ALBANY — Former title pawn employee convicted of loan fraud
A former employee of a title pawn store has been convicted of loan fraud.
WALB-TV reports jurors convicted Kevin Kareen Simmons of 12 of 15 counts last week after a trial in Dougherty County Superior Court.
Prosecutors say Simmons made fake loans and took money while working at a TitleMax store in Albany.
He was accused of taking $45,000 over six months in early 2013, but the theft wasn’t discovered until later. Simmons was indicted in 2017.
District Attorney Greg Edwards says Simmons would draw up fraudulent contracts to loan money with vehicles pledged as collateral, taking part of the money.
Simmons will be sentenced later. He faces up to 120 years in prison.
BRUNSWICK — County commissioner not guilty of insurance fraud
A county commissioner on trial for charges that he took money from clients of his insurance business was found not guilty Friday after the judge dropped two charges in the case, The Brunswick News reports.
For two days jurors began hearing arguments Wednesday on insurance fraud charges against Glynn County Commissioner Bob Coleman.
Coleman and his wife Sherry Coleman were indicted in January on charges of taking money but failing to procure coverage. The trial that began Wednesday, though, deals only with six additional charges brought in June against Bob Coleman.
On Friday morning, Superior Court Judge David Cavender dropped charges five and six due to a lack of evidence.
By Friday evening the jury, after only about an hour and a half of deliberations, found Coleman innocent of the remaining four counts.
Lawyers for Coleman on Wednesday suggested that two clients who went without insurance may have failed to read or react to correspondence.
Sherry Coleman is alleged to have handled the paperwork on some of the policies in question but refused to testify.
COLUMBUS — Woman gets life sentence in boyfriend’s slaying
A woman convicted of shooting her boyfriend to death then confessing to the crime at a mental health facility has been sentenced to life in prison.
The Ledger-Enquirer reports 45-year-old Yashicer Alexandra Pritchett was found guilty of felony murder on Monday for the 2018 attack on her boyfriend, 51-year-old Tommy Ellis Marshall Jr. Under her sentence, she’ll be eligible for parole.
Prosecutors say Pritchett and Marshall had a dispute over him talking to another woman. Crime scene evidence showed she shot him in the neck as he bent over to fix a TV.
Prosecutors added that Pritchett checked herself into a mental health center afterward and called 911 the next day, telling dispatchers Marshall was hurt and someone should check on him. Police found his body days later.
MACON — Judge declares mistrial after juror reads story on the case
A judge says juror misconduct has led to a mistrial in the case of a man accused of being involved in a house-stealing scheme.
The Macon Telegraph reports a female juror took a copy of The Telegraph into the jury room Tuesday and read coverage about the case.
Jurors were told by Judge Verda M. Colvin not to research the case or read news accounts of it.
Lemroyal James II is the man on trial. The 56-year-old was charged with racketeering, theft and other charges in an alleged ring of property thefts. James will be tried early next year.
The juror told Colvin she looked at the article because she wanted to understand some terminology that was brought up during the trial. The misconduct was reported by a bailiff.
— Compiled by ArLuther Lee / The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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