Local & State Headlines

More charges for Lee teens in farm theft

• More theft charges are pending against four Lee County teens charged with stealing farm equipment, the Terrell County sheriff says.

Susan McCord

DAWSON — Four Lee County men remained in the Terrell County Jail Wednesday on charges they stole items such as a peanut picker and corn grinder from a Ben Arthur Road farm in western Terrell County, Sheriff John Bowens said.

Arrested Saturday after farmer Tim McPherson shot out the tire of their fleeing vehicle around 6:30 a.m. were David Brandon Payne, 17, Ryan Edward Edmonds, 17, Dean Kyle Napolitano, 18, Lindsey Clark Purvis, 18, and Homer Pierce Tyson, 17, all of Leesburg, Bowens said.

Edmonds was rearrested shortly after he and Payne were released Tuesday on $10,000 bond when investigators charged him with additional thefts, he said.

Napolitano has been released on his own recognaissance after the investigation showed he was present Saturday but “really wasn’t involved,” Bowens said.

Bond for the other men has been set at $10,000, but additional charges based on other thefts in Terrell and other counties are pending, he said.

Lee State Prison canines and Georgia State Patrol arrived with ground patrols to search for the men, who fled the vehicle after McPherson flattened its tire, Bowens said.

“I think the dogs flushed them out of the woods,” he said. “They were caught within two hours of the time the crime was committed.”

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