About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (April 27, 2022)
Wednesday, April 27,2022 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A Harper indicted in Forsyth for Bender murder DCN Regional Staff A man previously convicted in Dawson County and sentenced to 20 years in prison and 10 years of probation for his part in the death of 21-year-old Hannah Bender in 2019 has been indicted in Forsyth County. In April, Jerry Harper was indicted by the Forsyth County Superior Court on counts of con cealing the death of another and tampering with evidence of Bender’s murder. Per the indictment, Harper concealed Bender’s death by burying her body and concealing a Mazda truck to prevent the arrest of Austin Stryker, who was found guilty of all 24 charges levied against him, including malice murder, in Bender’s death. At the end of October, Harper pleaded guilty to charges of rack eteering activity involving a homicide, a violation of Georgia’s street gang law; hin dering the apprehension or pun ishment of a criminal and a con nected gang violation. The state agreed to not prosecute Harper on charges of theft of a vehicle and a connected street gang vio lation. Despite Harper’s attorney, John Warr, arguing for leniency given Harper’s multiple medical conditions, in December, Harper received 20 years in prison for the gang charge involving racke teering of homicide. For the hindering count, he received five years to be run con currently with the previous sen tence. Harper received 10 years of probation for the other gang violation. This last count will fol low the prison time consecutive ly- Northeastern Judicial Circuit Judge Kathlene Gosselin explained that she gave Harper probation, rather than parole, so he could be supervised if he eventually is let out of prison. She said probation wasn’t appropriate, given “what he did and what he knew” and added that groups like the alleged gang “THIS” don’t have to be success ful to then be considered a gang. “I can’t understand how you engendered the blind devotion,” said Gosselin, looking at Harper. “You had an opportunity...to be a voice of good [to young adults], and instead you were not. You were a voice of frighten ing evil and scary things.” Harper offered his plea on Oct. 29, just three days before Stryker’s murder trial began. However, documents related to Harper’s plea hearing were not released until Nov. 15, where Senior Assistant District Attorney Conley Greer clarified that the state did not have a negotiated plea agreement nor a plea offer or pending one with Harper. “I can look in his eyes and know he has remorse for every thing that’s happened...with this tragedy,” Harper’s sister, Cheryl Harper Lovett, said during sen tencing. Hannah Bender’s mother, Carol Gilreath, spoke during Harper’s sentencing and showed pictures of their family’s match ing sentimental tattoos to the courtroom. “We were robbed,” Gilreath said. “Everything was taken from us, from her being able to grow up to her having kids...when they took her, they took a piece of me, too. I’m thankful for y’all (the court) for fighting so hard for her.” During the sentencing, ADA Greer also admitted into evi dence Facebook messages between Bender and Gilreath in the months leading up to her daughter’s death. In those mes sages, Bender said Harper had raped her. Multiple witnesses during the trial said they thought Harper had raped Bender. However, no charges have been filed against Harper for this alleged offense. Just days after Harper’s sen tencing, Stryker received a sen tence of life without the possibil ity of parole for murdering Bender. He was also sentenced to 20 years for aggravated battery, five years for each of his weapon pos session counts and another 10 years for concealing the death of another. Many of his sentences were concurrent with the malice murder count. Bender was killed in the early morning hours of Sept. 15, 2019, while riding in a Mazda pickup truck with Stryker and Isaac Huff, according to previous court testimony. As the truck neared the Sweetwater Juno Road area of Dawson County, Stryker shot Bender in the head without warn ing, according to Huff’s testimo ny from a plea hearing in April. Testimony from Stryker and a GBI medical examiner who testi fied at his trial suggested that the gunshot may not have been immediately fatal. After shooting her, Stryker reportedly stabbed Bender at least 32 times. She was later buried in a shallow grave in North Forsyth County, where her remains were found on Sept. 25, 2019. As part of his testimony during his plea hearing and Stryker’s trial, Huff talked about his, Stryker’s and others’ connection to the “THIS” gang in the months leading up to Bender’s death. Huff and Dylan Reid, another alleged gang member, both said that Stryker’s motive to kill Bender was tied to his belief that she might go to police about his alleged armed robbery of a Dahlonega store in July 2019. The lead investigator for Bender’s murder case, Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Kristin