I really think those kinds of things are important because we're getting people sooner," he said. "None of these are the answer, but all of them are contributing to making things better."

The county's District Attorney's Office and local law enforcement place a strong emphasis on preventing domestic violence, and, in the past few years, have issued increasing numbers of protection from abuse orders.

Through the third quarter of 2009, family court judges in Calhoun County granted 280 protection orders.

Protection orders are designed to prevent violent or threatening acts, harassment, contact or communication with a victim who claims to feel threatened by a member of their family or domestic partner. Through this process, a judge can order a person to stay clear of a victim's home, school or workplace.

Lorri Sawyer, a victim's services officer with the District Attorney's Office, said in the past, names of domestic homicide victims have oftentimes been familiar, because the victims had come to the courts for help. But in 2009, only two of the county's six criminal homicides stemmed from a domestic issue.

Supporters of protection orders say they're effective because they're proactive. The penalty for violation is an arrest and misdemeanor charge.

Kania said changing societal mores have some value in the process of stopping violent crime.

"Just as we've taught the current generation from an early age to reduce domestic violence, the next generation's issue will be substance abuse."

There's been a tendency to resort to extreme violence to deal with trivial issues when drugs or alcohol are involved, Kania said.

"There's a strong connection with illegal substances (and violence), and some connection — though not as strong — with abuse of alcohol," he said. "It's predominantly a youth phenomenon, but is also strongly associated with families who are not in the best of economic conditions and single-parent families at the margin of poverty."

Stopping the violence

Anniston police Lt. Stemen said he thinks programs such as the local Stop the Violence effort help deter young people from committing violent crimes. Kania said research has shown such programs are helpful.

Rev. Frederick Durant, co-founder of Anniston's Stop the Violence, said the organization was inspired by the community-wide effect of violent crime. He is the pastor of Sunlight Missionary Baptist Church in Eastaboga, and also a staff member for Anniston Funeral Services.

In March 2007, he decided to step in and do something after two young men were gunned down in west Anniston.

"I've done many funerals, but I was given the unfortunate opportunity to do the funeral for those two young men, who were killed at the same time," he said. "I've never seen young people devastated like at that funeral. After that, God gave me a vision to change the community."

The organization works to rebuild relationships between the community, law enforcement and churches.

"I know police officers do the best they can, but sometimes people get the wrong concept of the law. And a lot of people felt like because they didn't go to church, the church didn't care. We're trying to paint a picture to show the community that somebody does care."

The three issues Stop the Violence seeks to target are poverty, lack of education and drugs and alcohol abuse. He said those three create an environment that fosters violent crimes. Durant pointed out that the majority of 2009's homicides took place outside of the low-income, Stop the Violence-focused areas.

To battle those issues, the group feeds the area's homeless population and less fortunate in the community on Saturdays. He said volunteers distribute between 200 and 300 sack lunches each weekend.

They also hold "fun days" in low-income areas of town to familiarize residents with local law enforcement and create a safe atmosphere. The group also provides job training to help residents find employment, and takes part in getting people placed in drug- and alcohol-abuse-treatment programs.

Next on the list of goals is a mentoring program, Durant said.

"I believe (violence) is a learned behavior. If we start with younger people, we can curb it," he said.