Georgia man sentenced for stealing 100 disabled veterans and Social Security beneficiaries

Man sentenced for stealing veteran, Social Security benefits

A Georgia man has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in South Florida for his part in running a scheme to steal more than $1.8 million in veteran and Social Security benefits
By The Associated Press
March 4, 2022

From 2012 to 2017, Green and others attempted to redirect more than $1.8 million in benefits from more than 100 disabled veterans and Social Security beneficiaries, officials said. The scheme resulted in the actual loss of nearly $1 million although the federal government reimbursed the victims for the full amounts of their stolen benefits.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Georgia man has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison in South Florida for his part in running a scheme to steal more than $1.8 million in veteran and Social Security benefits.

Ronaldo Garfield Green, 29, was sentenced Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, according to court records. A federal jury found him guilty in November to conspiracy to commit fraud. He must also pay $915,000 in restitution.
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First Responders Don't Get Help To Heal, After Helping US?

"If you get shot and you have PTSD it would be covered. But if you watch your best friend get shot, it's not." Ashley Wilson

That was the part that got me. Why is this still going on?

New legislation proposed to help provide mental health services to first responders struggling with PTSD

11Alive
Kaitlyn Ross
November 16, 2021

Under Georgia law there's not a way for a first responder to get help for PTSD unless they're also physically injured.

There's a new push to help first responders struggling with Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

From firefighters to police officers to dispatchers, currently, none of them are eligible for a worker's compensation claim to deal with a psychological injury unless they first have a physical injury to heal.

In an 11Alive exclusive, a metro Atlanta officer is leading the charge on a new proposed bill just filed that could change that. Ashley Wilson joined the police force at 24.

"I was excited. I was going to go out there and make a difference," she said.

She says she soon realized the cost of making that difference.

"I had absolutely no idea about the horrible things that people can do to each other. And unfortunately, I found out real quick," she said.

Wilson says the learning curve is steep for everyone all first responders, as soon as they answer their first call.

She knows a firefighter who was recently let go after admitting to his chain of command that he was struggling with the mental toll of the job.

"To me, I was just taken back that he was reaching out for help and he got fired," she said.
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What does this tell everyone else with PTSD? It sends the wrong message because if they don't want to take care of the responders, showing up to the events that cause PTSD in the rest of us, then they don't care about us either! 

The fact is, not all survivors get PTSD but everyone with PTSD IS A SURVIVOR of what caused it and responders came to help us survive. It is time for all of us to help them heal!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

“I've gone through a lot of darkness..."

Female veterans struggling with PTSD

CBS 46 News
Bobeth Yates
May 13, 2020

“It just put me in a whole different mindset, that had me mentally imbalanced and irrationally doing things in an OCD type style. Once diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder I have never been able to hold a job for any length of time because the trauma comes with triggers.” Isna T. Summerlin.

CONYERS Ga. (CBS46) -- May is mental health awareness month and its estimated that up to 20% of veterans suffer with PTSD.

Those numbers can be broken down by conflict with each war averaging anywhere from 11-20% of vets with PTSD. But, what about those who didn't go to war and still suffered trauma.

For most a garden is just that, garden but for one veteran suffering with PTSD her garden has been her saving grace.

“This is so therapeutic,” said Air Force veteran Isna T. Summerlin. “I've gone through a lot of darkness and I see me emerging just like these radishes” added Summerlin who says her battle with PTSD goes back decades.

“I’ve been fighting literally since 2001 to get compensation for the post traumatic stress disorder”, Summerlin added.
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Vietnam Memorial Wall in Georgia vandalized

Johns Creek Vietnam Veterans wall vandalized

CBS 46 News
Jasmina Alston
Apr 28, 2020

"You didn't just hurt that structure, you hurt some people." Mike Mizell

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. (CBS46) -- The Wall That Heals Vietnam Veterans Memorial was recently vandalized, according to the Johns Creek Veterans Association.

The group has been working on the project since last July and planned on having a grand opening on March 28, but the coronavirus pandemic put that on hold.

"When we can get into groups larger than ten, because we've been contacted by groups from all over the southeast wanting to come," Mike Mizell, from the association, said.
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VA Call Center employees worried about COVID-19 exposure

VA coronavirus exposure

CBS 46 Georgia
Bobeth Yates
Mar 30, 2020

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) -- Some Veterans Administration employees are concerned about potential exposure to coronavirus after a call center employee came to work for several days with symptoms.

