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Suspect who pled guilty testifies on day 2 of Benbow murder trial
BENBOW for web
Marcus Benbow - photo by Special
    Kendall Worthy, who pled guilty earlier this year to murder charges, testified Thursday regarding defendant Marcus Benbow's involvement in the Oct. 14, 2006 shooting spree on Orange Street that killed one man and injured two other victims.
    Benbow and three other suspects, including Worthy, were charged with killing Corey Oneil Walker, 21; and seriously injuring James Williams, 44, and Chalandria McClouden, 31. The suspects are being tried separately; Worthy pled guilty but has not yet been sentenced.
    On the second day of the trial, Worthy gave details of the incident, describing how he, Benbow, Frederico Mikell and Bryan Hughley traveled from Waycross to Statesboro with a couple of guns in the trunk of the car.
    Worthy said the group stopped and loaded an AK-47 into the trunk of the car in which they traveled, and told jurors Benbow had a "nine-round .22 with a double 9 printed on it."
    Worthy said both Benbow and Hughley were "like family," - long time family friends. But he said he was testifying because "The truth needs to be heard."
    He said Benbow was drinking liquor and snorting cocaine on the way to Statesboro, and when Mikell was making calls looking for drugs to buy in Statesboro, Benbow said "Tell' em we got $3,500 for them."
    Once in Statesboro, the four went to Mikell's mother's house and to"a bootlegger's house ... to find out where to get drugs," he said. "The bootlegger said to go to the  gambling house," which ended up being 7A Orange Street, where the shooting later occurred.
    Worthy echoed statements from witnesses testifying Wednesday, describing for the jury how Mikell asked Walker for drugs, and said Walker told him he did not have that much to sell. Then Mikell and Benbow "had words," he said.
    The four reached a street corner, where Mikell and Benbow pulled the AK-47 from the trunk through the back seat, "put in a clip and then he (Benbow) pulled a .22 from under the seat," he said.
    They returned to the Orange Street residence, and Mikell and Benbow walked back to the front door and knocked, he said. When someone answered t he door, he saw Benbow "Tussling" with James Williams, and saw Mikell drop the AK-47 in the grass and leave.
    Worthy said he then picked up the assault rifle and began firing.
    "I had to back him up," he said, referring to defending Benbow. He said he thought he fired only three times, but learned later police found six shell casings. He also told jurors he saw " a girl," whom he later learned was Chalandria McClouden, fall.
    He said he went back to the car and put the gun in the back seat, and noticed Benbow "scooping up something in a hat. We found out later it was money. He put it in his pocket."
    He said Benbow was angry that Mikell ran off.
    
@Subhead: "I'm testifying the  truth"
@Bodycopy:    Worthy admitted he lied in his preliminary statement to police, and lied later about the guns being thrown out of the car window. That never happened, he said. The guns were taken back to Waycross, and he said he lied because he did not want police finding evidence.
    He also told jurors how Benbow sent him a message via a letter to Benbow's son, who was also in jail with Worthy in Waycross. The message was "not to take a plea, to go to trial, and have my people testify I was home with them," he said.
    Benbow's public defender, attorney Steven Yekel, asked Worthy if he was testifying Thursday because of " a deal."
    "I'm testifying the truth," Worthy replied.
    '"You'd do anything to save yourself, wouldn't you?" Yekel asked.
    "How am I saving myself?" Worthy said. "I pled - I got life."
    Worthy has yet"But you haven't been sentenced yet ... you could get a different sentence," Yekel said. But Bulloch County Superior Court Judge John R. Turner admonished Yekel. "He's already testified he hasn't been sentenced."
    Ogeechee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Daphne Jarriel, prosecutor for the case, asked Worthy "Why are you here to testify?"
    "It's the truth, and the truth needs to be herd," Worthy said. "I'd like to apologize on my behalf, and I'll  accept my punishment for what I did."
    "Why did you tale the plea deal?" Yekel asked.
    "I didn't want to have to go to trial," Worthy replied.
    
