An Aiken woman has been arrested for making up a rape accusaton to cover up an indiscretion, authorities say.

Skylare Gramblin, 26, of Florence Street NW., Aiken, was charged Friday with filing a false report of a felony.

Aiken police responded to the Circle K on Hampton Avenue last Wednesday about a “disturbance.” They met with Gramblin, who claimed she had been abducted, robbed and forcibly raped earlier that night by an 18-year-old man.

Investigators took Gramblin’s claim seriously, took her to the Aiken Regional Medical Centers for a rape kit, and even logged the woman’s brown shorts and two shirts as possible evidence in the case.

Just a day later, investigators talked to the woman again, and she confessed to making up the story, according to an Aiken Public Safety report. The teen who she accused was never arrested.

“Gramblin had filed a false police report to cover up another indiscretion,” the report says. “She admitted to the false report.”

Gramblin remained in the Aiken County Jail on Wednesday afternoon. She has been arrested before, twice in 2008 for shoplifting and credit card theft.

For more crime news, pick up this week’s edition of The Jail Report, which includes an exclusive story on an Augusta mother who was caught living in a tiny, moldy, roach-infested shack with her seven children.

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A North Augusta man was charged Thursday in connection with this week’s shooting death of an Augusta man inside his home.

Kendall Palmer, 21, of Todd Avenue, North Augusta (pictured above), has been charged with one count of murder and one count of firearm possession in the slaying on Rosier Road that killed 35-year-old Sean Middlebrooks (pictured at right).

Middlebrooks became the 16th Richmond County homicide for the year when he was found shot to death around midnight Wednesday in his home. Investigators reportedly identified several people who were inside the home at the time of the shooting but no one would talk.

Investigators were finally able to charge Palmer in the case Thursday. An arrest warrant states that Palmer was “present went the victim was shot in the head.”

It’s unclear whether more arrests are expected, and a motive is not clear.

For more crime news, pick up this week’s issue of The Jail Report.

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 Well, that’s embarassing.

A Warrenville burglary suspect was being wrestled to the ground by a sheriff’s deputy last Tuesday when he confessed something to the officer:

“I s**t myself,” Phillip Boyd Jr. said as the deputy had his arms and legs wrapped around the young suspect.

Deputy Allen Wooten had noticed Boyd on Baker Street last Tuesday night and knew he was wanted for a June burglary on Piney Heights Road, according to a sheriff’s report.

The officer pulled his weapon and ordered Boyd to the ground. Boyd was handcuffed but then started to flee, so the deputy ran after him and tackled him.

That’s when Boyd apparently had his unfortunate accident.

Luckily for Deputy Wooten, a sergeant arrived and took custody of the burglary suspect.

A mugshot shows a cut above Boyd’s right eye, a possible result of his struggle with the officer.

For more crime news, pick up this week’s edition of The Jail Report. 

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The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office is in need of the public’s help in identifying the subject pictured here.

He is wanted in reference to Shoplifting from Cabela’s located at 833 Cabela Dr. Augusta, Ga. The subject is seen leaving the store with a pair of Lacrosse 16” Aerohead Sport Snake Boots size 9.

Any information concerning the identity of this subject, please contact Deputy James Price, or any Crimes Investigator at the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office (706) 821-1020 or 821-1080.

For more crime news, pick up this week’s edition of The Jail Report.

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This guy’s been passing funny money all over the CSRA, with reports of counterfeit money in Richmond, Columbia and Aiken counties.