The call center employee we spoke with also says a full week passed between the time the employee tested positive and the time coworkers were notified. She says the building was never closed and sanitized.

“Our call center is not shutting down and they were just going to clean his station and there is still work as normal," according to the whistle blower.

In addition, “Do Not Enter” signs were also placed in the infected worker’s cubical, but employees said that’s not enough. Multiple people reached out to CBS46 saying they’re now afraid to go to work, but the VA won’t give them paid time off.

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Nurses warn "significant deficiencies in VA readiness to respond to the coronavirus epidemic"

VA staffers sound alarm over shortages in staffing, equipment

Military Times
Leo Shane III
April 3, 2020

Nurse Irma Westmoreland said the Veterans Affairs hospital where she works has already run out of paper gowns and is warning staffers to ration their use of linens out of concerns the facility may run out of protective equipment for use on a daily basis.

Members of National Nurses United protest between shifts at the Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland, Calif., on March 23, 2020. A similar protest is scheduled for next week at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Brooklyn, to raise concerns about a lack of resources for staff to deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. (Courtesy of NNU)

The site — the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta, Ga. — has only had five confirmed cases of coronavirus so far.

“When we get a surge of cases, where will we be?” said Westmoreland, a 30-year employee at VA and vice president of National Nurses United, which represents 12,000 nurses at 23 different VA sites across the country. “I’m afraid for my co-workers and I’m afraid for my family.”

Union officials are raising concerns this week about what they see as significant deficiencies in VA readiness to respond to the coronavirus epidemic, which has already killed more than 6,000 Americans.

On Monday, NNU members from the Brooklyn VA facility in New York City are planning a between-shifts protest of conditions there, promising no disruption in care but also more public awareness of the problems staff are facing.
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Vietnam veteran in Georgia VA nursing home bitten by ants...until he died

update VA announces leadership shakeup after veteran patient was covered in ant bites in his room

A director was placed on administrative leave and several other staff members were moved to non-patient positions during an investigation.

Author: Jason Braverman

 September 18, 2019

ATLANTA — Just over a week after a Vietnam veteran died of Stage 4 cancer while in the care of the VA, a major shakeup was announced on Tuesday, adding that the VA hopes to "restore trust." 

The Veterans Health Administration Executive in Charge announced a number of actions he is taking in response to "recent events" at the Atlanta VA Medical Center’s Eagles’ Nest Community Living Center and "ongoing issues" at other VA facilities in that region. 

Two top administrators and seven staffers were removed from their positions, effective immediately. 

It's all because of what a dying veteran at a VA facility in Atlanta suffered in his final days. 

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Georgia woman says father was bitten by ants 100 times in veterans' nursing home

Associated Press
Monday, September 16, 2019

Employees bathed her father and cleaned the room, but the ants were still around the next day, Ross said. Marrable was then moved to a new room, where he died, she said.

At least three veterans were affected by the Sept. 2 ant infestation, Isakson said the Atlanta VA Health Care System confirmed to him.

DECATUR, Ga. -- U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is demanding answers from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs after a Georgia woman said her father was bitten more than 100 times by ants at a veterans' home in Decatur.

Isakson says he was horrified and "downright maddened" after Laquna Ross told WSB-TV that she found her father, Joel Marrable, with swollen, red bumps all over his body when she visited him at the nursing home near Atlanta last week before his death. Marrable, an Air Force veteran, had cancer.

"I am shocked, horrified and downright maddened by the news that a veteran under the care of the VA was treated so poorly and without any regard for his wellbeing," Isakson said in a statement.

"This patient, at the end of his life, was clearly not being monitored closely enough, and I am so sad for his family who had to discover his insect-infested conditions before anything was reportedly done," Isakson said.
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Vietnam veteran taken from pauper's gave to proper burial

Veterans band together to give Vietnam vet a proper burial

Fairfield Citizen
August 24, 2019

"We had so many mixed emotions because of things that had happened over the years," Carla said. "Even today, we still have so many questions and regrets that we didn't force him to talk to us. We would reach out to Billy, and he would ignore our phone calls. Or if he answered the phone and realized it was us, he would hang up on us. It was just really bad. But we loved him nonetheless."

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — Billy Harold Watts was a decorated and disabled Vietnam War veteran. He had six children, 14 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

After collapsing in early June while home alone in Marion County, the 70-year-old lost his battle with lung cancer on Father's Day in a Columbus hospice.

