SUPERIOR COURT UPDATES
A Bibb County man is on his way back to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve 10 years for crimes of shoplifting that were committed in a local hardware store in Gray.
Leon Fluellen entered a guilty plea Jan. 3 in Jones County Superior Court to four counts of theft by shoplifting. Fluellen received sentences of 10 years for each count. Count 2 is to run consecutively to Count 1 and all other counts concurrently for a total of 20 years with the first 10 years to be served in confinement. The remainder of the sentence may be served on probation, and the defendant is to receive credit for time served from May 4, 2022.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Fluellen was previously incarcerated nine times, beginning in 1994. His most recent release was Aug. 29, 2021. His convictions include the crimes of entering auto, theft by taking, burglary and five previous shoplifting convictions.
Fluellen was arrested in Jones County May 4, 2022, with codefendant Tiffany Monique Beasley. She pled guilty May 12 and received seven years each for three counts of shoplifting and 12 months for possession of drug-related objects. Beasley’s sentences were allowed to run concurrently and received seven years on probation. She was banned from Ace Hardware and from Jones County for the duration of her sentence. During that court proceeding, Jones County Assistant District Attorney Cara Fiore told the court that GPD Officer David Simmons had conducted an investigation into the incidents of shoplifting since March of 2022. She said codefendants Beasley and Fluellen were seen on store videos beginning March 10.
A report of the March incident by Officer Parker Jones listed merchandise taken in the amount of $1,925. A report by Simmons states he received a call to come to the store May 4 because the same suspects from March were on video from the previous day taking hand tools.
The officer said he watched the video and saw the female with a tote bag, which she proceeded to fill with assorted tools. The suspects left through the garden center and got into a blue Jeep Liberty.
Simmons said later the same day, he received a call that the suspects were back in the store. He said he informed GPD officers Josh Josey and Terius Farley, who arrived at the scene and took Beasley and Fluellen in custody.
Josey’s report of the arrests states he and Farley located the blue Jeep Liberty used by the suspects and blocked it in. The officer said the suspects were apprehended in the parking lot as they left the store.
Josey said drugs were found in the vehicle as well as a Generac Generator, bolt cutters and metal cutting shears.
Simmons’ supplemental report stated that Beasley and Fluellen were attempting to leave the store with two tankless water heaters May 4, and they were identified as the same suspects from previous thefts March 10 and March 15.
