Richmond County, GA | featured news

OMAHA, Neb. — Coastal Carolina capitalized on two errors on the same play for four unearned runs in the sixth inning, and the Chanticleers won their first national championship in any sport with a 4-3 victory over Arizona in Game 3 of the College World Series finals on Thursday.

BUFORD, Ga. — A woman has been charged in connection with her husband’s death, which was initially reported as a suicide last year.

Gwinnett County police Cpl. Michele Pihera said in a news release Wednesday that 35-year-old Liubov Volkova has been indicted on a murder charge and accused of fatally shooting her husband, 38-year-old Jordan Whitson.

Authorities say Volkova told authorities on Nov. 1 that her husband had shot himself in the cheek inside their Buford home.

An Evans mother on Wednesday pleaded guilty to six counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was sentenced to six years on probation in a case that both the defense and prosecuting attorneys called unusual.
Rachel Lynn Lehnardt, 35, was sentenced in Columbia County for allowing her 16-year-old daughter and her underage friends on two separate occasions to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana in her home and for showing the teens sex images on her phone.

Augusta may soon “ban the box” on city job applications but it won’t be on Mayor Hardie Davis’ timeline.
Davis launched a public push to eliminate the check box for criminal convictions earlier this year but when the mayor called for a June 7 vote, he found the effort rolled into an ongoing Augusta Commission revision of the city personnel policies and procedures manual.
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One person is in custody following a Saturday home invasion on Morningside Drive.
According to a news release from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, an unnamed suspect was arrested Wednesday in connection to the invasion. The investigation is ongoing and the identity of the suspect is being withheld until victims of the home invasion view photographic lineups, the release stated.
More information is forthcoming.

 
In a “historical moment for our church,” the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church College of Bishops donated $1 million to Paine College to help it solidify its finances as it battles to keep its accreditation, Bishop Kenneth W. Carter announced Wednesday.
In what was both figuratively and literally a revival that often brought a fervent crowd to its feet to clap and shout, speakers declared that Paine would win its fight and come out stronger for it.

Police continue to look for clues in the suspicious disappearance of a Burke County man one month ago.
“At this point we really don’t know what happened,” Burke County sheriff’s Sgt. Dedric Smith said Wednesday. “...It’s a difficult case.”
Simon Powell, 63, was last seen about 7 p.m. on June 1 in Dickies coveralls and driving his white 2012 Ford pickup. Smith said family members said it was out of character for Powell to go missing, especially for that length of time.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Officials say a car dealership employee in the Atlanta area has been arrested and fired after he led Johns Creek police on a high-speed chase in a dealership’s Mercedes-Benz car.

News outlets report that Frederick Spry was hired a few months ago to drive cars between dealerships, but later lost his driver’s license. Police say that was the reason Spry didn’t stop when a Johns Creek officer tried to pull him over June 16.

MORROW, Ga. — An Atlanta-area man has been charged with murder after his 11-year-old disabled stepson drowned in a bathtub.

Clayton County police spokeswoman Sgt. Ashanti Marbury tells news outlets that Michael D. Smith of Morrow placed the autistic and physically disabled boy in the bathtub Tuesday afternoon and left the bathroom to check on three other children in the home. When he came back, the boy was submerged in the water and dead.

MARIETTA, Ga. — Georgia police say an Indiana pastor accused of going to Kentucky earlier this month to try to have sex with a minor has died in an apparent suicide.

Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce tells the Lexington Herald-Leader 46-year-old David J. Brown’s body was found Monday in a Marietta storage unit.
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