Estranged from his family, no next-of-kin was found before he was buried in a pauper's grave.

But through a remarkable series of events, his family was eventually reached and local veterans were alerted. They, along with other caring folks in the community, rallied together to have his body exhumed for a proper burial: a funeral with military honors in his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi.

"It was just a blessing after a blessing at the end of all of this," said daughter-in-law Carla Watts of Jackson, Tennessee.

Billy served for three years active-duty in the U.S. Marines Corps. He earned two Purple Hearts, a National Defense Service Medal, a Vietnamese Service Medal, a Vietnamese Campaign Medal and a Combat Action Ribbon. He was a private when he was honorably discharged in 1970 at age 21.

Although he wasn't diagnosed, Billy had symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and was "highly medicated by the VA," Carla said. "When we cleaned Billy's house out, we took 26 bottles of narcotics to the sheriff's department and turned them in."

He and his last of six wives divorced in 2001, she said.

"Billy was very much a loner," she said.
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Navy veteran wanted to die until Police Officer helped him live

Ga. officer saves Navy veteran from suicide attempt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kristal Dixon
June 2, 2019

SMYRNA, Ga. — A Smyrna police officer who is a U.S. Army veteran stopped a fellow veteran from killing himself Saturday.

Officer Daniel Sperano was working an off-duty job May 25 at RaceTrac at 1461 Veterans Memorial Highway in Mableton when he was told that a man was “acting strangely” on the bridge at Veterans Memorial Highway and Riverview Road at the Cobb-Fulton county line, Smyrna police said.

Sperano arrived at the scene and came face to face with a man who said “he wanted to die and was attempting to jump into the Chattahoochee River,” Smyrna police said.

Sperano grabbed the man, who pleaded with the officer “to let him die,” the department said. The officer struggled with the man, who identified himself as a United States Navy veteran, for more than three minutes.
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Georgia Police grieve loss of Sgt. Kelvin Ansar, Officer, veteran and family man

Police Officer Killed in Line of Duty Was Father of 4 and Army Veteran

The Island Packet Online
By Teresa Moss
13 May 2019

A Savannah, Georgia, police officer who was shot and killed Saturday night while responding to a robbery on Bull Street was a husband, father and military veteran, Savannah Police Department Chief Roy Minter said during a press conference Sunday night.

Sgt. Kelvin Ansari a Savannah, Georgia, police officer who served 21 years in the Army, was killed May 12, 2019, while responding to a robbery. He left behind a wife and four children ranging in ages from 5 to 25. Savannah Police Department

Sgt. Kelvin Ansari left behind a wife and four children ranging in ages from 5 to 25 years old, Minter said. He also was a 10-year veteran of the department and served 21 years in the Army.

"Last night, we lost a great man," Minter said. "We lost a man who spent a substantial portion of his life protecting our country and protecting our community. We lost a husband. We lost a father. We lost a leader."

Ansari and another officer were shot when approaching a vehicle matching a description connected to the robbery at about 8:10 p.m. Saturday, the police news release states. The other officer, Douglas Thomas, was shot in the leg. He was released from Memorial Hospital on Saturday night and is recovering at home.
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Neighbors heard complaints about Vietnam veteran's yard, so they took care of it...and him

Neighbors step in to help disabled veteran when he needed it most

WSB 2 Atlanta
By: Berndt Petersen
Updated: Apr 30, 2019

WOODSTOCK, Ga. - A handful of Cherokee County neighbors have spent three days helping a disabled Vietnam veteran whose large yard had grown out of control.

Managing a very large lawn can be a challenge no matter what your age, but when you're 80, some say forget about it.

"It's so easy for people to fall behind and let things get out of control,” said Joe Ward.

Last week, Ward hopped on a local social media site and read complaints about the condition of a neighbor’s property near Woodstock.

Instead of joining in, Ward told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen that he went over and met the owner -- a disabled veteran of the Vietnam war.

