Three charged after armed robbery, shooting

HILLSBOROUGH -- Orange County sheriff's deputies have charged three young men in a shooting and a separate armed robbery on the same day last month.

Police in Carrboro and Chapel Hill are looking into whether the men also might be responsible for armed robberies in their towns over the past few months.

The Sheriff's Office arrested Carrboro residents Nicholas Nickerson, 24, and George Gattis, 17, and Lavarus Atwater, 16, of Chapel Hill last week. All three are accused of robbery with a dangerous weapon after cab driver David Foushee was lured March 23 to a home off N.C. 54 northwest of Carrboro and robbed of $130 cash at the point of a .38-caliber handgun.

That same night, deputies allege Atwater, Gattis and Nickerson drove by John Strong, 19, and shot him in the leg with a .38 as he rode a scooter along Old N.C. 86 south of Hillsborough. All three are charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.

The Sheriff's Office has forwarded the suspects' names and photographs to police in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, where there have been more than a dozen muggings since the beginning of this year in several apartment complexes. Nearly all the victims were Latino.

Carrboro Police Capt. Joel Booker said police are considering the robberies possible gang activity.

"It has all the signs," he said.

-- Jesse DeConto, 932-8760; jesse.deconto@nando.com

Woman pleads guilty to stealing charity money

HILLSBOROUGH -- The former bookkeeper for the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of misdemeanor larceny after facing charges of embezzling more than $13,000 from the agency.

Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Perez said that Pamela Futrell had been writing checks from the IFC accounts to pay her own bills.

"She felt that she hadn't done anything against policy because she was in need and that was the service they provided," said Perez.

Futrell later said she was sorry and that it was a stupid thing to do. She has agreed to pay $200 a month to reimburse the IFC'S insurance company. She must also pay $100 in restitution to cover the IFC's deductible and will be on supervised criminal probation for the next year.

She must also serve 30 hours of community service and pay a $200 community service fee.

-- Jesse DeConto, 932-8760; jesse.deconto@nando.com

Transplant recipient lives life to the fullest

CHAPEL HILL -- Joy Cook was in elementary school when her mother let it slip that she probably wouldn't live a long life.

"She kind of got this worried look in her eyes, like 'I've told her something she didn't know,'" Cook said Friday. "I totally just lied to her and said, 'I know, I understand.'"

Living with the idea of dying is something that children with cystic fibrosis get used to, said Cook, 23. The survivor of a double-lung transplant, she planned to participate in a campus walk Saturday to raise money to fight the disease.

Cystic fibrosis affects about 30,000 people in the United States. It produces thick, sticky mucus that clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections.

Two years ago, Cook became so sick she was put on the transplant list for new lungs.

She didn't want them.

"I'd dealt with these lungs enough, but they were my lungs," she said. "I didn't want to give them up."

If she was scared of dying, then or now, she doesn't let on.

"I'm a Christian," she said. "I know when I'm done here, I'm going to someplace that is so much better."

She recently sent a letter to the United Network for Organ Sharing. If the family of the person who donated her lungs wants to read it, they can let UNOS know.

"I guess I just want to say thank you," Cook said.

"And to let them know, even though their loved one didn't make it, I'm thoroughly enjoying my life and doing what I can to live it to the fullest."

-- Mark Schultz, 932-2003; mark.schultz@nando.com