Authorities throughout the Augusta region used Halloween to break up a multi-county drug trafficking organization, searching 10 locations, arresting 11 people and seizing over $135,000 cash as well as guns, drugs and vehicles.

Four of those arrests came in Richmond County, including:
Marvin Lee Hamilton (top left), Lamar Devon Coleman (top right), Demetrius Myers (bottom left) and Ricky Calvin Jones.

The agencies working together included the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, and the sheriff’s offices in Richmond, Columbia, Burke and Taliferro counties.
According to authorities, search warrants were executed at these locations:

1. 2049 Old Waynesboro Road, Burke County, GA

2. 199 Tyrone Brooks Street, Keysville GA

3. 471 Martin Luther King Blvd, Keysville GA

4. 2707 Fair Oak Court, Augusta GA

5. 169 Dove Drive, Keysville GA

6. 2112 Reserve Lane, Augusta GA

7. 2015 Reserve Lane, Augusta GA

8. 584 Beretta Drive, Grovetown GA

9. 2614 Spirit Creek Road, Hephzibah GA

10. L and G Lounge, Keysville GA

ARRESTED

Those arrested included:

1. Marvin Leon Hamilton, B/M, arrested at his residence, 2015 Reserve Lane, Augusta GA charged with Possession of Marijuana  and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon.

2.  Ricky Calvin Jones, B/M, arrested at his residence, 2015 Reserve Lane, Augusta, GA charged with Possession of Marijuana and Possession of a Firearm by a First Offender Probationer.

3. Lamar Devon Coleman, B/M, arrested at 2015 Reserve Lane, Augusta GA  charged with Possession of Marijuana, Possession of a firearm by a Convicted Felon.

4. Demetrius Dewayne Myers, B/M, arrested at his residence, 2112 Reserve Lane, Augusta GA and charged with Possession of Marijuana with intent to distribute, Possession of a Firearm by a convicted felon, and Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a Crime.

5. Tyree Berria, B/M, arrested at 169 Dove Drive, Keysville GA, and charged with Manufacturing Marijuana, Possession of Marijuana with intent to distribute, and Possession of Cocaine with Intent to distribute,

6. Ronald Eugene Jordan, B/M,  arrested at 471 Martin Luther King Drive, Keysville GA, and charged with Possession of Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

7. Danny Wright, B/M,  arrested at 199 Tyrone Brooks Drive, Keysville GA and charged with Possession of Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

8. Ricardo Smith, B/M,  arrested at 199 Tyrone Brooks Drive, Keysville GA and charged with Possession of Cocaine, Possession of Marijuana, Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

9. Keith Lamont Harden, B/M,  arrested at 471 Martin Luther King Drive, Keysville GA and charged with Possession of Cocaine with intent to distribute, Possession of Marijuana with intent to distribute, Possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and Theft by Receiving stolen firearm.

10. Gregory Lee Ivey JR, B/M,  arrested at 199 Tyrone Brooks Drive, Keysville GA and charged with Possession of Methamphetamine.

11. Winston James O’Connell  B/M, arrested on Interstate 20 in Taliaferro County, and charged with Trafficking Cocaine.

ITEMS SEIZED:

The following items were seized :

1. 10 firearms (7 handguns and 3 assault rifles)

2. Over Two Kilograms of Cocaine

3. Crystal Methamphetamine

4. Marijuana

5. Jewelry

6. 11 vehicles (2 Cadillac Sedans, BMW SUV, BMW 745I, 2 Dodge Chargers, Ford Expedition, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Chevrolet Suburban, and a Range Rover)

7. $135,857.00 in US Currency.

A student at Augusta Technical College was caught with a semi-automatic rifle on campus this week.

Adam Reeves, 21, remains in jail today on a felony charge of having a weapon on school property.

Reeves was caught with the rifle and a 30-round magazine in his Ford Mustang on Monday night while taking a class break, authorities said.

“He said he had gone to the firing range a few days before and had forgot it was there,” ATC Officer Jerri Jennings-Joly told The Jail Report.