“He was loading brush on his own. He's 80 years old. He was wheezing and having a great deal of difficulty with a massive task ahead of him. And no one offered to help him," Ward said.
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In two days, two Georgia veterans went to their local VA, and killed themselves

update Mom filed lawsuit against the VA

update 'I just wish they would have found him and stopped him:' Central Georgia family mourns after veteran commits suicide

The family of 28-year-old Gary Pressley is now searching for answers after he took his own life in the parking lot of the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center

In this case, Pressley's family says the VA did have the chance to help him, but didn't act. His sister, Lisa Johnson, says she called the VA to tell them her brother was threatening suicide from their parking lot just moments before he killed himself. read more here

Two veterans kill themselves at separate VA medical centers in Georgia

Atlanta Journal Constitutional
By Jeremy Redmon
April 8, 2019

The victim in Atlanta was 68 years old and shot himself, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Two veterans killed themselves at separate Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in Georgia over the weekend, refocusing attention on what the VA has called its “highest clinical priority.”

The first death happened Friday in a parking garage at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, according to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office. The second occurred Saturday outside the main entrance to the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur on Clairmont Road. The VA declined to identify the victims or describe the circumstances of their deaths, citing privacy concerns.
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It happened 27 times last year when veterans screamed for help as loud as they could. They committed suicide in public, and most of the time, at their local VA. Too bad too many only spread the "suicide awareness" instead of healing awareness. Had that message been spread...maybe these two veterans would have found hope instead of their guns.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife because you can defeat PTSD and live a better life.

Wounded Georgia Police Officer served in Afghanistan and Iraq

Police identify victims, suspected shooter in Henry County standoff leaving 3 dead

By FOX 5 News
Posted Apr 04 2019

A man identifying himself as the father-in-law of one of the injured officers just after arriving by police escort to Grady Memorial Hospital described that officer to FOX 5's Will Nunley as being a 32-year-old Army veteran. He called the situation tragic.

"Army veteran, two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he's been on the force for a while. It's just a terrible tragedy," said Rick Corssey, a family member of the injured officer. 

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - Henry County Police will release more information late Friday morning on a nearly 16 hour- standoff inside a home that left a pregnant woman and her teenage son dead and 2 police officers wounded, apparently at the hands of the woman’s live-in boyfriend who took his own life.

Police identified the victims as 39-year-old Sandra Renee White of Stockbridge and her son, 16-year-old Arkeyvion White.
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"I just tried to be there,” Chaplain Ron Link explains life as responding to responders

Always on call: Meet the chaplains who assist sheriff's office during crises

Dawson County News
Jessica Taylor
Feb. 26, 2019

Each year they receive 40 hours of training from the Georgia Sheriffs' Association to maintain their certification, which they said reinvigorates and motivates them to keep answering the calls from dispatch.

Dawson County Sheriff's Office Chaplains Ron Link and Dr. Charles Blackstock. - photo by Jessica Taylor 

"I just tried to be there,” Ron Link said as he recounted his first call from dispatch. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do but it turns out I was doing what I was supposed to,"

Link became a chaplain for the Dawson County Sheriff's Office three years ago, and vividly remembers his first call to a scene: a devastating house fire.

Dr. Charles Blackstock, the lead chaplain who has served in the role for 10 years, was in Atlanta, leaving Link with the responsibility of responding to the call alone.

"I had no formal sheriff’s office training. I just went out there to try to be a help," Link said. "It was kind of overwhelming. It was a really bad scene."

It was a house fire, and someone’s significant other was inside. All Link could do was stand outside with the husband, comforting him as authorities conducted their investigation.

"I didn’t know what the procedures and processes were. I didn’t know who to talk to. All I knew was there was somebody there that was in real, emotional crisis and so I went over and stayed with him until his family arrived," Link said.

It was his first taste of what his new role as a chaplain entailed.

For Blackstock, a pastor at Lighthouse Baptist Church, stepping into the role was a little bit easier. With his ministerial background, he was rather comfortable with providing faith-based support to the sheriff's office staff and the community.

As chaplains, Blackstock and Link voluntarily assist the sheriff's office by delivering death notices, consoling emotional victims at crime scenes and emergencies and supporting the sheriff's office staff through counseling and helping officers cope with traumatic events.

How they go about providing assistance from scene to scene varies with every call.

"You never know what you’re going to get called on to do," Blackstock said.
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Why is this important?

In 2008, I became a Chaplain with the IFOC and received Certification in Crisis Intervention, among other things, plus an award for my work focusing on PTSD prevention for first responders. For the next two years, I trained in many more programs to help avoid the worst results of their service from taking hold. While I no longer wear the badge, I carry the valuable lessons I learned with me everyday.

Why would I do that?
I am a ten time survivor of facing death during traumatic events, including when my ex-husband decided he wanted to kill me, and almost did.

