Police blotter
No bond reduction for slaying suspect
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A Columbia County judge refused Wednesday to reduce bond for a woman accused of running down an Augusta man with a tow truck.
Victoria Nichole Brown, 20, and her husband, Michael Faron Brown, 27, of Gaston, S.C., are accused of running over William Jacobs with their tow truck April 9 while trying to repossess a vehicle from a Martinez home.
They are charged with murder. She also is charged with simple battery, and her husband also is charged with aggravated assault with a motor vehicle.
She is being held in Columbia County Detention Center in lieu of $50,000 bond, and Judge James G. Blanchard refused to lower the bond amount at a hearing Wednesday at the Columbia County Justice Center in Evans.
Michael Brown is being held in the jail without bond, according to jail records.
Woman arrested after leaving baby at restaurant
An Augusta woman who left her infant in the parking lot of an Evans fast-food restaurant was charged with first-degree cruelty to children and abandonment of child, authorities said.
Harriett Hornsby Thomas, 27, of the 2400 block of Norton Drive, was arrested July 11 after the 6-month-old was found at the McDonald's at 4264 Washington Road, according to a Columbia County sheriff's report.
About 50 minutes after police received a call from a witness, Thomas' husband, Christopher, went to the restaurant. He said his wife told him she had lost the child and remembered she had gone to McDonald's.
Sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris said neither parent notified law enforcement or called 911.
The mother was released from Columbia County Detention Center on a $27,000 bond, according to jail personnel. The infant was turned over to her grandfather by the Richmond County Department of Family and Children Services, according to the report.
Child molester sentenced to serve life in prison
A Grovetown man was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting a child.
In June, Arthur Clarence Williams Sr., 33, of Katherine Street, was convicted of four counts of child molestation, four counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of rape and two counts of incest.
Williams was accused of sexually assaulting a girl in Grovetown between April 2004 and April 2008. She was between 6 and 10 years old at the time.
Superior Court Judge James G. Blanchard sentenced Williams at a hearing at the Columbia County Justice Center in Evans.
The following accounts were taken from reports from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Reports are available at www.columbiacountyso.org:
Vandal uses ax to damage mailbox, fixtures at church
Someone damaged an Evans church with an ax last week.
An employee of West Acres Baptist Church, 555 Gibbs Road, called police about 9 a.m. Tuesday after discovering damage to several areas outside. The vandal had hit the church mailbox and damaged two columns in front with an ax.
A sign and two light fixtures in front also were damaged.
Appling woman says truck was shot with BB gun
An Appling woman told police Wednesday that someone vandalized her truck with a BB gun. She said that between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., someone broke the headlight and chipped the windshield of her Mazda pickup.