A warrant describes the weapon as a black DPMS AR-15. The AR-15 was found on the back seat of a blue Ford Mustang and the magazine was in the passenger seat.

Reeves was reportedly smoking with a classmate inside a car parked in the front of the college’s 700 building. Someone called the sheriff’s office about a suspicious vehicle and an instructor called campus police when they saw deputies confronting the students, Officer Jennings-Joly told The Jail Report.

“We usually don’t have such problems from here,” Officer Jennings-Joly said.

The rifle was confiscated and turned over to the sheriff’s office for evidence.

Reeves remains in jail without bond. The student has been suspended facing a meeting with the vice president of student affairs.

An anonymous reader contacted The Jail Report to complain that ATC faculty were not properly notified of the incident. Campus spokeswoman Bonita Jenkins said there was no reason to notify the entire campus or faculty.

“No one was put under a threat,” she said. “But our top priority is safety.”

GRU basketball player Devon Wright-Nelson was arrested at a weekend fraternity party on Broad Street in Augusta.

Wright-Nelson, 21, is accused of continuing to fight an individual after being told by a deputy to stop multiple times, according to a “disorderly conduct” citation obtained by The Jail Report.

A second individual, 25-year-old Andrew Jenkins II of Martinez, was also arrested at 1 a.m. Sunday in the fight. Jenkins continued to disrupt a deputy while the officer was trying to break up a “large fight” at 710 Broad Street, a citation says.

Wright-Nelson was named 2012 Peach Belt Conference Freshman of the Year.

GRU Augusta Head Men’s Basketball Coach Dip Metress announced Wednesday afternoon the suspension of junior forward Devon Wright-Nelson for the first three games of the 2013-14 regular season.

Metress indicated the suspension was for Wright-Nelson’s failure to adhere to the standards of the program. Wright-Nelson will miss this weekend’s season-opening tournament as well as the Jags’ first road game of the year.

“We have certain expectations within our program that everyone associated with our program has to meet on a daily basis,” Metress said.

Robin Herndon, the probation and parole agent from North Augusta, has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the death of live-in boyfriend Christopher Rowley on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

A sheriff’s report says deputies arrived Wednesday afternoon and found Herndon standing on the porch and Rowley sitting in a chair. Blood was on both of them and all over the porch.

Herndon was “attempting to administer CPR to victim by pressing on his chest and giving rescue breaths,” a sheriff’s report says.
The responding deputy advised Herndon to get off of the porch and away from the victim. EMS then took over. A police lieutenant secured the gun in his vehicle.

Authorities say the 31-year-old victim was shot in the neck during a domestic argument inside the home at 721 Sudlow Lake Road, North Augusta.

Rowley, well known to friends as “Crispy,” was pronounced dead shortly after arrival at Georgia Regents University Shock Trauma at 3:07 pm Wednesday.

Herndon was taken to ACSO headquarters and later charged. According to S.C. Code §16-3-50, voluntary manslaughter involves the “act of killing with malice aforethought and/or under the circumstances of provocation.”

911 calls are expected to be released later Thursday.

A sex offender from Augusta was arrested early Saturday after a car chase, a foot chase and after he punched and hit two Richmond County sheriff’s deputies.

Blair Keith Woods, 49, was charged with attempting to elude law enforcement, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, theft by deception, driving with as suspended license and running a red light, a Richmond County Sheriff’s report said.

Woods caught the attention of a deputy late Friday night when he ran a red light as he turned onto Gordon Highway off Tubman Home Road. The officer pulled him over on Gordon Highway and as the deputy got out of his car and walked over, Woods took off, driving behind the Southgate shopping center and then peeling off onto Willis Road, where he was driving 95 mph on a 25 mph stretch!

Another deputy joined the chase and Woods turned onto Cherry Road. That’s where the car chase ended when Woods lost control of his Infiniti, hitting a fence in front of a house on the 1900 block of Cherry Road. The car then hit a driveway and struck a power pole, the report said.

