In the Courts

The following felony cases have either been tried in a court of law or have been settled without trial and are considered closed.

• Michael Morris was sentenced in November to five years in state prison after pleading no contest to two counts grand theft, burglary of an occupied dwelling and two counts credit card fraud. Morris was arrested in May.
• Walter Mitchell was sentenced to two years probation after pleading no contest to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Two charges of aggravated assault were dropped. Adjudication was withheld. Mitchell was arrested in February after he got into an argument with another customer at Backwoods Billiards over that man’s sagging pants. At some point in the argument, Mitchell reportedly pulled out a gun and threatened the other man.
• A robbery charge against Franklin Brown was dropped in November. Brown was arrested in February after he was accused of putting on a mask and, with four other masked men, stealing a necklace from a teen as he walked home from the softball fields.
• Zhane Butler was sentenced to two years probation in November after pleading no contest to forgery and grand theft. Adjudication was withheld. Butler was arrested in February 2022 after reportedly forging work tickets and turning them in to Labor Finders. He then cashed a paycheck he did not earn in the amount of $1,960.
• Antyon Cokley was sentenced to three days in county jail in November after pleading no contest to battery. A child abuse charge was dropped. Cokley was arrested in June 2022.
• Mike Corwin was sentenced to two months probation in November and adjudication was withheld after he entered a no contest plea to possession of cocaine.
• Robert Davis was sentenced in November to one year in county jail after pleading no contest to possession of methamphetamine, tampering with evidence, introduction of contraband into a detention facility and possession of drug paraphernalia. Davis was arrested in July 2022 during a traffic stop.
• Charges of burglary, possession of burglary tools and trespass against Kienne Fitchter were dropped in October. Fitchter was arrested in April 2022 after she was accused of breaking into a man’s shed. According to the arrest report, she claimed she was just passing through on her way to a pond, so she could go fishing.
• Alyssa McCorts was sentenced in November to two years probation after pleading no contest to grand theft. Adjudication was withheld. McCorts was arrested in February 2022. Afte4r stealing money from her employer, the Country Cooler.

A no contest plea does not mean the defendant admits guilt. It means he/she chooses not to fight the charges for one reason or another. The effect of the plea is virtually identical to that of a guilty plea.

Withheld adjudication generally refers to a decision by a judge to put a person on probation without an adjudication of guilt. It means an individual is not found guilty legally by the court. If the person successfully completes the terms of probation and has no subsequent offenses, no further action will be taken on the case, and the offense for which adjudication was withheld is typically not considered a prior conviction for purposes of habitual offender sentencing.