Elkhart County

Indiana State Police have announced they are investigating a death at the State Prison in Michigan City. The man who died was from Goshen, 30-year-old Daniel Heflin. Heflin pleaded guilty to murder in Elkhart county nearly a decade ago. 

GOSHEN, Ind. (AP) — A teenager who was 13 when accused of killing another youth in northern Indiana was sentenced Thursday to 63 years in prison. Alphonso James III, now 16, was convicted of murder in the death of 18-year-old Jaren Minies in Elkhart last September. Minies was shot multiple times during a dispute over a gun, money and a video game system. Elkhart Circuit Judge Michael Christofeno found James guilty in a bench trial last year. Christofeno sentenced James on Thursday to the 55-year advisory prison term for murder plus eight years for aggravating circumstances.

ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — A teenager who was 13 years old when accused of killing an 18-year-old in northern Indiana has been convicted of murder. Elkhart County Judge Michael Christofeno delivered the verdict Wednesday, about three months after holding a bench trial. Alphonso James is now 16. He was 13 years old in 2018 when he was accused of repeatedly shooting Jaren Minies in a dispute over a gun, money and a video game system. The prosecutor chose to charge James as an adult. James testified in September, telling the judge that it was a case of self-defense.

The Elkhart Common Council voted Monday night on a city ordinance to support Elkhart County’s COVID-19 safety measures.

The ordinance, which passed to a second reading, would allow Mayor Rod Roberson to enforce the county’s fine structure for Elkhart businesses that violate COVID-19 safety protocols.

Roberson originally asked the council to fast-track the city ordinance so it could immediately support the county ordinance, which goes into effect on Dec. 17.

“We cannot wait any longer to assist and support our healthcare system. People are dying,” he said.

The Elkhart County Health Department has released graphing data with COVID-19 information. It shows the spike that has occurred in cases and deaths in the month of November. 

Today, the Indiana State Department of Health updated the color coding on its map tracking COVID-19 cases in all 92 Hoosier counties. Based on information released at noon, 17 counties are now in the most serious "red" designation, which is four fewer than last week.

In the WVPE listening area, both Elkhart and LaGrange counties remain in the red. Elkhart County moved to the red designation on Nov. 18, and LaGrange County entered the red on Nov. 11.

Goshen Health is reporting that it is seeing a record high number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This comes less than a week after the Indiana State Dept. of Health designated Elkhart County as "red" on the state's county-by-county COVID-19 map. The designation is the most serious category a county can be in.

Elkhart County has reopened its COVID-19 Call Center one day after being designated in the "red" by the Indiana State Dept.of Health. 

The county is also opening up an online concern form that people with complaints can fill out about COVID-19 precautions at businesses, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, events and gatherings.

You can find that form here. 

Today at 12:01am new public heatlh orders kicked in that were issued by the Elkhart County Health Dept. 

Many of the action items in the order appear to mimic language already put in place by the state for counties designated as red.

A face mask mandate is outlined with information that includes an incremental enforcement structure that starts with a written warning and could escalate up to having  the health department issue an order to close a business or issue a penalty of up to $2,500. Within the face mask mandate is a page worth of exceptions as to when a mask is not required.

A mitigation directive addressing the size of gatherings was also issued that contains a similar enforcement structure.

Today the Indiana State Dept. of Health updated its color coding on its map tracking COVID-19 cases in all 92 Hoosier counties. Based on information released at noon, 21 counties are now in red, which is the most serious designation level the state assigns. Previously, nine counties had been in red. 

In the WVPE listening area, Elkhart County is now designated red. LaGrange County continues with a red designation as well. LaGrange County was put in the red as of Nov. 11. 

Late Friday afternoon, the Elkhart Co. Health Dept. issued a letter to warn county residents that more restrictive health orders are coming in an attempt to try and bring down surging COVID-19 numbers. The letter was signed with the support of 56 health, government, business and school officials in the county. 

Today Elkhart County announced that the surge in COVID-19 is prompting county council and commission meetings to move online until further notice. 

ELKHART, Ind. (AP) — A Michigan woman has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to neglect charges in the drug-related Indiana death of her boyfriend’s 10-year-old daughter. An Elkhart County judge sentenced 31-year-old Erica Reschke to 16 years, with three years suspended, on a charge of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. The Elkhart Truth reports the Cassopolis, Michigan, woman also received a two-year sentence on a neglect of a dependent charge, with the two sentences to be served concurrently.

NEW: Just hours after the Elkhart County Health Officer came out with benchmarks to get the county's COVID-19 outbreak under control, the county sees a new all-time high in daily cases. On Nov. 5th Elkhart County reported 263 new cases, the most ever since the start of the pandemic. 

Indiana's updated COVID-19 dashboard shows every county in the WVPE listening area but one now in orange which means medium to high community spread of the virus is going on. Marshall County is the only county in our area that is still in the yellow category.

The new data released today reflects data from yesterday, Election Day 2020. On that day the state reported a new record high in cases - 3,756 cases and 25 new deaths.   Hospitalizations statewide are at an all-time high, with 1,897 patients being treated. 

Unofficial election results have been posted by Elkhart County.

Bristol, parts of Elkhart and Wakarusa are seeing some of the highest spikes in COVID-19 cases in Elkhart County in the last week. The data released covers a period from Mon., Oct. 19-Mon., Oct. 26, 2020. 

At least four zip codes in the county saw COVID-19 cases spike by more than 20% in the last week.