Chattooga County Deputies were alerted recently to a suspicious male carrying a duffle bag entering the woods off of Underwood Drive, near Hays State Prison.
Deputies, Trion Police, Warden Jones and some of his staff reacted quickly and set up a perimeter around the area. Sheriff’s Investigator and drone pilot Daniel Sanford responded and launched his thermal drone in the area. Inv. Sanford quickly located the individual and followed him alerting other officers to his direction of travel.
The male, who had possibly been spooked by property owners hunting coyotes in the area, exited the woods in the area of the Verizon store and Hwy 27.
Deputies and an off-duty Summerville Police officer was waiting on him there. They were able to take him into custody. He gave deputies false information related to his identity and stated that he had just went into the woods to “use the bathroom”.
After he was taken into custody, law enforcement and prison officials entered the wooded area with the help of a Gordon County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit and located a large backpack in the area he was seen in. Inside the bag was 21 packages containing marijuana, tobacco, more than 20 cell phones, an electric dremel tool with metal cutting blades, a set of security bits and a hand held driver for the security bits along with other items of contraband. 2 more similar packages were found later Sunday morning by K9 Kendy and Deputy Nick Robinson in the same area.
The suspect has been identified as 22 year old, Demarco Letroy Statham Jr. of Atlanta.
According to Prison officials he had been released from a different prison in Georgia a few months earlier. He was charged with:Criminal Attempt to provide contraband to an inmate (Felony), Possession of more than an ounce of marijuana (Felony), Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute (Felony), Use of communication facility to commit a felony (Felony), Obstruction of an officer (Misd), Criminal Trespass (Misd), Loitering and prowling (Misd) and Possession of drug related objects (Misd).
“I would like to thank everyone for their quick response to this situation. My office, along with Hays State Prison staff and Warden Jones take these type calls very seriously and work together to aggressively fight the attempts of contraband introduction into the prison. The pictures show the amount of contraband attempted to be introduced as well as a thermal picture of the suspect as seen from Inv. Sanford’s position”. -Sheriff Mark A. Schrader
