Ike Reighard, senior pastor of Piedmont Church and CEO of MUST Ministries, was named the Marietta Citizen of the Year Thursday by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
Reighard was surprised with the honor at the chamber’s Marietta council luncheon following Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin’s State of the City address.
As Tumlin announced Reighard as the Citizen of the Year, the pastor shook his head in disbelief.
Tumlin cited the famous New Testament verse, Matthew 25:35 — “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,” — to describe Reighard’s service to the community. Reighard joined MUST Ministries in 2011. The organization provides assistance to families and individuals in need, from food drives and fundraisers to the Hope House Emergency Shelter, which sleeps 136 residents.
After receiving a standing ovation, Reighard made his way to the front of the room and accepted the award from Tumlin and Andy Gaines, the 2022 Marietta Area Council director.
Two former Amazon employees who worked at an Amazon warehouse in Smyrna pleaded guilty after being accused of stealing nearly $10 million from the company, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
The defendants stole the funds while employed at the company in managerial and loss prevention roles, prosecutors said, and spent it on real estate, sports cars and jewelry.
Ryan K. Buchanan, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said that Kayricka Wortham of Atlanta and Demetrius Hines of Smyrna used their positions at the e-commerce and tech giant to submit more than $10 million in fictitious invoices for fake vendors, leading the company to pay approximately $9.4 million to Wortham, Hines and co-conspirators.
As part of their sentencing, Wortham and Hines will forfeit cash and assets purchased with the stolen funds, prosecutors said. For Wortham, that includes more than $2.7 million, a Smyrna residence (purchased for more than $900,000), a 2019 Lamborghini Urus, a 2021 Dodge Durango, a 2022 Tesla Model X, a 2018 Porsche Panamera and a Kawasaki ZX636 motorcycle. Hines will forfeit more than $600,000, along with a 2022 Suzuki GSX1300 Motorcycle, a 2013 Ford Shelby Mustang, a 2021 Ford F-150 Black Widow, a Rolex Day-Date watch, a diamond bracelet and a diamond necklace.
Wortham, 31, also known as Kayricka Dupree or Kayricka Young, was the leader of the scheme and worked as an operations manager at Amazon from August 2020 to March 2022 at the Smyrna warehouse, according to prosecutors.
A Marietta man was sentenced to life in prison for aggravated sodomy, the Cobb County District Attorney’s office announced Wednesday.
Travis Leonard Hudson, 50, was sentenced by Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark Monday after he was found guilty by a jury on November 18, according to a news release from the DA’s office.
Prosecutors said Hudson’s trial began Nov. 14, and that he was tried for sexually assaulting a female acquaintance on the night of March 12, 2021. The woman was reportedly visiting Hudson at his apartment and woke up to him assaulting her. Following an investigation by the Cobb County Police Department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit, Hudson was arrested in June of last year. During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Hilleren presented the testimony of law enforcement, the victim, medical professionals and other evidence, the release said.
An Acworth woman and alleged gang member previously convicted for her involvement in the murder of a 17-year-old in Bartow County has been sentenced to more than a decade in federal prison, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Jennifer Foutz, 30, received 12 years in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, after she pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting murder in aid of racketeering, and aiding and abetting the use of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence resulting in death, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.
Gary Terrell Davis was sentenced this week for his role in the murder, the last of eight alleged members or associates of northwest Georgia’s 135 Pirus gang accused in the murder.
The lead defendant in the case, Maurice Antonio Kent, 32, of Cartersville, was found guilty of four felonies in May. On Aug. 24, Kent was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison to be followed by three years of supervised release. Others convicted in the case included Christopher Nwanjoku, 30, of Lawrenceville, Jamel Dupree Hughes, 27, of Atlanta, Cedric Sams, 29, of Cartersville, Michael Kent, 32, of Atlanta and DaSean Dorey, 29, of Decatur. Foutz, also known as “Rose,” had previously been arrested in connection to an unrelated shooting at an Acworth gas station in June 2017. Authorities said at the time she and Hughes encountered a member of another gang at the gas station. Hughes allegedly shot the member of the other gang multiple times before undercover police at the gas station working an unrelated case saw the shooting, and proceeded to pursue Foutz and Hughes, who attempted to flee in their car.
For the Marietta flag football team, it follows a simple premise. If the other team doesn't score, it can't win.
That was the case again Thursday night when the Blue Devils defeated North Gwinnett 13-0 in the quarterfinals of the Class 7A state playoffs.
With the win, Marietta moves on to play Blessed Trinity in a rematch of last year's state semifinals, a game the Blue Devils won 26-0.
For the Blue Devils, it was their eighth shutout of the season and third straight to open the playoffs. The defense was so dominant it allowed only two first downs over the first 39 minutes of the 40 minute game, and only two plays of more than five yards during that stretch. With 3:53 left to play, North Gwinnett had one last chance to try to work its way downfield to try and tie the game, instead it went backwards. A run on first down lost three yards, a botched pitch on a reverse lost seven yards and two incomplete passes gave the ball back to Marietta at the Bulldogs' 5-yard line. It took only one play for Hennessey to find Gabi O'Neill with a short touchdown pass to put the game away.
Monday's semifinal matchup will be played at the Atlanta Falcons training facility in Flowery Branch. It is the first time the final four will be played there.
The Marietta Police Department and its retiree association honored women who have worked on the force in a ceremony at City Hall on Thursday.
Jack Shields, a retired sergeant who worked for the MPD for 33 years and now organizes the department’s retiree club, had the idea for the ceremony when he heard Susan Fuder would be in town for the regular MPD retiree lunch.
Fuder, now in her 70s, became Marietta’s first woman police officer in 1972. She was an officer for 10 years, during which she worked on patrol and in crime prevention.
Shields said he figured it would be a good opportunity to recognize all women police officers. He and Marietta Chief Marty Ferrell presented Fuder with a plaque for her service.
Fuder said when she applied to be an officer, the police chief at the time asked if she was sure she didn’t want to be a secretary. She was sure — and had wanted to be a police officer since childhood.
When Fuder became an officer she said her first uniform was a skirt, despite her request for pants. That changed after she had to retrieve a stolen bicycle tossed in some brambles. Frank Fuder, her husband who coached football at Osborne and Campbell high schools, said at the time he was concerned about her safety, but knew she would do a first rate job.
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