Examples:

• COLUMBIA COUNTY: On June 10, he passed a $100 bill at the Circle K at 190 Baston Road and three $50 bills at the Woodbridge Circle K on June 15. He was driving the same silver or champagne colored late 90’s or early 2000 model Honda Accord in both cases.  In one case, he wore a camouflage Georgia “G” baseball cap and in another he wore a dark-colored Atlanta “Braves” hat.
• AIKEN COUNTY: Counterfeit $100 bills with the same serial number as the other cases were used June 14 at the New Moon Cafe o Laurens Street in Aiken.
• RICHMOND COUNTY: A counterfeit $100 bill with the same serial number was used June 21 at the Fresh Market on Washington Road in Augusta. And a  counterfeit $50 bill with the same serial number as the other cases was used June 21 at the Walgreens on Tobacco Road in Hephzibah and at Walgreens on Wrightsboro Road in Augusta. Two were also passed June 28 at Dicks Sporting Goods at Augusta Mall.

Richmond County has reportedly been getting hit hard with the same guy but their surveillance images are poor quality. These photos are all from the Columbia County cases.

If you recognize him or have information on the case, please call the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office at 706-541-2800 or your local law enforcement agency.

For more crime news, pick up this week’s edition of The Jail Report.

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A Columbia County deputy was busted for drunk driving in downtown Augusta early Saturday, authorities said.

Deputy Andrew Thomas was off-duty when he was stopped by a Richmond County deputy at 3 a.m. Saturday at the intersection of 15th and Broad streets in Augusta. He blew a .138 BAC on a breathalyzer.

He was arrested for DUI and taken to the Richmond County Jail, but he has been released on bond.

Thomas is pictured above in his jail mugshot and again at right in his official CCSO photo from 2015. He has been employed with the sheriff’s office for two years.

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office has placed Thomas on administrative leave, sheriff’s Capt. Steve Morris said in a press release.

No other Columbia County deputy who has been arrested in the past has remained employed with that agency. They are usually fired within a few days.

For more local crime news, pick up this week’s edition of The Jail Report, sold in local gas stations for $1.50.

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An Augusta woman poured boiling water down her husband’s neck and chest during an argument last week, sending the victim to Doctors Hospital with first- and second- degree burns, authorities said.

Angela Bell, 43, was furious with husband Frank Bell last Thursday night for making her special-needs daughter help him cut the grass for her swimming pool. Mrs. Bell had been drinking and her husband suggested she go to bed and they talk again in the morning when she was sober.

But his wife only grew angrier at that suggestion, and she ordered her 15-year-old daughter to go get a knife and stab her stepfather in the back. The girl obeyed her mother and got the knife, but Mr. Bell was able to take it from the teen before he was harmed, a sheriff’s report says.

The fight continued and Mr. Bell locked himself in the bedroom. But his wife grabbed some boiling water that was cooking eggs in a little red pot on the stove.

“Angela then began beating on the door and eventually broke it off the hinges,” a sheriff’s report says. “Angela was able to open the door just wide enough to fit the pot with boiling hot water through the door and poured it all down the front of him. The boiling hot water from the pot hit the front of his neck and all the way down the front side of his torso.”

Someone called deputies, and they found Mr. Bell walking in the street near the residence with serious burns.

The suspect told officers that she poured the boiling water on her husband in self-defense, claiming he hit her repeatedly with a broom handle. But she had no injuries. While interviewing her, Mrs. Bell was belligerent to deputies and cursed at them, a report says.

DFACS officials took custody of the juvenile daughter and then turned her over to an aunt. Deputies took Mrs. Bell to jail on charges of aggravated assault and cruelty to children since the teenage daughter witnessed the family violence, according to an arrest warrant.

For more crime news, pick up the latest edition of The Jail Report.

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The final suspect in a cab driver’s murder was taken into custody Wednesday after a standoff at a Beech Island home.

Marcus Allen Turner,  20, surrendered at a home on Terra Cotta Lane. His surrender came after SWAT team members threw a flash-bang device inside the residence, sheriff’s Capt. Eric Abdullah said.

A woman and her two children were evacuated from the home earlier and were unharmed. Turner did not respond to officers when they first came to the home based on a tip that he was hiding there.

Turner has been on the county’s Most Wanted list for months. He is one of three accused in the March 29 robbery and murder of 70-year-old cab driver Robert Hightower (pictured at right). The victim died in May after suffering a brutal attack during the robbery in Aiken County.