Woods managed to climb out of the driver’s seat and started running, jumping two fences, before the deputies managed to wrestle him to the ground. Woods still wasn’t going to make it easy, hitting both deputies a number of times, the report said.

Woods, of the 3500 block of Monte Carlo Drive, Augusta, is a registered sex offender, convicted in 2005 of aggravated assault with intent to rape. He was given a 4-year sentence with credit for time served. Woods was free in 2010 when he was arrested for failure to register as a sex offender, which earned him two more years in prison. In April 2013, he was charged with driving on a suspended license.

The man shot dead Monday night on Andorra Drive has been identified as 18-year-old Delarrion T. Smith of Augusta (pictured)

Deputy Coroner Kenneth Boose said the victim was shot one time and pronounced dead at GRU Hospital’s emergency room at 7:21 p.m.

Sheriff’s investigators have not released any information regarding a possible suspect or motive.

Richmond County authorities have arrested a 19-year-old man in Monday’s shooting death of a younger teenager in Hephzibah.

Dominique Shaquille Sullivan, 19, was charged early Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Delarrion T. Smith. The suspect is also facing charges of weapon possession and pointing a weapon at another person.

The victim was shot one time Monday night at 2560 Andorra Drive in Hephzibah. He was pronounced dead at GRU Hospital’s emergency room at 7:21 p.m.

Sheriff’s Lt. Calvin Chew said he expects to release more details on the circumstances of the death later today.

In Georgia, a charge of “involuntary manslaughter” is defined as the unintentional killing of another person. Legal experts say the killing must result from illegal or reckless conduct by the perpetrator.

The maximum penalty for involuntary manslaughter is 10 years in prison. Involuntary manslaughter may also be a misdemeanor, punishable by less than one year in prison, under certain circumstances.

Sullivan is being held without bond.

A Columbia County woman has been charged with falsely accusing a man of a sex crime — not once, but twice!

In fact, 32-year-old Mindy Readdy of Appling is charged with accusing two different men of sexually assaulting her, including her own boyfriend, who spent two weeks in jail because of her claims.

Readdy went to the sheriff’s office at 2 a.m. on Halloween and said her boyfriend put a knife to her throat and raped her in their bedroom. She told them that her boyfriend said he would get away with the rape “because he was her boyfriend,” a report says.

Her allegations led to the Oct. 31 arrest of boyfriend Cody Carson for aggravated assault, and he remained in jail for two weeks. He was cleared and released on Wednesday.

In the other case, Readdy told deputies in April that her friend physically forced her to give him oral sex while the two were at her home watching a movie. No arrest was made in that case.

Sheriff’s Capt. Steve Morris said both sex acts were consensual and Readdy has confessed to lying about them.

She was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of false report of a crime and one count of making a false statement. She remains in jail at this hour under a $11,700 bond.

Authorities say the gun responsible for a horseplay killing in Hephzibah on Monday was stolen four days before the shooting.

The gun that Dominique Sullivan shot his friend with was stolen from a vehicle in Columbia County, according to sheriff’s Capt. Steve Morris. The Colt .45 revolver. valued at $950, was taken last Thursday night from an unlocked Dodge parked on Fairfax Street in Martinez.

“Several vehicles were entered on that same night. These cases remain unsolved so if anyone has information please call us,” Capt. Morris said.

Sullivan, 19, of Hephzibah (left), has been charged in the death of 18-year-old Delarrio Smith (right).

Authorities say that Smith had come to 2560 Andorra Drive to give his friend a ride. Once Sullivan got into the vehicle with Smith, Sullivan began horse playing with Smith.

“During the horse play, Delarrion Smith pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Dominique Sullivan in a playful manner,” RCSO Lt. Calvin Chew said in a press release. “Dominique Sullivan grabbed the gun and removed the magazine then pointed the gun at Delarrion Smith and pulled the trigger believing the handgun was unloaded.”

The gun was loaded and it fired at Smith and led to his death.  Sullivan has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and two weapons charges.

If you have any information on the thefts from Columbia County, please call CCSO at 706-541-2800.

Drug officers busted a Salley couple in the middle of a fresh batch of meth on Wednesday night.

