Georgia trio arrested in W’burg for cashing stolen checks

If you’re going to steal Social Security checks and attempt to cash them using fake identification cards, then here’s a tip: it’s probably a bad idea to put a man’s picture on the ID with a woman’s name.

This is the lesson to be learned from a Georgia trio, who are behind bars in Whitley County for allegedly trying to cash stolen Georgia checks at the Williamsburg Wal-Mart.

About 11:14 p.m. Wednesday, Williamsburg police charged Keyon L. "Black" Felder, 22, and Maurice "Fred" Shuler, 23, both of Atlanta, and Jamilyn Victoria "Jamie" Henton, 19, of Lithonia, Ga., each with 43 counts first-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

Williamsburg police discovered 19 U.S. Treasury checks totaling $16,709 and 19 fake identification cards in their vehicle.

"They were good IDs. They were out of the state of Oregon. We are still trying to determine how those were made. They were some of the best fake ID’s I have ever seen," said Williamsburg Police Chief Wayne Bird.

The trio pleaded not guilty during their Whitley District Court arraignments Thursday afternoon.

Judge Cathy Prewitt scheduled a March 18 preliminary hearing in their cases, appointed the public advocate’s office to represent each defendant and set $50,000 cash bonds in each of their cases.

Both the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Service are also involved in the investigation.

Bird said that Felder and Shuler cashed five checks totaling $9,000 at the Williamsburg Wal-Mart on March 11.

Two other checks were cashed on March 7 at the Williamsburg Wal-Mart and police and store officials are in the process of retrieving the checks and reviewing security footage.

About 11 p.m. Wednesday, Felder and Shuler allegedly tried to pass two other stolen checks but when Wal-Mart refused to cash the checks and called police, the duo fled the store and entered a 2007 black Chevy Tahoe with Georgia license plates, Bird said.

Williamsburg Police Capt. Eddie Cain and Officer Brandon White observed the vehicle exiting the Wal-Mart parking lot and the officers followed the vehicle east on Ky. 92W until it turned into the parking lot of the Super 8 Motel.

At this point police conducted a traffic stop and observed numerous government checks and identification cards in the back seat of the vehicle in plain view.

All three occupants inside the vehicle were taken into custody.

"I think the plan was to get a room but that got interrupted by a traffic stop," Bird noted.

Williamsburg police soon obtained a search warrant and confiscated several items from inside the vehicle, including the stolen checks, fake identification cards and $2,055 cash.

Bird said that Henton was inside the vehicle, but did not go inside Wal-Mart Wednesday night.

Bird said that a woman was with Felder and Shuler on March 11 when they cashed the five checks at Wal-Mart.

"We are in the process of looking at surveillance with U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Service to try and determine if it was the same female, who was with them last night or a different female," Bird said Thursday afternoon.

"It was definitely the same two males on March 11 as it was last night."

Bird said that a different vehicle was used on March 11 than the one the trio was caught in Wednesday evening.

The checks in question are actually Social Security checks but not the typical monthly checks but instead back pay checks, Bird said.

When someone applies for Social Security, they sometimes don’t receive it right away and are entitled to collect the back pay between the time they applied and the time they started receiving it, he noted.

"The recipients of these checks, according to what secret service has told me, probably didn’t know they had been awarded back pay," Bird said.

"They say a lot of times the recipients will receive the check before they do the letter. Some of these recipients probably didn’t know they had been awarded back pay."

The suspects left Georgia traveling on I-75 and are believed to have targeted several Wal-Mart stores from Georgia to as far north as London, Bird noted.

"Williamsburg just happened to have a Wal-Mart right off the interstate. I guess that was convenient for them," he added.
Bird said that while the identification cards were good forgeries, the cards had pictures of different black males but female names on them.

"With Wal-Mart being so busy, they didn’t’ take the time to look. They weren’t looking at the pictures, they were looking at the names," he added.

Williamsburg Police Detective Bobby Freeman is currently working with U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Service to determine how the checks were stolen.

It appears the checks have been cashed in at least three states, Bird said.