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Volume 150
CRAWFORDVILLE, GA 30631 TALIAFERRO COUNTY, MARCH 29, 2024 NUMBER 13
Taliaferro County Ag Ed/
Community Garden News
TYRIQ LONG
CENTRAL REGION
WINNER
VEGETABLE
PRODUCTION
PROFCIENCY 1
Congratulations to Tyriq!!! He will compete at the state level at
the end of April!
Craft a Bird Feeder
Saturday, April 6,1 PM
Come join us to craft
homemade bird feeders.
Supplies will be provided, and
participants will be able to take
home their finished feeder. $3
program fee, $5 parking.
Allergen warning: peanut
butter will be used.
May be cancelled due to
inclement weather.
A. H. Stephens
State Park
For more information,
email AH_Stephens_Park@
dnr.ga.gov Park Office: 456
Alexander St, Crawfordville
GA,30631.
SR 44 overnight lane closures
scheduled on Lake Oconee bridge
WHAT: The Georgia Department of Transportation has scheduled
several overnight single lane closures to perform maintenance on
the Lake Oconee bridge.
WHEN: April 1, 2 and 3, weather permitting, between the hours
of 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. the following day.
WHERE: State Route (SR) 44 on the Lake Oconee bridge at the
Putnam/Greene county line. This will impact traffic from milepost
(MP) 21 to 22.4 in Putnam County and MP 0.0 to 1.0 in Greene
County.
Jail closure for
renovation project
The Greene County Sheriffs
Office Jail Operations will
be closed and moved to the
Morgan County Sheriffs Office
Jail located at 1380 Monticello
Road, Madison, Georgia
30650 for approximately eight
months.
During this time if you or
someone you know is arrested
for any offense you will have to
travel to Madison to be bonded
out or to bond them out. While
at the Morgan County Jail we
will be adhering to their policy
and procedures as it relates to
visitation, bonding procedures,
booking procedures, healthcare,
phone calls, commissary, and
other related matters. The phone
number to the Morgan County
Jail is (706) 342-2164. We will
have Greene County Detention
Officers on site assisting the
Morgan County Jail Staff and will
be using the same Jail Doctor
and Nurse for the healthcare of
Greene County Inmates. We do
understand that this will be an
inconvenience to our citizens
here in Greene County and will
make every effort to assist the
families of those who have been
incarcerated and the inmates.
If you have any questions,
cares, or concerns please feel
free to call us at (706) 453-3351
Extension 306, (M-F from 8-5).
After normal work hours please
contact the Morgan County
Jail at (706) 342-2164 and
we will be glad to answer any
questions that you may have.
Thank you for your patience and
understanding.
Luke 24: 6. He is not
here, but is risen:
remember how he spake
unto you when he was yet
in Galilee,
7. Saying, The Son of man
must be delivered into the
hands of sinful men, and
be crucified, and the third
day rise again.
TCS Track and Field Meet Championship
Kenya White won three
medals in three separate events
at Middle Georgia Track and
Field meet.
Taliaferro County Middle
School Track and Field teams
competed in the Middle Georgia
Championships. TCS sent
ten athletes but there were 80
total from Taliaferro, Greene,
Warrenton and Wilkes Counties.
Alqueno Harrison
TCS top performers were:
Kenya White: 1st place-400
meter run, 2nd place-110 high
hurdles: and 2nd place-long
jump
Alqueno Harrison: 1st place
1600 meter run; 2nd place 800
meter run
Jayden Davis: 3rd place 400
meter run
Kemarious Williams
Kemarious Williams: 1st
place shot put
Autumn Turner: 3rd place
shot put
That’s quite an impressive
showing for TCS against larger
schools.
Congratulations Coach
Adrian Harper and Coach
Tomeka Harris.
Lunch and Learn
Thomas Macfie, Donna
Taylor, Jane Kuehn, Renee
Brown, Katie Price, Elaine
Rivera, Joe Martin and Avanell
Peters enjoyed lunch at Nick’s
last Thursday. The Master
Gardeners in Taliaferro County
meet every third Thursday of the
month for lunch and a speaker.
