Newspaper Page Text
State school
superintendent
presents Whitlow
Elementary with
STEM
certification.
See story
Page 5A
Sports
No. 7 Lambert beats
West Forsyth to
continue historic start
to season.
Page IB
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS
Midweek Edition-October 19-20, 2022 FORSYTHNEWS.COM forsythcountynews Q @ForsythNews (§) @ForsythNews $1.00
Suspect indicted in South Forsyth double homicide
By Kelly Whitmire
kwhitmire@forsythnews.com
A suspect has been indicted on
more than 20 counts tied to a
double homicide in south Forsyth
County earlier this year.
In October, Juan Escalante -
Alarcon, 35, of Marietta, was
indicted by the Forsyth County
Superior Court on 22 counts,
including a total of six murder
counts tied to the shooting deaths
of Geovani Cruz Fidencio, 21,
and Ivan Cordero Acosta, 35, in
March. A juvenile was also shot
but survived the incident.
Escalante-Alarcon faces two
counts of malice murder, four
counts of felony murder, seven
counts of aggravated assault,
three counts of family violence
aggravated assault, two counts of
first-degree home invasion, two
counts of first-degree burglary,
one count of aggravated battery
and one count of
first-degree cru
elty to children.
The murder
charges include a
malice murder
and two felony
murder charges
for each victim,
and the felony
charges come
from the murders allegedly hap
pening during an aggravated
assault and “while in the commis
sion of the offense of home inva
sion.”
According to the indictment,
along with the murder victims,
assault victims in the incident
included the homeowner,
Escalante-Alarcon’s juvenile
child, the mother of the child and
four other children under 18,
including one who was shot in
the foot.
Three of the charges — one
count each of first-degree bur
glary, first-degree home invasion
and family violence aggravated
assault — came from an incident
on Feb. 11, when Escalante-
Alarcon allegedly entered the
same home without authority and
committed assault against his
child’s mother.
The crimes allegedly happened
at about 5 a.m. Thursday, March
See Indicted 13A
'Worked too long and
too hard to just stop'
Scott Rogers FCN Regional Staff
Forsyth County News General Manager Norman Baggs, center, attends a luncheon in his honor with
members of his family Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the Chattahoochee Country Club. From left to right
are family members Kasey Jackson, Brennice Baggs, Norman Baggs, Stephanie Baggs and Lawton
Baggs.
FCN s Baggs reflects on career as he steps away from daily operations
By Jeff Gill
FCN regional staff
With bylines older than many,
if not most, of his employees,
Norman Baggs is entering a new
phase of a lengthy career that’s
been devoted to making sure local
residents get the news they need.
On Friday, Oct. 14, Forsyth
County News’ general manager
stepped away from day-to-day
newspaper operations for the first
time in nearly a half-century of
work and moving to what he calls
a “reduced role,” working on cor
porate special projects and as an
adviser.
“I’ve worked too hard and too
long to just stop,” Baggs said dur
ing a break recently from cleaning
out his office, with newspapers
See Baggs|6A
Officials discuss
TSPLOST, road
improvements
on the horizon
By Ash lyn Yule
ayule@forsythnews.com
The theme was managing growth and infrastructure
improvements at the county’s latest Transportation
Summit on Thursday, Oct. 13.
The summit featured panelists such as Georgia
Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell
McMurry, Rep. Rick Jasperse, Forsyth County Board of
Commissioners Chairman Alfred John and Carter
Patterson with the Forsyth County Chamber of
Commerce. The event was held at Browns Bridge Church.
County Manager Kevin Tanner also spoke, sharing with
See TSPLOST14A
Photo courtesy Forsyth County government
Panelists discuss growth and infrastructure at
a Forsyth Transportation Summit on Thursday,
Oct. 13.
Forsyth commissioners deny 44-acre mixed-use development in Cumming
ByAshlyn Yule
ayule@forsythnews.com
Commissioners unanimously
voted at a work session on
Tuesday, Oct. 11 to deny a
request to allow the City of
Cumming to rezone approximate
ly 44 acres for the purposes of
building a mixed-use develop
ment.
The land in question is off
Veterans Memorial Boulevard in
Cumming and was purchased by
the county for economic develop
ment purposes.
The proposal was sent to com
missioners by the Forsyth County
Development Authority and
Inline Communities, and it
included a possible 20,000 square
feet of commercial space and a
total of 404 residential units; 275
multi-family units or apartments,
9 live-work townhomes, 24 rear-
loaded townhomes, 26 front-load
ed townhomes and 70 single
family detached lots.
The proposed density for the
project was 9.29 units per acre.
During board discussion,
District 3 Commissioner Todd
Levent said he had an “interesting
opinion on this,” stating that it
would be hypocritical of the
board to allow the proposal to
move forward.
“If we sit here and want to
judge the city of Cumming when
they do a project like this, and
they annex something in ... to do
the same thing we yell at them
for,” he said. “The hypocrisy of it,
I can’t live with it.”
Levent also wanted to reassess
this item, stating that he was con
cerned about the density of the
project and wanted to hold onto
the property for a more commer
cial use in the future.
District 4 Commissioner Cindy
Jones Mills asked County
Attorney Ken Jarrard if the com
missioners had been clear to the
DA about their intentions with
the property.
She said she didn’t want to “act
like they’ve done something bad
if we didn’t ... tell them that
direction,” but she wanted to clar
ify that the intention for the prop
erty was centered around com
mercial development, not resi
dential.
See Commission 13A
MV
57/31
Forecast! 2A
Cumming City
Center hosting
pop-up market
to celebrate fall
2A
Forsyth County News app
available for download
Find the app at
forsythnews.com/apps
for local news at your
fingertips.
90994
0400
Volume 113, Number 80
© 2022, Forsyth County News
Cumming, Georgia
BEST OF FORSYTH
NDEiiljl
CHEVROLET
FIND NEW ROADS
Established 1948
www.AndeanChevy.com
LIFETIME POWERTRAIN WARRANTY AND
LIFETIME OIL CHANGES AT NO COST TO YOU!!
WWW.ANDEANCHEVY.COM