Crime

Woman charged with killing elderly father

Submitted by Beth Sawicki, Where U Live Producer

Friday, May 17th, 2013, 12:47am

Woman charged with killing elderly father

BALL GROUND, Ga. -- A Cherokee County woman was arrested Thursday for murdering her father, two days after she was first charged with concealing his death.

Andrea Blanton, 45, is being held without bond in the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center.

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Blanton lived with her father, 77-year-old James Reece, at a house on Northridge Road in Ball Ground. She was her father's primary caregiver, according to Cherokee County Sheriff's Lt. Jay Baker.

Deputies performed a welfare check Tuesday at the house, where they found Reece's body and determined he'd been dead for several days. Baker said Blanton had been living in the home with the decomposing body.

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PHOTOS | Cherokee County mug shot roundup

Submitted by Beth Sawicki, Where U Live Producer

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013, 2:22pm

Cherokee Sheriff's Office

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Man dies of self-inflicted shot in police face-off

Submitted by Associated Press

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013, 4:55pm

Man dies of self-inflicted shot in police face-off

CANTON, Ga. -- The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says a man authorities said was fatally shot in a confrontation with police died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

GBI spokesman John Bankhead Tuesday said an autopsy on Anthony Payne determined he shot himself before police opened fire on him April 5 in Canton - about 40 miles north of downtown Atlanta. Bankhead says police shot the man and wounded him in one of his arms.

Officials have said Payne was suspected in the deaths of his father and his father's wife. Police tracked the couple's missing truck and found 34-year-old Payne in Cherokee County

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Man accused of killing parents shot by sheriff's deputy

Submitted by Gary Franklin, 11Alive Assignment Editor

Friday, April 5th, 2013, 11:16am

Man accused of killing parents shot by sheriff's deputy

CANTON, Ga. -- A Cherokee County Sheriff's deputy shot and killed a man suspected of murdering his parents in Union County.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Lt. Jay Baker said deputies were given a Georgia Bureau of Investigation lookout Thursday evening for 34-year-old Anthony Payne.

The bodies of 59-year-old Charles Payne and 67-year-old Louise Payne were found Thursday evening at a house in Blairsville. The Paynes had been shot to death, according to GBI spokesman John Bankhead.

At around 11 p.m., a Ford F-150 matching the one owned by the suspects' parents was stopped by deputies on Toonigh Road near Morgan Road in Canton. Baker said Anthony Payne, the couple's son, was inside and quickly fled on foot.

Acting on information, deputies went to a house on Swan Lane in Canton and made contact with Payne. Baker said the armed man refused to drop his weapon and both the deputy and the suspect fired.

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Driver shoots at women who pass him

Submitted by Beth Sawicki, Where U Live Producer

Wednesday, March 27th, 2013, 12:13pm

WOODSTOCK, Ga. -- A Woodstock man was arrested Tuesday for reportedly shooting at a car that passed him on the road.

Richard Wilt, 42, faces a number of charges, including aggravated assault, terroristic threats, DUI, and possession of both marijuana and a firearm.

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Cherokee County Sheriff's Lt. Jay Baker said the shooting happened shortly before 10 p.m. Wilt was driving down East Cherokee Drive when a car passed him. He got angry and began following the car, which contained two 20-year-old women.

Wilt followed the women to nearby Apple Orchard Lane, where he got out of his car and fired one round at their car. His .45 caliber handgun jammed before he could fire more shots, according to Baker.

No one was hurt. Baker said the shot missed the victims' car.

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Creekview HS student brings gun to school

Submitted by Beth Sawicki, Where U Live Producer

Tuesday, March 19th, 2013, 2:23pm

Creekview HS student brings gun to school

CANTON, Ga. -- A student at Creekview High School in Cherokee County was arrested for bringing a gun on campus Monday.

In a letter that was sent home Tuesday with Creekview High students, principal Dr. Adrian Thomason says a parent called school officials to tell them a student may have been carrying a gun.

Thomason says he spoke with a number of people and determined that the student did bring an unloaded small caliber weapon on campus. That student's identity has not been released.

"While we have not found intent to harm anyone ... this remains a very serious violation of Georgia Law and Board of Education policy and is being dealt with accordingly," Thomason says in the letter.

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