Ray Loudermilk, 36, and Debra Conder, 44, brought attention to their meth-making operation when they made several purchases of Ephedrine, an ingredient found in meth, ACSO Capt. Eric Abdullah said in a press release.

When Aiken County investigators went to speak to them Wednesday night at their home on Poplar Street, they ound the couple in the act of “manufacturing meth,” which turns out to be the felony charge filed against them.

Investigators say the arrests wrap up six months of work against the couple. Salley Police Department officers also helped.

The meth-making suspects are in Aiken County Jail.

A Grovetown teen has been charged as an adult with nine sex crimes against two underage girls, including allegations he forced one to provide him oral sex at his home, according to a Columbia County indictment.

Leo Tanguay turned 17 on Monday and was immediately moved from a juvenile facility to the Columbia County Detention Center to await trial on nine charges related to sex crimes at his home over the summer when he was 16.

According to the indictment obtained by The Jail Report, one of the victims was as young as 13 when the sexual activity occurred.

Among the accusations:
* Tanguay had sex with the girls multiple times.
* Tanguay forced one of the girls to perform oral sex on him.
* Tanguay had explicit pictures of one of the girls posing naked while showing her genitalia.

Grovetown officials say Tanguay’s home was known to be a hangout location for several juveniles who would come and play Xbox or other activities there. A search warrant obtained by law enforcement led to the discovery of several explicit photos on Tanguay’s cell phone.

An investigation into the sex crimes led authorities to interview at least nine juveniles, according to authorities.

Tanguay is being held without bond on charges of aggravated sodomy by force, aggravated child molestation, four counts of child molestation and three counts of exploitation of a minor.

Aiken attorney James Nance II was arrested Tuesday night for criminal domestic violence.

The 65-year-old attorney is accused of being the primary aggressor in a fight with 48-year-old wife Kawanna Nance at their home on Dupree Place in Aiken, according to an Public Safety report.

Officers responded to the home at 9:50 p.m. Tuesday and found the victim with red marks on her neck. She told police that her husband had assaulted her following an argument. The fight had to do with an email exchange between the wife and Mr. Nance’s daughter, the report said.

In the police report, officers noted the appearance of defensive wounds on Mr. Nance’s neck, which are visible in his mugshot.
Mr. Nance was determined to be the primary aggressor and charged with criminal domestic violence. He was booked into the Aiken County Detention Center and remained there Wednesday morning.

In a September article in The Aiken Standard about the closing of the West Side Bowery, Mrs. Nance told a reporter she has been married to the attorney for 13 years. The couple met while she was working at the restaurant to pay for college, the article said.
Mr. Nance is a partner with Nance, McCants & Massey. He specializes in civil litigation, insurance defense, medical malpractice, wills & estates and mediation, according to a company website.

No good deed goes unpunished.

An Augusta man was arrested Tuesday in Augusta for molesting his friend’s 10-year-old girl while sleeping off a drunken stupor at the friend’s home in October.

Terry Butts, 32, of Pepperidge Drive, Augusta, is accused of non-aggravated child molestation on Oct. 29.

The victim’s mother said she had allowed Butts to sleep on her couch because she didn’t want him to drive home intoxicated, according to a sheriff’s report. He is a friend of the family.

But the victim’s mother woke up to the cries of her daughter, who was throwing up. The 10-year-old girl told her mother that she woke up as Butts began kissing her arm, touching her buttocks and rubbing her genitals over her clothes, a report says.

“The victim advised the suspect to stop, but he told her to shush her mouth,” a sheriff’s report says. “She turned the lights on and ran out of her bedroom because she wanted to throw up.”

Butts then ran from the home. He was finally arrested Tuesday and charged with molestation. He remains in jail this morning under no bond.

Columbia County authorities charged a 10-year-old boy’s mother and stepfather Wednesday night with child cruelty after the Grovetown boy showed up at school with bloody bruises over his body.

