Author: Robert Preston

Last Thursday, two agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation spoke to the Douglas Rotary Club. Agents Jason Nipper and Kellyn Wilkes spent a few minutes discussing the various divisions of the GBI, their scope of investigations, and the relationships the GBI has with other law enforcement agencies. During a question and answer session, the agents got a little more specific regarding several of these topics. Most people know very little about exactly how the GBI gets involved in local cases and the jursidiction the agency has in criminal investigations. The agents’ discussion Thursday shed a great deal of…

Friday, Tywone Brewton, 18 of Douglas, was arrested in connection with a shooting that took place in the city a week ago. On Friday, July 14, Ricardio Cortez Mitchell, 28, was shot on South McDonald Road. He was life-flighted to Jacksonville, Fla., where he remains in critical condition. Brewton, nicknamed Squirm, turned himself into authorities on Friday, July 21. Brewton was charged with aggravated assault. The investigation is ongoing and more charges may follow. Brewton was a rising senior at Coffee High School. A running back for the Trojans, he was one of Coffee’s most formidable offensive weapons last year…

Normally, not much goes on in West Green. Tonight was a little different. A Peterbilt tanker truck hauling liquid fertilizer rolled into a ditch as the driver negotiated a turn. The truck fell into the ditch then slowly rolled over, emptying the contents of the tank. The load was about 1,000 gallons and it poured into the ditch. It wasn’t particularly potent fertilizer; there was no odor at all at the scene of the accident. There were no injuries and because the truck came to rest well off the roadway, traffic wasn’t affected very much. Vehicles had to slow down…

The street lights are back up in downtown Douglas but not all of them are working following a brief but violent weather system that ravaged the downtown area Saturday afternoon. Call it whatever you want to – a microburst, straight-line winds, whatever – it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the destruction the system left in its wake. High winds ripped street lights from their perches, snapped trees in half, flung debris across roadways, and in what is one of the most spectacular (and destructive) displays of Mother Nature locally in a long time, ripped the roof off the…

Claudin Pubien Jr., 26 of Douglas, who was arrested last week on burglary charges after detectives discovered a “mountain” of stolen items at his home, had previously been charged with murder in the 2013 killing of Daquavious Reed. Two other individuals, both of whom are Pubien’s brothers, Claron Carter and D’Andre Carter, received life sentences for their roles in Reed’s death. Pubien, however, ultimately pled guilty to robbery by force and was sentenced to 20 years on probation. Authorities determined that Pubien had a lesser role in Reed’s death than the other two. He neither planned the shooting nor was…

Kansas City Chiefs’ rookie sensation and former Coffee Trojan Tyreek Hill has been named one of the 100 best players in the NFL. It’s an annual list compiled through interviews with current players in the league and it’s not without controversy. However, to be included on the list, no matter where a player ends up, is an honor in itself. Hill, a returner/running back/receiver, landed at #36, sandwiched between the Texans’ J.J. Watt (#35) and the Broncos’ Aqib Talib (#37). In the video clip that accompanied Hill’s selection, he opens by challenging the top-ranked player on the list, Patriots quarterback…

Caleb Barrett, who was indicted last month for malice murder and felony murder by the Coffee County Grand Jury, was granted a $50,000 bond and released from jail Wednesday. Barrett’s case is an unusual one. He stood accused of shooting and killing his sister, Lea Jovan Merritt, on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016. Barrett was arrested, charged with voluntary manslaughter, and released on bond back in September. He remained free on bond for about nine months when the Grand Jury handed down its murder indictment nearly a month ago. He was re-arrested on the new charges and taken back to jail.…

Runoff schmunoff. Edwin Taylor, a candidate for the Ward 1 city commission seat, bested two other challengers Tuesday night in a landslide, winning the election to fill the unexpired term of the late Johnnie Lee Roper. In fact, the term “landslide” doesn’t really do the outcome justice. Taylor received 86 percent of the vote, defeating his nearest opponent, Cheryl Cunningham, by 194 votes. Taylor received 214 votes, followed by Cunningham with 20 and former Ward 1 commissioner Richard Hutchinson with 14. It is the largest margin of victory in any election, city or county, in the recent past, and it…

Leon “Mann” Kirkland, patriarch of the popular southern gospel vocal group The Kirklands, passed away on Friday, June 2, following complications from a medical procedure at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla. Kirkland, who was at St. Vincent’s for a heart catheterization, began experiencing kidney problems, which ultimately took his life. His unexpected death has left a void in the Douglas-Coffee County community and shocked the Kirkland family’s legions of friends and fans. To say the least, he will be greatly missed. Kirkland was born on May 11, 1947, in Douglas to the late Curtis Colan Kirkland and the late…

Last Thursday, May 25, the Coffee County Grand Jury indicted Caleb Barrett, 21, for malice murder and felony murder in the death of Lea Jovan Merritt of Douglas, according to a statement from the Douglas Police Department that was posted on the Coffee County Ga. Police Scanner Facebook page. Merritt was Barrett’s sister. Merritt was shot and killed at 505 North College Avenue on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016. Barrett was arrested on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016. Barrett did not spend much time in jail and has been out ever since. Merritt was shot in the backyard of the residence at…