Woman is held on theft charge

An Anderson, S.C., woman is being held in the Richmond County jail on a felony theft-by-taking charge after she helped herself to nearly $14,000 worth of gift certificates for Honey Baked Hams, authorities said.

Thommie Lewis was the general manager of the Honey Baked Hams store on Wrightsboro Road until September, when she was questioned by her corporate office about the disappearance from the store's safe of 500 gift certificates that were shipped in April, Richmond County Sheriff's Fraud Investigator Anita Hopson said.

Ms. Lewis told her superiors that she knew nothing about the missing certificates and was fired in September. That's when the sheriff's office began investigating, Investigator Hopson said.

She said Ms. Lewis was using the certificates to balance her drawer and was keeping the cash, she said.

In all, Investigator Hopson said, Ms. Lewis cashed in 300 gift certificates for between $30 and $75.

Bond is set for lawyer in hit-and-run case

A judge set a $13,000 bond Monday for a young Augusta lawyer accused of nearly running over a deputy while fleeing arrest.

In Richmond County Superior Court, Chief Judge William M. Fleming Jr. groused that the bond should have been set by a magistrate and questioned why charges were upgraded to include felony offenses.

Defense attorney Michael C. Garrett said the magistrate court instructed him to take the matter up with Judge Fleming, to whom the case was assigned when Anson A. Adams was indicted Oct. 31. Assistant District Attorney Alfred E. Corey III said his office based the charges on the facts officers reported.

Mr. Adams is charged with aggravated assault, felony fleeing and attempting to elude police, driving under the influence, reckless driving, and failure to stop upon striking an unattended vehicle in connection with an Oct. 13 incident outside a Washington Road bar.

Trial continues in Smith murder case

Testimony continues today in the trial of an Augusta man charged with murder.

John L. Smith, 43, has pleaded not guilty in Richmond County Superior Court to murder and weapon charges. He is accused of shooting 35-year-old Betty Ann Gaines to death in the early morning of Aug. 25 on a city street corner.

On Monday, Assistant District Attorney Anthony M. Nicastro told the jury that witnesses will show how Mr. Smith gunned Ms. Gaines down because he thought she had stolen from him. Attorney Harry B. James said in his opening statement that investigators should have gone after the person that Ms. Gaines was arguing with shortly before her death.

Decomposed remains sent to GBI crime lab

Authorities have sent the badly decomposed remains of a body found in McDuffie County to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Crime Lab in Atlanta for further testing, according to McDuffie County Coroner Rhusha Mack.

An autopsy of the body, which was found by deer hunters in the wood line of Story-Randal Road, was completed Monday.

Mr. Mack said that because the remains were mostly bones, they were referred to an anthropologist at the state crime lab.

Mr. Mack said that both the identity and the sex of the body have not been determined but that he was believes it was a female. He said they do not know how long it was lying in the woods.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the death.

S. Carolina offers free school workshop

The South Carolina Education Department will offer a free workshop Monday to anyone who wants to start a charter school or learn more about receiving grants.

The one-day workshop will be held at the River Center conference facility at Saluda Shoals Park in Columbia.

The conference will begin at 9 a.m. and last until 3 p.m. It will offer an introduction to charter schools and the application process.

Any individual or group, including an existing public school, can apply to operate a charter school.

A charter school operates within a public school district and is open to all eligible pupils within that district. It is accountable to the local school board, which grants its charter.

Contact J.C. Ballew Jr. at jballew@ed.sc.gov or Rebecca Cupstid at rcupstid@ed.sc.gov for more information.