@Subhead:Walker died of gunshot wounds
@Bodycopy:    Expert witnesses and detectives testified later, giving specifics on bullets and bullet fragments and other evidence found. Dr. Jacqueline Martin, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Deputy Chief Medial Examiner from Decatur, testified Walker died from two gun shots - one to his abdomen, which exited; and a second in his upper torso that pierced his lung and heart.
    The prosecution displayed autopsy photos of Walker's wounds.
    Statesboro Police Det. Sgt. James Winskey testified about his findings at the crime scene, and said he found $330 on the floor beside Walker; $2,650 in Walker's jeans; $140 on the couch in the living room; a plastic bag with 20 Ecstasy (MDMA) pills in one jacket, which no one would claim; and the following in another jacket, which Walker's family identified as his: a bag containing suspected powder cocaine, two bags filled with suspected crack cocaine, 12 small blue zipper lock bags with suspected crack, a bag of Ecstasy (MDMA) pills, a bag of marijuana and two Swisher Sweet cigars.
    Investigators also found a quantity of marijuana in a toilet.
    Other law enforcement officers testified, including two from Waycross who were involved in Benbow's capture. Statesboro Police Det. Rob Bryan testified and told jurors how Worthy broke down when he finally confessed "he murdered someone," and said he wrote Worthy's second statement for him because Worthy asked him to , stating he was too nervous and upset to write.
    Worthy signed the statement Bryan wrote as he dictated.
    Yekel asked the jury to  be excused, then asked Turner to acquit Benbow of one robbery charge, as one victim testified Wednesday he lost no money during the robbery. A quantity of cash was in the living room of the Orange Street residence during the incident because several victims were playing a dice game called C-Low. Witness Jeffrey Eason testified he had "broke even" that night and had no money in the pot.
    Turner agreed to dismiss that charge, but refused Yekel's request that the kidnapping charges be dropped.
    The trial continues today, with the defense expected to call two more witnesses. The state may call a rebuttal, and then both the prosecution and defense are expected to make closing arguments.
       
   
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Commissioners look to issue $60M in bonds to finance jail project
Voters authorized with March SPLOST referendum; board to choose between 12- or 20-year financing
Jail Schematic
Courtesy of Bulloch County Public Safety / This conceptual layout by the Goodwyn Mills Cawood firm in the county facilities study blocks out Phase 1 of the Bulloch County Jail expansion as a single building containing a 160-bed men’s housing unit and a 128-bed women’s housing unit, plus an outdoor recreation area.

Bulloch County commissioners are poised to act during their 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 6 meeting on either of two resolutions to borrow $60 million through a bond sale to finance an expansion and update of the county jail. Their choice will be between repaying the bonds in 12 years or over the course of 20 years.

No details of the options are provided in the proposed resolutions in the commissioners’ agenda folder materials, which were made publicly available Thursday. But the cover memo for this top “new business” action item states that representatives of the county’s financial advisor firm, Davenport & Company, and also the county’s bond council, Murray Barnes Finister LLC, will be at the meeting to present the options and “make their recommendations regarding the preferred option.”

In either case, the immediate funding source is the 1% Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. An 85.8% majority of Bulloch County voters in a March 18 referendum election approved a six-year extension of the SPLOST.  During that time, the penny tax is projected to raise $138 million or more for building projects and capital equipment purchases of the county government and the cities of Statesboro, Brooklet, Portal and Register.

The wording of the referendum and the intergovernmental agreement gave the jail expansion top priority as a joint project serving the county and the municipalities. It is assigned a $51 million share of the revenue up-front, far more than the other “joint and priority project” identified in the agreement, expansion of solid waste disposal capacity, which was earmarked $9.6 million.

If SPLOST revenue within six years surpasses the $138 million predicted amount so that the towns and county get their population-based shares for other projects, additional money beyond the initial $51 million would then be directed to repayment of the jail project bonds. The referendum also authorized borrowing in the form of bonds for the project up to $60 million.

 

Not all as envisioned

But even at that amount the currently proposed bond issue would not cover all the work that has been suggested for the jail and the Public Safety and Public Works campus it shares with Bulloch County Correctional Institution, or BCCI.

“This will be for Phase 1 of the overall jail expansion, and that includes a total of 288 beds, which is room for additional male and female detainees. …,” interim County Manager Randy Tillman said Thursday. “It will be an additional building that will be connected to the existing by way of a secure corridor.”

The existing jail has bout 466 beds, officially, but capacity is limited by the need to have separate areas for men and women and to segregate gang members or people with mental health issues.

Also the county’s Public Safety Division director and previously warden of BCCI, which is a county-owned facility housing state inmates under contract, Tillman worked with Sheriff Noel Brown and staff members two years ago on a larger plan for the complex. Their concept included the jail expansion, replacement of BCCI’s oldest structure and construction of  some facilities, such as the laundry, to be shared by the prison, the jail and a proposed transitional center.

But for now, the county government is moving forward with a phased approach based in a facilities study by the Goodwyn Mills Cawood, or GMC, architectural and consulting firm. As currently proposed, Phase 1 does not include the laundry facility, he said. GMC’s sketch for the layout of Phase 1 construction shows one building with a 160-bed male housing unit and a 128-bed female housing unit, plus an outdoor recreation area and new security fence.

“The next step once we secure the financing will be to go with an actual architect to develop the plans,” Tillman said. “Basically, we just have the building placement and square footage-type details. We don’t have any conceptual art at this point.”

After the financing steps next week, county officials should be able to move quickly toward a timeline for design and construction, he said.

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