Wilford Petersen, 57 (left), and Shavoya Davis, 25, of 5429 Wrightsboro Road, Grovetown, were arrested after the discovery of bruising and scars on the pupil when he arrived at Euchee Creek Elementary School, authorities said. The bruises were so bad, the boy was taken to a local emergency room for treatment.

The boy told a teacher that Petersen beat him with an electrical cord for not bringing his homework home, a report says.

A nurse found the victim with cuts to his arms, legs, back and buttocks. Some of the lacerations were healing over and others appeared to have been made recently, a report says.

Authorities say Petersen actually beat the child, using the electrical cord from a lamp. The boy’s mother watched. The couple are married, sheriff’s Capt. Steve Morris said.

The boy was taken from the parents and turned over to the Department of Family and Children Services, Capt. Morris said.
Petersen was found with marijuana in the house and faces a drug charge as well as child cruelty.

Both remained in the Columbia County Jail Thursday morning.

The mother of murder suspect Glenn Riggs II claims her son has mental health issues that should keep him from getting the death penalty if he’s convicted of killing Barnwell physician Charles Mann III in Augusta last month.

In a telephone interview today with The Jail Report, Waralene Currie-Riggs defended her son, apologized to the victim’s family and provided a violent picture of her 22-year-old son.

(NOTE: Mrs. Riggs also granted an on-camera interview with WRDW-TV, and that story will air at 6 p.m. tonight. WRDW provided us this still video image of Mrs. Riggs.)

Here are the highlights of Mrs. Rigg’s interview with The Jail Report:

* She blamed Dr. Mann for his role in the encounter since he was allegedly coming to meet Glenn for a sexual encounter: “That doctor’s dirty drawers ain’t clean. His drawers are not clean just like Glenn’s drawers are not clean.” She also wonders why Dr. Mann came to such a bad neighborhood.

* She claims her son is not gay but said she would accept him if he were.

* She maintains her son has mental health issues that should keep a jury from considering the death penalty against him.

* She apologized to Dr. Mann’s family: “I lift him and his family up to God. I guess they must think I am a monster, but I’m not!”

* She acknowledged kicking Glenn out of her home after he attacked her multiple times. “He spit on me. That’s one of the worst things you can do to a parent.”

Riggs, 22, is accused of choking Dr. Mann to death at his Dublin Drive home Nov. 22 after luring the physician there from Barnwell to rob him. Warrants also allege that Riggs beat Dr. Mann in the head with a 25-pound weight. The victim’s body was later found in Spirit Creek. WGAC’s Austin Rhodes has reported the doctor was in Augusta willingly and may have been involved in online homosexual relationships here.

In her interview, Mrs. Riggs said she can’t believe her son would kill the doctor since he saw the pain Mrs. Riggs went through dealing with the violent murder of her own mother in Aiken County in 1982. Her mother, Annie Pearl Currie, was shot five times in a doctor’s office and died. She was 30.

“Glenn saw what I went through with my mom. It sticks with you,” she said. “How can you go and take someone’s life? You can’t get that monkey off your back. … There was no need for all of this – a careless, stupid murder. The cancellation of somebody’s life.”

Riggs remains in the Richmond County Jail without bond on charges of murder and robbery by force.

A 2-year-old girl and her 4-year-old sister were found wandering an Augusta street Thursday morning in only T-shirts and underwear and their grandmother later confessed that she forgot about them when she left for a doctor’s appointment.

The girls are safe, but 53-year-old Brenda Morgan has been arrested on two counts of deprivation of a minor, according to a sheriff’s report.

A woman driving on Meadowbrook Drive just before 12 noon Thursday saw the girls in the road and stopped to help them and call 911. A deputy arrived and asked the older child where lived. The girl pointed to 2608 Meadowbrook Drive and said “Nana’s house.”

The deputy tracked down relatives of the girls, who called Morgan and the children’s mother. When Morgan arrived at the home, she was “very upset and crying hysterically,” a report says.

She said her daughter dropped the children off Wednesday afternoon and she was going to watch them until Saturday while the mother worked, a regular routine. Morgan told the officer that the children usually sleep with her in the living room, but they slept in a back bedroom on Wednesday night.