Already charged in the murder: 19-year-old Rakim Alan Barton and  24-year-old David Jerome Jacobs Jr. of Beech Island. All are facing charges of murder and strong armed robbery.

On March 29, the driver and his companion of a local cab company picked up three men around 1:30 am from Clearwater Village Apartments. When the driver arrived at their destination off Huber Clay Road, the three suspects exited the vehicle, refused to pay the driver and struck the driver in his head. The suspects stole some items from the driver and his companion. The suspects fled on foot from where they were dropped off.

Investigators, working with SLED, was able to create three composite drawings of the suspects as described by one of the victims.

Sheriff’s investigators were notified by the Aiken County Coroner office that the victim died on May 19th at an area hospital after seeking medical attention for injuries sustained from this incident. After a thorough investigation by the Aiken County Coroner, the victim’s death was ruled a homicide.

For more crime news, pick up this week’s edition of The Jail Report, sold in local gas stations.

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An Augusta man trapped his boyfriend inside the vacant home where they were staying early Friday and set it on fire before returning to the crime scene after the death, authorities said.

Ricky Chevez Cooper, 31, was charged with murder and arson in the horrific fire death of 34-year-old Luis Edgardo Gonzalez Jr., authorities said. Cooper is the same man given probation and community service last year after hospitalizing Gonzalez in a violent baseball bat attack.

Early Friday, Cooper argued with his boyfriend over where they were going to cook a turkey. They were both homeless and living in the run-down abandoned home on Huntington Drive. The suspect told cops he was tired of his boyfriend invading his “personal space,” authorities said.

Cooper barricaded the front door of the home on Huntington Drive using a large cooler with cinder blocks and a 50-pound weight, and he used an incendiary device and accelerant to start a fire in the rear of the home, authorities said. Firefighters rushed to the home just after 2 a.m. Friday for a fully engulfed home and eventually found the victim near the front entrance where he was trying to escape the fire.

Cooper quickly became a suspect since he had assaulted his boyfriend before and was a suspect in multiple arson cases around town, including fires started after he was banned from a hotel on Gordon Highway.

During Friday’s arson investigation, Cooper returned to the burnt home carrying a pair of bolt cutters. He had changed clothes, but he had fresh soot on his hand and two functional lighters. He also had a backpack with meth and syringes inside, leading to a drug charge.

In last year’s domestic violence incident, Gonzalez told authorities that his boyfriend struck him with a baseball bat inside their home on Moore Avenue. Officers observed a bruise mark and small lacerations on his right forearm and right calf area. Gold Cross responded to the scene and transported Gonzalez to the hospital.

Cooper was arrested weeks later, and Judge Monique Walker accepted a guilty plea and sentenced him to 12 months or probation, 20 hours of community service and $300 in fines.

The suspect was being held Friday night without bond at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center.

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An Augusta man was fatally shot early Saturday at his home on Bleakley Street, and authorities have interviewed his live-in girlfriend.

Charles Alexander Irvin, 50, was shot and transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Coroner Mark Bowen said.

Pamela Freeman, 41, was wanted for questioning in the death. She was located and interviewed. No charges against her were announced.

Irvin’s family say Freeman had been dating Irvin for years and they had been arguing, along with Freeman’s nephew, about medicine for Irvin when the shooting occurred. The victim stumbled next door to his aunt’s house, and the aunt called for help.

Richmond County deputies responded to the 1519 Bleakley St. at 1:22 a.m. Saturday and found the injured man. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 2:01 a.m. Saturday.

A Google image taken of his three-bedroom home in July shows a small brick structure with bars on the windows and multiple signs for “No Trespassing.” Bleakley Street is off Poplar Street, not far from Beulah Grove Baptist Church.

Note: If you have a better photo of Irvin to share, please text it to 803-487-3224.

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The FBI says that the third of four inmates who escaped from a jail in Central Georgia last month was arrested Sunday morning on Alpine Road in Augusta.

