A businessman accused of stealing about $24 million from trusts set up to maintain cemeteries he controlled in Michigan and Indiana has been sentenced to four years on work release and four years of home detention.

Robert Nelms of Greenwood pleaded guilty to theft and securities fraud in August after being accused of draining more than $20 million from perpetual-care trust accounts of Indianapolis-based Memory Gardens Management Corp. He was sentenced Friday.

A plea agreement calls for Nelms to replenish the trusts of Memory Gardens properties in Indiana – including Covington Memorial Gardens in Fort Wayne – Michigan, Ohio and Iowa.

In a separate case, Nelms pleaded guilty in September to embezzling about $4.2 million from a Grand Rapids, Mich., cemetery. He likely will serve a Michigan sentence of up to 10 years in prison first.

Indiana

Sled park reopens with new fences

A northern Indiana park’s sledding hill has reopened with new fences aimed at preventing accidents such as the one that killed a man last week.

St. Joseph County officials say the safety fences at Bendix Woods County Park near New Carlisle are meant to stop sledders from racing through areas obstructed by trees.

Park officials closed the hill Sunday, two days after 47-year-old Leo Roberts of Mishawaka was killed when his sled hit a tree during an outing with his daughters.

Officials banned sledding at the hill in 1999 because of a lawsuit but reopened it in 2008. No other serious accidents had since been reported there.

Truck overturns, spills debris on I-70

Police say a tractor-trailer rig hauling FedEx packages went out of control Friday and overturned on Interstate 70 in western Indiana.

State police Sgt. Joe Watts says package and crash debris scattered on the highway forced closing of the westbound lanes near Terre Haute for more than five hours.

The driver lost control in the eastbound lanes about 4:15 p.m. and traveled across the median into the westbound lanes, taking out about 100 feet of guardrail, Watts said. The driver was not hurt.

Indiana State Fair to go hog wild

This year’s Indiana State Fair will celebrate the state’s $3 billion hog industry by putting hogs and pork products center stage.

A series of events, exhibits and displays will toast Indiana’s 3,000 hog farming families during the fair’s “Year of Pigs” tribute.

Indiana Pork Producers executive director Mike Platt says the fair, which runs Aug. 6 through Aug. 22, will highlight the large role the hog industry plays in the state’s economy. Last year, Indiana hog farmers raised about 8 million pigs.