A Jones County defendant was sentenced to five years following the guilty verdict for one of the two charges against him.
Jeremy Ross Gunnells opted to take his chances with a jury May 23 for the two counts of interference with government property. The charges werereceived while Gunnells was incarcerated in the Jones County jail, waiting to go to trial on a 2020 drug case.
The defendant was found not guilty in the April drug trial but did not fare as well in his most recent attempt.
Superior Court Judge William Prior sentenced Gunnells May 23 to the maximum of five years. The state charged the defendant as a recidivist due to his record of convictions, which means he will serve every day of the sentence.
Prior said it would be up to the custodian where he serves his sentence to determine if Gunnells would receive credit for any of the time he has served in jail before the trial.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Macelyn Williams, and Gunnells was represented by Defense Attorney Nicole Jones.
The trial began after jury selection at approximately 1:55 p.m. May 23 and was given to the jury to start deliberations at 4:30 p.m. Jury members let the court know it had reached a verdict at 4:55 p.m.
The case consisted of the testimony of three witnesses and the arguments of the attorneys. The state contended that Gunnells broke a glass door in the jail by throwing a chair through it and broke a camera in the inmate exercise yard with a ball-like object.
The first witness was jailer Dawn Jeanine King. She told the court she was working Oct. 21, 2021, and saw Gunnells throw a chair through the door, shattering the glass. Pictures of the broken door were entered into evidence during her testimony.
Jones questioned King about the chair that was used and why it had not been entered as evidence.
Ryan Johnson, who now works for the GBI, testified to pulling the video for the exercise yard camera while still employed by the Jones County Sheriff’s Office. He said the was the department’s IT specialist at the time of the incident.
Johnson said it was the camera mount that was broken, but the entire camera had to be replaced to cover the exercise yard adequately. He said four cameras are required to view the entire area.
JCSO Lt. Dalton Hart was the final witness. He identified Gunnells as the inmate throwing the ball-like object at the cameras. It was during his testimony that the video of the breaking of the camera mount was shown.
During her cross examination, Jones questioned where the broken camera was and if it had in fact been broken.
The state rested its case following Hart’s testimony, and Jones made the routine motion for a directed verdict of not guilty due to insufficient evidence. Prior denied that motion.
Gunnells opted not to testify, and the defense also rested.
Closing arguments were brief by both attorneys. Jones continued to question where the physical evidence of the crimes was and also asked why no experts were called in to testify about the camera not functioning.
“They are assuming what happened,” she said.
Williams went over the witness testimonies, reiterating King’s eyewitness testimony to the breaking of the door and the video shown of the destruction of the camera.
“A picture is worth 1,000 words; a video is worth a million,” the prosecutor said.
Conclusion
The jury’s verdict was read by Deputy Criminal Clerk Grover Murray. Gunnells was found guilty of the charge of breaking the camera but not guilty of the charge of breaking the door.
Prior immediately moved into the punishment phase of the trial.
The state was asked to present its information first. Williams gave the court the paperwork for Gunnells to be charged as a recidivist. She told the court that the pretrial offer to Gunnells was not to charge him as a recidivist with a sentence of 10 years with two years to serve.
The prosecutor presented the judge with copies of Gunnells’ eight convictions, noting that they included numerous felonies.
Jones told the court that Gunnells was found guilty on just one of the charges, and its maximum sentence is five years. She said her client has been incarcerated since August of 2020 and asked for a sentence of time served.
The defense attorney added that Gunnells had a troubled past and has a mental condition that has only been treated since he was incarcerated in the Jones County jail.
