Bank robbery suspect's bond set at $100,000

MIDDLETOWN - A Xenia man arrested hours after a bank robbery Monday appeared in Middletown Municipal Court on Tuesday.

Daniel Wayne Waggoner, 31, was being held in the city jail after his arraignment on a robbery charge.

Police accuse Waggoner of walking into a Fifth Third Bank branch inside the Kroger store on Towne Boulevard and passing a note that demanded money around 10:30 a.m. Monday.

Witnesses did not see a vehicle or a weapon; the amount of money taken was undisclosed.

His bond was set at $100,000. He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 25.

Autopsy is today for Lebanon inmate

HAMILTON - An autopsy is set for today in the death of a Lebanon Correctional Institution inmate.

Dane M. Brown, 44, was pronounced dead at Middletown Regional Hospital around 7 a.m. Tuesday.

The Butler County Coroner's Office said Brown appeared to have died from natural causes, but an autopsy was needed to be sure.

Around 5:30 a.m., Brown's cellmate called out for guards to come help, saying Brown was having problems, said Brian Niceswanger, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

Brown began serving a sentence of 10 years to life in 2002, state prison records show, after being convicted in Miami County on two counts each of rape and sexual battery.

Elder graduate killed at Mammoth Cave park

An Elder High School graduate was one of two people killed in a weekend wreck in Mammoth Cave National Park.

Jeff Beck of Columbus, an Elder alum, and Greg Ackley of Worthington, both 22, were killed in an accident that park rangers came upon about 11:30 p.m. Friday.

Rangers suspect the accident happened shortly before they found the wrecked vehicle, which had hit a tree south of Green River.

Beck, Ackley and a Cincinnati man, Michael Kathman, 22, were on their way to Houchins Ferry campground. Kathman was taken by medical helicopter to University of Louisville Hospital. He remained hospitalized there Tuesday in stable condition.

Rangers would not say which of the men was driving. The U.S. attorney's office in Louisville also is investigating.

Beck recently graduated from Ohio Northern University in Ada.

Woman charged with taking drugs to prison

TURTLECREEK TWP. - A Mansfield woman is accused of trying to take marijuana and cocaine into a state prison.

Alecia Tucker, 21, is charged with illegal conveyance of drugs onto the grounds of a correctional facility, a third-degree felony, and possession of cocaine, a fifth-degree felony.

Tucker appeared in Lebanon Municipal Court on Monday, a day after she was arrested at Lebanon Correctional Institution.

She was released from the Warren County Jail after posting $10,000 bond.

She is next set to appear in court on Monday.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Tucker had 7 grams of marijuana and a half-gram of cocaine concealed in balloons.