Morgan said she got up on Thursday morning and left for a doctor’s appointment “forgetting that the children were in the back bedroom,” a report says.

Deputies notified DFCS officials and the children were turned over to their mother. Morgan was transported to the Richmond County Detention Center, and she has since been released on bond.

An 8-year-old Augusta boy remains in critical condition after being hit by a van at a bus stop Monday morning, and authorities have jailed the driver who struck him.

Scott William Hancock, 20, is being held at the Richmond County Jail on no bond pending charges in the accident.

Hancock is accused of failing to stop for a bus at 7:11 a.m. Monday and striking the 8-year-old boy on the 3800 Block of Belair Road.

School Bus #72 was stopped facing East on the 3800 Block of Belair Road with all visual signals activated, sheriff’s Sgt. Michael McDaniel Sr. said in a press release.  The boy, a student from Sue Reynolds Elementary School, was walking south across the westbound lanes of Belair Road when Hancock’s 2007 Chrysler Town & Country Van “failed to stop for the school bus and the visual caution signs being displayed from the bus,” Sgt. McDaniel said.

The van struck the child, who was rushed to GRU ER and is listed in critical condition.

Hancock has been found at fault for failing to stop for a school bus while loading and unloading.  Further charges are pending at this time, the sergeant said.

A former security employee at Augusta National Golf Club remains in jail today on charges that he called the golf club last week and threatened to kill people and “burn the place to the ground.”

Stuart Hembree, 21, of the 2300 block of Williams Street, Augusta, was charged with terroristic threats & acts. He is a former security employee who worked during the April tournament and was contracted through Securitas Security Corporation.

An incident report from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office outlines the allegations:

Last Wednesday (Dec. 4), Hembree called the phone at Gate 6 and yelled at Augusta National Security Guard Thomas Hyer, telling Hyer that he had been locked up in a psychiatric facility, couldn’t get out and was going crazy. He identified himself as “Stewart.”

Hyer asked Hembree if he had the right number, but the caller began cursing and talking faster, saying that if they didn’t do something about his situation he was going to start a “shooting spree,” killing everyone starting with Hyer.

Moments later, Director of Security Jody Rowland took a second call from Hembree, who identified himself as Stuart Hembree and said he was in a “dark place,” a “hell hole,” and needed some help in the form of a “Master Card.”

Rowland told Hembree that he wouldn’t be able to help him in that way. He asked where Hembree was located. Hembree then responded in a much deeper voice, using profanity and saying he was “coming for” Rowland, to look for blue jeans and a yellow T-shirt, that he had a shotgun loaded, and was coming to kill him and everyone at Gate 6 and burn the place to the ground.

Hembree then hung up.

Rowland told sheriff’s investigators that Hembree called from Georgia Regional Hospital and dialed the main telephone number of the Augusta National Golf Club.

After an investigation, Hembree was located and arrested on Tuesday. He is being held without bond at the Richmond County Jail.

Aiken County authorities have confirmed the arrest of 23-year-old Michael Cornelius in the weekend death of Shawnta Smalls along Whiskey Road.

The New Ellenton man was arrested Saturday afternoon. Jail officials have confirmed today that he is the suspect in Smalls’ death and is charged with “hit & run – duties of driver involved with death.” Bond has been set at $100,000.

Smalls, 27, of Aiken, was walking near 4501 Whiskey Road in Aiken late Friday when she was struck.

Coroner Tim Carlton said Smalls was walking from a friend’s house toward her family’s home when she was hit.

Cornelius has been to the Aiken County Jail before, twice in 2011 for breach of trust charges. Upon his arrest Saturday, he was also served with an outstanding warrant for breach of trust.

The victim was well-respected among her peers at Walmart, where she worked.

“She was the most upbeat person I have ever worked with. Everyday she gave me hell for being grumpy in the early morning’s at Walmart,” friend David Guillebeau said on a Jail Report Facebook post. “She was such a joy to cut up with and work with. … May you rest in peace. … Our lives have forever been blessed to call you family!!”