Police | One man of two charged in sexual assault

POLICE

CONWAY

One man of two charged in sexual assault

Conway police have arrested one man and are searching for a second man in connection with the sexual assault of a woman earlier this month, according to Sgt. Selena Small.

Kelsey Rhassan Phillips, 21, of Conway, was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct after he turned himself into police Thursday, Small said. Judge Jane Mackey set Phillips bond at $10,000.

Police are searching for Paul Anthony Mishoe, 21, of Conway and ask that anyone with information regarding his whereabouts call Conway police at 248-1790.

The charges stemmed from Dec. 1 when a woman reported to police that she was sexually assaulted by two men at 2313-B Williams St. in Conway, Small said.

HORRY COUNTY

Man charged with assaulting two children

A Little River man is jailed on charges he assaulted two children with kitchen utensils, according to an Horry County police report.

Joshua Daniel Skeen, 29, was charged with assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, first-degree assault and two counts of unlawful neglect of a child after Horry County police arrested him Wednesday, according to jail records.

Skeen is being held at J. Reuben Long on $200,000 bail.

The charges stemmed from Dec. 14 when a school official called a 28-year-old woman to report the children, a 7-year-old boy and 8-year-old girl, had told them that Skeen had spanked them with kitchen utensils, punched the girl in the mouth and held the boy’s head under water in a bathtub, according to the report.

The girl also told police that Skeen tried to put dish soap in her mouth when she told him she didn’t want to be spanked because she was sore, according to the report. Officers seized the kitchen utensils including one that had a serrated edge and a mixing spoon.

The woman told police Skeen was living at his mother’s in Little River.

MYRTLE BEACH

Woman reports wallet missing at store

A 36-year-old woman told Myrtle Beach police she believed her wallet was stolen while she was shopping at a local store, according to a police report.

The woman told officers she took a cab to World Market located at 1144 Seaboard St., about 6 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

The woman said she was in the store shopping with her purse in a cart when she noticed her wallet was missing from her purse, according to the report. The woman told officers she may have turned her back to her purse briefly while looking at merchandise in the store.

Employees of the store searched video surveillance of the woman shopping in several areas of the store, but did not find anything suspicious on the video, according to the report. The woman said she had more than $1,500 cash in the wallet in addition to her identification and debit cards.

Myrtle Beach

Pair plead guilty in mortgage fraud case

Alissa Smith – a real estate sales agent – and her husband, Jim Putnam, pled guilty Thursday in federal court in Florence to felony charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Smith’s charge involves a $265,000 payment her company – Casa Mia LLC – received from the sale of a condominium at 704 S. Ocean Blvd. in North Myrtle Beach. That payment was based on a fraudulent invoice, according to prosecutors.

Putnam’s charge involves a $36,500 payment his Celebrity Vacations LLC received from the sale of a condominium at 507 S. Ocean Blvd. in North Myrtle Beach. That payment was based on a fraudulent invoice, according to prosecutors.

Each conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Smith and Putnam are free on $25,000 unsecured bail while awaiting sentencing. The two also were ordered to surrender their passports to federal officials and cannot travel outside of South Carolina without prior authorization from pre-trial services.

Local

MYRTLE BEACH

Fewer airport passengers in November

The number of passengers flying in and out of the Myrtle Beach International Airport dropped in November, extending a slide in passenger numbers.

About 51,445 passengers flew out of the airport in November, down about 11 percent from the same month last year, according to airport statistics.

The number of passengers flying into the airport last month was down about 10 percent from November 2010, according to airport statistics.

A trend in airlines cutting back on flights and some of the local carriers cutting back certain routes or the frequency of some flights early this year has contributed to the decline in passengers, said airport spokeswoman Lauren Morris.

“Airlines were shifting down their capacity but planes themselves are full,” she said. Some airlines, such as Spirit Airlines, shifted some resources away from the Myrtle Beach area as it expanded its service area, Morris said.

So far this year the airport has seen about 1.5 percent increase in passengers from last year’s record breaking year. While the airport had aimed to hit a million passengers this year, it won’t happen, Morris said, adding that it will continue to be the benchmark in the future.

From staff reports