Barrow Journal

It appears that no one wants to pay the full cost of serices provided by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office in the upcoming fiscal year.

On top of recent comments by County Chairman Danny Yearwood concerning possible cuts to sheriff’s funding, the mayors of four local municipalities with city police departments are asking that their residents not be taxed for the patrol and investigative services that the sheriff’s office provides.

With the county facing a lingering $2.2 million gap in its budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, any additional loss of revenue for the operation of the county government would compound the county’s budget problem.

A “sample” spreadsheet attached to a June 16 letter from the Barrow County Mayors Association showed that a reduction of 1.61 mills in the four cities would cut county revenues by another $1 million. But a spokesman for the association said Tuesday night that the spreadsheet was only to demonstrate a methodology for arriving at a tax cut and not to reflect the amount of the actual request for tax relief. [Full Story »] 

A Bethlehem man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for the 2008 murder of his sleeping mother with a crossbow.

After two days of deliberations, a Barrow County jury of nine men and three women convicted Rodney George Thompson of felony murder and aggravated assault.

The jurors remained in the courtroom for the sentencing, which took place immediately.

Chief Superior Court Judge David Motes told Thompson that he had no latitude in sentencing, because state law allowed only a life sentence for a felony murder conviction. In Georgia, someone convicted of felony murder is not eligible for parole for 30 years.

Thompson showed no emotion during the reading of the verdict, though when he entered the courtroom minutes earlier, he appeared grim. [Full Story »]