This months’ speaker was Katie
Price who talked about shrubs
and landscape plants and times
to prune them. At the April 18
meeting, Donna Taylor will
talk about pollinators and their
importance in our gardens.
Please join in, even if you’re
not a Master Gardener, you
may learn something about how
to grow your own food, how to
preserve it and enjoy it.
Sparta man pleads guilty
to voluntary manslaughter
Judge Burleson sentences him to a maximum of 20 years in prison
BY BILLY W. HOBBS, Herald-Journal Correspondent
A 22-year-old Sparta man
who was facing the possibility of
a murder conviction this week in
Hancock County Superior Court,
suddenly changed his mind about
a jury deciding his fate Monday
morning.
Treyvion Markise Crayton
apparently also learned that had
he been convicted by a jury of
murder that he could have been
facing the possibility of a life
sentence in prison with or without
the possibility of parole.
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit
Assistant District Attorney (ADA)
Blayne May, who had planned
to prosecute the case along with
Chief Assistant District Attorney
Allison ‘Alley” Mauldin, said
when they got into the courtroom
Monday, Crayton’s defense
attorney, Kevin Stroberg, Chief
Assistant Public Defender of the
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit, talked
with his client.
‘‘He then came up to us and
asked would the state consider
anything less than 20 years,
and we said no,” ADA May
said in a telephone interview
Monday afternoon. “We told him
if he wanted to do a blind plea to
voluntary manslaughter and let
the judge decide the sentence,
then we would agree to that
plea.”
ADA May explained that a
blind plea means that the State
agreed to the defendant pleading
to voluntary manslaughter and
even though both sides had
a recommendation as to the
sentence, neither side had an
agreed upon recommendation.
It meant that Ocmulgee
Judicial Circuit Superior Court
Judge Alison T. Burleson could
decide the sentence of the
defendant based within the
bounds of the statute, ADA May
said.
As it turned out, Crayton
entered a plea of guilty to
voluntary manslaughter in the
Nov. 19, 2022 fatal shooting of
39-year-old Robert May III, a
former Milledgeville resident,
who lived with his girlfriend in
Sparta.
Immediately after Crayton
pleaded guilty to a charge of
voluntary manslaughter, ADA
May said he shared some
evidence to show the judge
several photographs of how
gruesome the crime was along
with tenuring some video from a
neighbor’s home security camera
of the actual shooting.
“I played that home security
video and then I played some
video of the defendant at
his house that showed him
reenacting the killing,” May said.
“He actually reenacted shooting
an AR-style rifle, and holding
it straight down and then he
actually stops.”
Crayton fired two gunshots
into the shoulders of the victim
before he pulled the trigger and
fired 10 more gunshots into
May’s face and head.
“It was gruesome,” the lead
prosecutor said.
Prior to Burleson imposing
the sentence against Crayton,
May’s mother, Betty Simmons, of
Milledgeville, addressed the court
with victim impact statements.
Simmons talked about how
much she missed her son and
that no matter what happened
she was never going to see or
talk with him again.
She later asked the judge to
impose the maximum sentence
against Crayton,
ADA May said Stroberg
argued there would have been
some evidence of self-defense.
“I then told the judge that’s
why we agreed to a voluntary
manslaughter charge,” ADA May
said, noting he and Mauldin didn’t
believe he would have been
successful. “But he could have
made some argument as to self-
defense because there were two
firearms in our victim’s vehicle.”
One of those guns was a
Glock .40-caliber pistol and an
AR-style rifle.
The bullet-riddled body of
Robert May III was discovered
laying beside his girlfriend’s car
on College Avenue in Sparta
about 2:30 a.m. on Nov. 19,
2022.
The victim had been shot with
what authorities believe was a
high-powered rifle, which was
never found.
ADA May said it was never
known by authorities as to what
exactly happened between the
two men that led to the shooting.
The case was jointly
investigated by deputies and
investigators with the Hancock
County Sheriffs Office and the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation
Region 6 Office in Milledgeville,
who later became the lead law
enforcement agency.
Crayton will remain in
the Hancock County Jail in
Sparta until he is transferred
for processing at the Georgia
Classification Prison near
Jackson and then assigned to
another prison within the Georgia
Department of Corrections.
