Judge to rule on bond request

The 10th Circuit Solicitor’s office and other parties in the case are awaiting a judge’s ruling on a renewed bond request for an Oconee County murder defendant. Judge Mark Hayes took under advisement yesterday’s request to set bond for Joshua Randall Ferguson, charged with murder in 2013 of Charles Benson Cantrell. The body was found face down behind a home near the Singing Pines Road, south of Seneca. And the coroner said Cantrell, a 46-year old Salem resident, died due to gun shot. After a proceeding yesterday morning in the Oconee General Sessions Court, Ferguson was returned to jail. Assistant Solicitor Blair Stoudemire says Hayes’s bond decision could arrive as soon as today.