Police blotter
Woman, son plead not guilty to murder
//
A Columbia County woman and her son pled not guilty Wednesday to fatally beating a Grovetown woman in March.
Rebecca Bowers Sears, 41, and Christopher Sean Bowers, 20, pled not guilty to murder, armed robbery and burglary in an arraignment hearing at Columbia County Justice Center.
Sears, of 227 Hot Springs Drive, Grovetown, and Bowers, of the 4000 block Briarwood Drive, Martinez, are accused in the March 25 death of Laverne "Kay" Parsons, Sears' next-door neighbor.
District Attorney Ashley Wright has said she plans to seek the death penalty.
A bond hearing had been scheduled Wednesday, too, but it was postponed while defense attorneys review paperwork, said Sears' attorney, Victor Hawk. Hawk said a date for the bond hearing hasn't been set.
Attorneys and prosecutors will meet July 7 to hear motions. No trial date has been set.
The following accounts were taken from reports from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Additional reports are at www.columbiacountyso.org:
West Virginia man kidnapped, robbed
A man told police Monday that someone used a knife to rob and kidnap him.
The 75-year-old said that about 1:30 p.m. a Hispanic man used a knife to threaten and kidnap him from the parking lot of the Kroger at 4355 Washington Road in Evans. His attacker got into his car and stole $190 from him.
They drove to two bank machines -- a CSRA Federal Credit Union ATM on North Belair Road and an ATM at Pollards Corner -- where the kidnapper used the man's card to get about $500.
The robber drove his victim to Clanton Road, where he got into a black Ford F-150 pickup that had been following them.
Police search for robbery suspect
Columbia County authorities searched for a man who robbed a Martinez Walgreens on Monday.
Wearing a hat, tan shirt and blue denim pants, the man took a bottle of water to the cashier of the drugstore at 3900 Washington Road.
When the cashier opened the register the robber pushed her away, reached into the register and took cash.
Owners in yard, medications stolen
A Martinez resident told police that a man visiting his yard entered his house and stole several bottles of medicine.
The 79-year-old said he and his wife were working in the yard when his wife noticed a skinny white man wearing a light-colored shirt and blue jeans.
The stranger asked whether they needed any trees trimmed. When they said no, the visitor got into a small pickup and left.
When the resident went into his home, he noticed that two pairs of reading glasses and nine bottles of prescription medication were missing from the kitchen table.