Perry, recounted that Harper’s statements only had the appearance of initial cooperation, given how his words conflicted with other information and how he initially withheld some details. During interviews, Harper told GBI agents about seeing Bender’s body in the toolbox Stryker had brought over to the property where his camper was. So, Perry said she thought Harper knew more than what he was initially saying. Defense and prosecuting attor neys disagreed about the extent of Harper’s involvement with the murder, “THIS” and whether he was the gang’s leader. As mentioned in multiple co defendants’ previous trial testi mony, the prosecution reiterated Harper seeing the bloody Mazda truck where Bender was killed and telling Stryker to clean it up. They elaborated that Harper coordinated taking the vehicle to a friend’s property to sell. At that same property, Harper was said to be present while Stryker buried Bender’s remains. “He had no direct knowledge... yes, it’s horrible for a decent per son to do. He should’ve known better,” said Warr of Harper, “but he chose to help them after the fact [of the murder].” Other defendants Huff and Reid have both already been sentenced for their roles in attempting to cover up Bender’s killing. During a hearing in April 2021, they both pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, aggravated battery, a street gang violation and concealing the death of another. At that time, Reid also pleaded guilty to tampering with evidence. Huff will spend 12 years in prison and 18 years on probation for his role in Bender’s death. Reid will spend 20 years in jail and 15 on probation. Elizabeth Donaldson, Stryker’s wife, was arrested in October 2019 and charged with conceal ing the death of another and tam pering with evidence. She allegedly helped move Bender’s remains to a Blacks Mill Road residence on Sept. 16 and strip interior parts from the truck where Bender was mur dered. Bailey Diane Williams, also arrested in October 2019, faces a tampering with evidence charge in Lumpkin County for her role in allegedly helping dispose of Bender’s belongings after her murder. She will stand trial on May 2 starting at 9 a.m. within the Lumpkin County Courthouse, according to pub lished legal notices. FROM 1A Council exceed 220 lots and a den sity of 1.82 units per acre, and that the applicant put funds toward a future roundabout to be build at Perimeter Road and Highway 9 South. In public hearings held by both the planning com mission and the city coun cil, residents of properties near the tracts to be rezoned spoke against the request, raising several concerns including increased traffic, the impact on the school sys tem and the effect on the native flora and fauna in the area in question. In response to the public concerns and to the recom mendations by the plan ning commission, the applicant amended the application ahead of the council’s March 21 meet ing to help reduce the impact on the area. Before the council voted on the request at this week’s meeting, Corey Guthrie, the civil engineer presenting the proposed layout on behalf of the applicant, spoke to the council and described a few of the amendments that the applicant has made since the original proposal in response to the planning commission’s suggestions. These amendments included increasing the buffer adjoining Apple Ridge subdivision to a total of 100 feet, with a 75-foot undisturbed buffer and a 25-foot planted buffer, and increasing the stream buf fers to a total of 75 feet, with a 50-foot undisturbed stream buffer and a 25-foot impervious setback. The applicant also agreed to drop the total number of lots down from 236 to 220, increase the open space from 34 acres to at least 40 acres, and to build the development in a phase construction. The developer would also con tribute $1000 per lot towards improvements to the Perimeter Road and Highway 9 South intersec tion as suggested by the planning commission. Before voting on the request, council member Caleb Phillips read through the planning commission’s recommendations and described the house size that would be acceptable to build if the request was approved. “A minimum of 20 per cent of the homes for the entire development have to be over 2200 square feet, a minimum of 45 percent for the entire development have to be over 2000 square feet, a maximum of 35 percent of the homes for the entire development can be less than 1800 and 20 percent of the homes can be less than 1600,” Phillips said. He added that all houses should be at least 1500 heated square feet and that they should all have a brick or stone water table across the front and both sides. Phillips made a motion to approve the rezoning request with all of the stip ulations described, saying that he feels that this cre ates a good compromise between the developer, existing residents and the city. “Some of us have worked hard on this, talk ing and trying to make it fair for the neighbors and the community, what’s best for the