Former Coosa County Sheriff Rickey Owens faced eight counts of using his office for personal gain. Owens pleaded guilty to six of those charges, and is set to be sentenced Sept. 27, according to circuit clerk Jeff Wood.
According to a press release from the Alabama Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted Owens, the former sheriff entered a blind plea of his guilt to six charges that he intentionally used his public position as sheriff for illegal personal gain.
A blind plea means the defendant pleads guilty without any agreement for prosecutors to recommend a particular punishment.
He admitted he transferred funds from the sheriff’s office work release fund into his personal “nutrition” fund, where Owens kept funds for feeding prisoners in the jail. Under state law, sheriffs have been allowed to keep for themselves leftover money from the jail food or “nutrition” funds, but not from other sheriff’s office funds such as the work release fund. Owens further admitted he received $30,250 from donations totaling $41,350 that were made from official law enforcement funds through the Alabama Sheriff’s Association to two charities: “Sistah 2 Sistah” and “Family Advocacy Community and Educational Services.” Both charities fully cooperated with the investigation.
Owens was sheriff of Coosa County from January 2004 through January 2007. He was defeated for re-election in November 2006. A subsequent audit by the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts identified $62,592 in unauthorized expenditures.
The Attorney General’s Office presented evidence to a Coosa County grand jury on Oct. 28, 2009, resulting in Owens’ indictment. Upon his conviction today, he faces a maximum penalty of 2 to 20 years in prison for each of the six charges, which are Class B felonies.
In other pleas Monday, three men pleaded guilty to murder in the 15-year-old Lay Dam murders case, and another man pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a stabbing case in Goodwater.
In the Lay Dam case, three men were each charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. L.C. Collins Jr. of Gadsden and Mickie Wayne Collins of Attalla were each sentenced to 25 years on each charge. Charles Richard Tooley of Navarre, Fla., was sentenced to life on each charge. In that case, three men were bound and set on fire in a cabin in a rural area.
Michael Stowe pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a Goodwater case in which a woman died after being stabbed. Stowe was sentenced to 20 years.
Special projects editor Jim Smothers contributed to this story.
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