Agents working with the FBI Bibb County and Richmond County officers located 37-year-old Johnifer Dernard Barnwell in a home on the 3000 block of Alpine Road, around the corner from Copeland Elementary School. Officers also discovered large amounts of suspected meth, fentanyl, heroin, marijuana and cocaine.

Barnwell is one of four inmates who fled the Bibb County Detention Center in Macon on Oct. 16, possibly escaping through a damaged day room window and a cut fence. Just two weeks before his escape, Barnwell was convicted on six counts of trafficking fentanyl, heroin and meth.

Two others have already been recaptured. One inmate still remains at large. Joey Fournier, 52, who is accused of murder, is the last of the four men who escaped from the Bibb County Jail.

Anyone with information on the possible location of Fournier should call the FBI’s tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI(1-800-225-5324), the USMS at 1-877-WANTED2. Tips may also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov or USMS Tips App.

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An Augusta inmate was stabbed with a shank in front of a deputy jailer Friday as they brought him to a new cell.

Lewis Wigfall, 20, is accused of cutting 24-year-old Delvecchio Jones Jr. in the right hand with the homemade knife that had a 3-inch blade, authorities said. It happened as Jones was being transferred into the cell with Wigfall.

Jones was treated by medical staff at the jail, and Wigfall now faces additional charges of aggravated assault and weapon possession.

But the new charges will probably mean nothing to Wigfall, who has been locked up since he was 16 on murder and multiple armed robbery charges. Since then, he has participated in a host of disruptions and stabbings at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center, authorities say. He has multiple charges for possession of drugs and weapons in the jail. (See his charges below)

Last summer, he allegedly joined a bloody fight over a TV that left four inmates stabbed with homemade shanks. Two homemade knives were found in the dayroom of Pod Room. One homemade knife was found in Wigfall’s room.

Shanks have been a continuous problem for jail staff, with Chief Deputy Patrick Clayton blaming the accessibility to them on the deteriorating facility. Inmates are using metal parts of the decaying jail to make the handmade weapons.

The suspect in the latest stabbing was initially arrested in 2020 for his participation in a 3 a.m. gunfight that killed Marquan Patten of Aiken. The victim was shot in the head during the Augusta gunfight. The teens were supposed to be meeting with Wigfall and his friends to purchase a gun.

For his part, Jones has also been involved in jail violence with at least one charge for rioting and possession of a deadly weapon by inmate. He has been in jail since February 2022 on multiple armed robbery and aggravated assault charges.

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A 4-year-old Augusta boy accidentally shot himself in the head after finding a gun laying around a residence packed with children Friday night at Norris Place Apartments, authorities said.

The child was rushed to Augusta University Medical Center in critical condition. His current condition was unavailable.

Charges are being filed against the teen who left the unsecured gun lying around the residence as well as his mother, 35-year-old Brittany Senita Ryans. She was allegedly in the kitchen when the 4 year old shot himself with the unsecured weapon around 11 p.m. Friday, authorities said.

Several other children, ages 9-15, were present either in the kitchen or living room at the apartment, also known as The Vista @1931, located at 1931 Murphy Road in Augusta. The other children began screaming and running to Brittany Ryans after the gunfire, authorities said.

Brittany Ryans was being held Monday night in the Charles B. Webster Detention Center on five charges of cruelty to children in the second degree. Her co-defendant is listed as 19-year-old Ladarion Ryans, who has not yet been charged, according to jail records.

Check back here for more details on this developing story.

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The family of a beloved Augusta man is celebrating the identification of his alleged killer, and investigators didn’t have to look far to find the suspect.

Inmate Isaiah Jaheim Glenn has been locked up at the Charles B. Webster Detention Center since July 13, 2022, for dealing drugs. That is just one day after teenager JaKwan Gunter was fatally shot at the corner of 11^th Avenue and Grand Boulevard.