Throughout my life, my family was doing the intervention without knowing it. Sure, I had nightmares, flashbacks, and all the other symptoms of PTSD, but it did not have a chance to take hold because it was addressed right away.

Through the research I had done for a couple of decades, I learned that there is a 30 golden window to battle trauma and take back control of my life. The symptoms had started to go away within the first month, and I was on the road to recovery.

Every now and then, things pop into my mind, but the memories no longer control my life. 

The worst one was when my ex stalked me, ignored the restraining order and every time I heard a muscle car engine rev, it sent a electrical charge through my body and I wanted to run. That went on, even after moving to Florida, far from where he lived, and long after I married my current husband.

When my cousin sent me a copy of his obituary, I stopped freaking out from the sound and began to enjoy the noise again. That comes in handy considering what I do on PTSD Patrol with car shows...although I still do not like my first reaction when I come across a Cutlass. I take a deep breath and move on to interesting pictures to take.

Knowing what all those times did to me, it was easy to understand what it was like for all the veterans and responders were dealing with, and being a family member of a Vietnam veteran, I also understood what it was like on this side of the trauma.

All of this goes into what I have done with my life since 1982, and what I do everyday. So if you find some comfort on this page, gain some knowledge, or decide that you can just copy it, now you know what is behind all of it.

Healing requires what Chaplains do because they are trusted with being able to listen without judging, comfort when needed and let you know that minute you start to address what happened, that is the minute you begin to heal as a survivor of it. 

First I listen. Most of the time, it is over a cup of coffee or at an event when someone sees what I am wearing. A shirt with PTSD Patrol or my Point Man vest, lets them know I am someone willing to listen.

Then I guide them to understanding what PTSD is and let them know how to kick it out of their new normal as a survivor. And then...it is time to work on the spiritual side of healing so they can come out on the other side even better than they were before. You know, like me! 

None of what I do would have worked had I not had the life I had...or learned to become a leader to healing those who risk their lives to save people like me all the time. 

Georgia Air National Guard, first black female pilot

Georgia Air National Guard prepares to deploy its first black female pilot

Air Force Times
By: Kyle Rempfer
54 minutes ago

The Georgia Air National Guard is about to deploy its first black female pilot, Guard officials announced this week.

1st Lt. Andrea Lewis, an E-8C Joint STARS copilot with the 116th Air Control Wing, is already the first black female pilot in the history of the Georgia ANG.

1st Lt. Andrea Lewis, an E-8C Joint STARS pilot, already serves as the first black female pilot in the history of the Georgia Air National Guard. (Georgia ANG)

Soon, she’ll also be the first to deploy, said 2nd. Lt. Dustin Cole, a Guard spokesman, in a statement provided to Air Force Times.

Joint STARS use side-looking radar to locate and track moving objects behind enemy lines.

It is the Air Force’s only operational airborne platform that can maintain real-time surveillance over a corps-sized area of the battlefield, according to the service. And the 116th Air Control Wing, Lewis’ unit, is the only one that operates the E-8C and the Joint STARS mission.

Cole said he wasn’t able to release where Lewis’ deployment is taking her, due to operational security concerns.
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MOH Retired Air Force Col. Joe M. Jackson passed away

Air Force legend, Medal of Honor recipient, Joe Jackson dies at 95

Air Force Times
Kyle Rempfer
January 15, 2019

Former Air Force Lt. Col. Joe Jackson, a legendary pilot and Medal of Honor recipient, attends an awards dinner in Arlington, Va., in 2015.(DoD)

Retired Air Force Col. Joe M. Jackson, a Medal of Honor recipient, veteran of three wars and Air Force legend, has died.

The 95-year-old Jackson passed away over the weekend, according to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein, who made the announcement Monday morning.

His death leaves James P. Fleming as the only other living Air Force Medal of Honor recipient, according to Military Times Hall of Valor Curator Doug Sterner.

Jackson, a native of Newnan, Ga., was famous within the aviation and special operations community for his daring rescue of a team of Air Force combat controllers who were stranded at the besieged airfield of an abandoned Army Special Forces camp during the Tet Offensive.

His exploits saved the lives of three men, but risked his own, as the airfield had been the site of multiple U.S. aircraft shootdowns and aircrew fatalities over the past 24 hours.

