Dougherty Grand Jury issues three murder indictments for November term

ALBANY — The first Dougherty County Grand Jury empaneled since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic began is expected to wrap up its work of hearing some 300 criminal cases next week.

The 23 grand jurors selected for the November term met last week and will meet again this week, according to Dougherty County District Attorney Greg Edwards.

During their session last week jurors indicted three men in two separate homicide cases.

Maurice Antwon Shorter and Tyshon Bobby Jones were indicted on counts of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, Edwards said during a Wednesday telephone interview.

The pair previously had not been charged in the April 2018 slaying of Dominique Alexander Hunt, he said.

“We were able to develop the case and move forward with gathering evidence to try this case,” Edwards said.

Randy Barney Jr. was indicted on counts of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in a January slaying, the district attorney added.

In another case, Jenna Marie Giddens was indicted on multiple counts of theft by taking. Giddens is accused of the theft of thousands of dollars from her employer, Single Source, over the course of several years by taking cash and making unauthorized charges on a company card, Edwards said.

While there has been no meeting of grand jurors since early in the year, Edwards said he and his staff have continued to investigate criminal cases and had about 300 ready to present.

Edwards said he is in no hurry to try to seat another grand jury any time soon, as the logistics of picking 23 from a small pool of individuals was challenging enough. For criminal trial juries, the pool selected to choose from can number up to several hundred, he added.

“We’ll get as many cases heard as we can,” he said of the coming Wednesday session.

Local courts were given the authority to hold grand jury hearings if the court system deemed they could be handled safely.

Prospective jurors selected for the Dougherty grand jury were brought in in small groups to comply with social distancing guidelines, and workers thoroughly disinfected the meeting room with the departure of each group.

The process was time-consuming but allowed Edwards’ staff to present the backlog of cases.

“That’s been problematic, and that’s why we’re not going to attempt to select a new grand jury in January,” he said. “We might do it in February. We’ve been able to catch up, mostly on these homicide cases we were ready to do. That’s been at least a positive.”

File Photo: Carlton Fletcher