A gift received by a Jones County inmate during the holidays was the initial clue to unraveling a false identity he had used for a decade.

Jeffery Ray Nails, 44, was arrested Nov. 7, 2007, and charged with forgery, but an investigation by Lt. Calvin Pitts has confirmed the inmate’s true identity is Harold Palmer, who was born in Houston, Texas. Palmer is wanted in Texas for a 1998 parole violation.

The real Jeffery Nails lives in Massachusetts. He has been plagued with Palmer’s duplicity when filing income taxes and applying for credit, but he had never taken legal action to resolve the problem.

Jones County Jail Administrator Capt. Guy Mosteller said he was suspicious of Nails’ identity from the first, but an attempt to identify him through fingerprints proved inconclusive. He said he had no leads until a Christmas present was forwarded to the Law Enforcement Center. Mosteller said the shipping label attracted his attention because, although it was addressed to Jeff Nails, the return address simply said Mom and Dad.

The captain said he contacted the company from which the gift was ordered and the representative he spoke with could not give him the name of the purchaser. The representative did, however, contact the purchaser and relayed Mosteller’s phone number.

Mosteller said the father appeared ready for the false identity to end.

“Donald Palmer called me and said his son’s name was Harold Palmer,” he said. The father also told the captain that Palmer’s mother lives in Texas. Mosteller got her name and address from a letter and money order sent to her son and called the mother.

“When I talked to her, she said her son told her to tell the truth if she was contacted. She confirmed her son’s name and that he was born in Houston, Texas,” Mosteller explained.

Pitts said the November arrest of Palmer followed a call from Pam Deese of Security Bank of Jones County. He said missing checks from Hammock Dairy were found to be forged by Palmer (known as Nails at the time) and amounted to $20,000.

The investigator said Palmer had worked for the dairy for six years and had become a trusted employee. After Mosteller unraveled Palmer’s identity, Pitts contacted a detective in Massachusetts, who provided him with a picture ID of Jeffrey Nails.

Pitts spoke with Nails and found out he received a W-2 from Hammock Dairy in Gray, which he thought strange since he has never been to Georgia. Pitts determined that Palmer was given Nails’ information, including his Social Security number, from a cohort while he still lived in Texas.

The investigator said Palmer is facing more than 70 forgery charges for the Hammock Dairy checks and charges will be added for the jail documents he signed using a false identity.

“It’s my understanding the feds are also interested in filing charges for aggravated identity theft,” Pitts added.