Although Jackson has passed, his exploits and the significance of the battle he took part in were recorded in the Southeast Asia Monographs, Volume V-7, at the Airpower Research Institute of Maxwell Air Force Base, as well as first-person accounts archived by the Library of Congress.
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PTSD drug making nightmares worse and suicide thought stronger?

Drug used for PTSD may worsen nightmares, not reduce suicidal thoughts

Medical Press
Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
November 19, 2018

McCall reconfirmed in 2013 in The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine the link between insomnia and nightmares and how losing hope of ever getting another good night's sleep itself is a risk factor for suicide.

Nightmares and insomnia often accompany posttraumatic stress disorder and increase suicide risk.

Dr. W. Vaughn McCall, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia. Credit: Phil Jones, Senior Photographer, Augusta University

A small study looking at whether the drug prazosin, best known for treating high blood pressure but also used to treat PTSD-related sleep problems, can reduce suicidal thoughts has yielded surprising results.

They indicate it may actually worsen nightmares and insomnia and doesn't reduce suicidal thinking, investigators report in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

"I think we have to view this as not the final word on this, but it raises questions," says Dr. W. Vaughn McCall, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

McCall is currently seeking input from PTSD experts across the country but says a likely consensus could be that prazosin may help some, but may not be a good choice when suicide is an active concern.

Two larger studies in active and retired military personnel yielded mixed results as well, the first in active duty military showed it helped with nightmares and sleep quality and a follow-up study just published this year on military veterans with chronic PTSD indicated it was no better than placebo.

McCall's pilot study is the first in which all participants had suicidal thoughts or actions.

"It did not seem to do much for suicidal ideation and that was somewhat disappointing, but the thing what was mind-blowing was that is actually worsened nightmares," says McCall. "Maybe it's not for everybody." He notes that with PTSD, a patient's nightmares often focus on the trauma that produced their disorder.
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Innocent Georgia man released after murder conviction

Man charged with killing girlfriend released from jail when police find new suspect by chance

WSBTV.com
By: Rikki Klaus
Oct 18, 2018

CLARKSON, Ga. - A Georgia man accused of murdering his girlfriend two years ago is now out of jail after a shell casing led police to a very different suspect.

Kendra Roberts was found shot to death on the side of the road in Macon, Georgia, in 2016. Authorities thought her boyfriend did it but discovered that shell casings found near the crime scene matched a gun belonging to the suspect in another crime.

Daniel Hall, then 22, was arrested in the 2016 shooting death of Kendra Roberts, 27, in Bibb County. Police say Roberts was found shot to death on the side of the road near Macon.

Hall spent two years in jail accused of Roberts’ murder.

A man arrested in Clarkson days after the killing has now been charged with her murder.

According to federal documents, Bell has been treated by Veteran's Affairs and has a history of PTSD and homicidal and suicidal thoughts. He was charged with firing a gun in Pine Lake in 2015 and for shoplifting this year.
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'I look pretty well preserved for being dead for 26 years'

Iraq veteran finds out VA has declared her dead
WLOS News
by Raphael Pires
August 29th 2018

What she also didn’t expect is having to prove she was alive when she came back.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — A Candler veteran who was trying to get medical treatment through Veterans Affairs found out the agency has declared her dead.

"I said, 'I look pretty well preserved for being dead for 26 years,'" Judith Herren, an Iraq War veteran, said.

Herren said the problem started back in November when she decided to consider getting treatment at Charles George Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville.

"They couldn't process anything because I was listed as ‘deceased’ in September of 1991," Herren said.

Herren served in the military for eight years -- four in the Army and four in the National Guard, where she found herself in Iraq.

"We were the first units in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and we really didn’t know what to expect," Herren said.
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"Golden Knight" Soldier killed in plane crash in Georgia

Army soldier among 4 dead when skydiving plane crashes at Georgia airport
FOX News
By Travis Fedschun
August 26, 2018

A U.S. Army soldier was among four people killed when a plane carrying a group of skydivers crashed at a Georgia airport on Saturday, officials said.

Aliaksandr "Slex" Bahrytsevich was off duty when he died in the plane crash, the U.S. Army said. (US Army)

The crash happened around 2 p.m. at the East Georgia Regional Airport in Swainsboro, located about 90 miles southeast of Macon, FOX54 reported.

Aliaksandr "Slex" Bahrytsevich, 31, was off-duty when he died, but served most recently as a demonstrator on the Golden Knights Black Demonstration Team, the post said. He is survived by his mother, Nattallia, and father, Mikhail.
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