Glenn, 19, has been held in jail ever since, adding new charges as he engaged in brutal violence against other inmates inside the detention center. He went to court earlier this month and was sentenced to decades in prison on the drug charges and gang violence in the jail.

On Monday, authorities formally charged him in Gunter’s death, taking out warrants against him for murder and two counts of aggravated assault. It’s not clear how they finally connected him to the death of the 19-year-old victim. But warrants say the 5’1” suspect shot into a residence from the 2100 block of Grand Boulevard, killing Gunter and missing a man on the porch and woman inside early that Sunday morning in 2022. Glenn was 17 at the time.

After the killing, Gunter was celebrated as a Lucy Laney High graduate, an athlete in both football and baseball and someone who was well-liked.

In 2022, authorities said Gunter’s murder was gang related but they did not identify a suspect, even as the family held a service for the teen and worked on a headstone. In May 2023, a headstone with the victim’s photos was finished and laid to mark his burial spot with the words “Loving son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin.”

On Monday, after investigators informed family of the charges against Glenn, relative Kasheba Green posted four simple words on Facebook: “Justice has been served!!”

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A homeless man was arrested early Wednesday for exposing himself to a gas station clerk in Martinez who refused his request for a free beverage.

Dalton Whitehead, 25, was charged with two counts of public indecency and booked into the Columbia County Detention Center, where he remained Wednesday afternoon on a $2,200 bond.

Whitehead had entered the EnMarket on Bobby Jones Expressway around 2 a.m. Wednesday and asked for a free drink. The employee told him he would have to pay.

The suspect began cursing and yelling at the woman. A customer stepped in and told the homeless man to leave. He stepped outside and flipped off the clerk and man, a sheriff’s report says.

“Whitehead lowered his pants and exposed his penis” to the clerk and customer. “Whitehead walked back into the business and stated to them that he would return with a weapon.”

The male customer followed Whitehead to a neighboring parking lot, where Whitehead exposed himself again and shouted “shoot me mother***er,” the report says.

Whitehead told deputies that he never exposed himself, only slightly lowering his pants.

The suspect is well known to local law enforcement. He was charged in March with aggravated stalking of an Augusta woman, violating a temporary protective order by coming to her house and looking in her car. He got two months in jail for that one and 10 months of probation.

Whitehead also has convictions for theft by taking in Richmond County as well as two counts of burglary in Columbia County from 2015. He was later picked up for violation probation on the burglary convictions.

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Authorities at Fort Eisenhower are confirming an active death investigation is underway on base.

The base’s Criminal Investigation Division was responding Wednesday to the death of a family member who lives on base, according to Anne H. Bowman, deputy public affairs officer at the base, formerly known as Fort Gordon. Bowman could not confirm reports the death involved an infant who was slain. Coroner Mark Bowen does not get involved with deaths on the base.

Bowman referred other questions to a regional public affairs officer out of Quantico, Virginia.

Thomas B. Hamilton III with the U.S. Army’s Public Affairs CID group released this statement: “The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division is aware of and investigating this incident. As the investigation is in progress, no additional information can be provided at this time.”

WGAC’s Austin Rhodes contributed to this report. Check back here for more on this developing story.

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An Augusta man was fatally shot Thursday night, one day after celebrating his 32th birthday.

Myron Garnett, 32, of Verdery Street, was shot at least one time and pronounced dead on the scene at 9:43 p.m. Thursday, Coroner Mark Bowen said. The homicide occurred on Verdery Street at Oak Street. An autopsy is scheduled.

Shakeichia Jackson, 30, was arrested and committed to the Charles B. Webster Detention Center on a murder charge. Two male suspects are also being sought for murder. Their names were not released.

Jackson has previous convictions for a 2015 obstruction, as well as a 2018 incident of aggravated assault – family violence and criminal damage to property. She was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of probation for the 2018 incident.

Thursday’s death marks Richmond County’s 34th homicide victim this year.

Check back here for more on this developing story. If you have a better photo or memory to share, please text it to 803-487-3224.

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