community, and I think we’ve done that,” Phillips said. “In total I think that’s a good com promise, and I think that’ll be a good product.” Council members voted to approve the request with the stipulations discussed, with council member Mark French voting against the request. Perimeter Road annexation and rezoning request tabled Council members also voted to indefinitely table a request submitted by Allen Street Properties, LLC and B & K Turner Family, LLP, which petitioned the city to annex 32.937 acres into the city and rezone it from County Zoning of Residential Sub Rural (RSR) and Restricted Agriculture (RA) to City Zoning of Single Family Residential (R3). Under the original appli cation, the developer asked for almost 75 acres to be annexed and rezoned, but amended the application to include just over 70 acres to construct a proposed 124-lot subdivision. Most recently, the appli cant amended the request again to include only Tract 2 of the original proposal, which is 32.937 acres, to allow for the construction of 65 units with a residen tial density of 1.97 units per acre, and limited to a maximum number of 75 units at 2.28 units per acre. The original application was submitted to the city in August of 2020 and addressed in several public hearings in both the city’s planning commission and the council meetings, and the planning commission recommended denial of the request in September of 2021. The city council was originally set to make a decision to approve or deny the request in October of 2021, but the decision has been post poned several times since then due to the applicant or the city still working through details. Because of this, City Attorney Kevin Tallant told the council members that it would make more sense to table the decision indefinitely rather than keep pushing it to the next meeting each time. “We’ve been having a situation where we keep delaying this and keep delaying this because of several different issues that we’re trying to get worked out,” Tallant said. “Rather than just keep putting this back on an agenda over and over and over again for it to be tabled over and over and over again, anoth er option the city would have would be to lay this on the table for an indefi nite period of time. That would allow us to get all these issues worked out that the city’s been trying to work out for so long, and then through a motion to take it off the table and put it back on the agenda the city could give every body a very clear picture of when it’s gonna actually be done.” Tallant added that the applicants have come to every meeting that the request has been on the agenda for, so tabling the request indefinitely would also keep them from hav ing to attend every meeting just to have the decision postponed. Once all of the details have been worked through, the council can vote again to take it off the table and place it on an upcoming agenda and vote on it at that time. Council members voted unanimously to table the request indefinitely. ■■■ IBIIHBII dm mi VAVITA COMMUNITY PARTNERS Avita Community Partners provides behavioral health, developmental disability, and addiction services to individuals and their families. Services: •Assist with increased housing stability • Psychiatric Medication Management •Assist with job related activities • Family Therapy • Individual Therapy • Recovery Maintenance • Referral & Linkage Avita Community Partners provides Crisis Intervention Services at all service centers during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) After hours crisis services are accessible at 1-800-347-5827. 671 Lumpkin Camp Ground Rd S Suite 100, Dawsonville, GA 30534 (678) 866-8777 www.avitapartners.org Dawson County Humane Society a no kill shelter Doggy Spotlight Meet our sweet Buddy! There’s nothing this guy likes more than getting pets and giving hugs. He would make an excellent running buddy and would do best with an active adopter who wants a constant companion to do all sorts of adventuring with. At training, his eager to please attitude will make him a breeze to train. One of the reasons Buddy has been with us so long is because, while he is extremely trusting and loving towards women, he can be very suspicious and reactive towards men. You can imagine, this has caused some hinderance when it comes to adoption. Buddy’s ideal home will need to understanding of his suspicious nature and help to teach him to trust all people again. Buddy is about four years old and weighs 56 pounds. 706-265-9160 Buddy For more information contact the 706-265-9160 | 633 Martin Rd, Dawsonville Dawson County Humane Society Adjacent to the Rock Creek Sports Complex Visit our RESALE SHOP & BOUTIQUE Wed. - Sat. 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. | 54 S. Lumpkin Campground Rd. Bradley M. Maple CPA, PC 706-216-2362 2390 Thompson Rd • Ste 100 Dawsonville Dawsonville Veterinary Hospital 706-265-8381 All proceeds benefits the Humane Society ANH Collision Specialists 706-216-0992 103 Industrial Park Road, Dawsonville
