Local man only gets fined for shooting

Becky Holland
The Americus Times-Recorder

AMERICUS July 01, 2009 09:45 pm

— After a few weeks of investigation into a shooting incident that occurred during a car chase involving the Leslie Police Department, the Smithville Department and the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Plez Hardin announced Tuesday that charges were filed against Aaron Cosby, no age or address given.
He is charged with reckless conduct and unlawful discharge of a firearm on or near a public roadway after Hardin’’s office conducted an investigation into allegations that a shooting occurred during said car chase. State Court judge, Russ Barnes, sentenced Cosby to a fine and probation.
Cosby, a private citizen, was not involved in the chase, but was said to be standing nearby at a residence, unloading equipment from a hog hunt, or so was reported in the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office report of the incident.
Hardin told the Times-Recorder in a phone interview Tuesday that Cosby had been informed and he and his attorney, William Rambo, would come before the state court judge on Wednesday to “resolve the case.”
According to Bob Reeves with the Southwest Judicial Court District Attorney’s office, Cosby, with his lawyer, William Rambo, came before State Court Judge, Russ Barnes, Wednesday, to discuss the charges and receive sentencing.
A calendar for the court had already been set, so Cosby was not on the regular calendar docket.
As all will remember, the vehicle, which Cosby is charged with shooting, had been invovled in a car chase from Leslie, and continued traveling, and exited Smithville on Church Street west bound, turning north onto Bonds Trail Road. Sumter Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Hale took over the role of primary in the chase from the Leslie Police Department. The suspect headed onto Della Glass Road, and then turned back onto 308 and proceeded east bound and north bound on Wiggins Road, and finally stopped his vehicle in front of a residence at 376 Wiggins Road, where he left the vehicle on foot. Somewhere between Della Glass Road and Wiggins Road is where the shooting occurred, according to reports. Johnathan McCarty, owner of the Blazer and passenger, identified the driver as Ronald Ware Jr.
McCarty told Mathews and Hale that someone shot at them during the pursuit. Evidence of this, noticed by both Hale and Mathews (and on video), was that the rear window of the vehicle was busted out, and as Mathews’ report detailed, a hole appeared to be in the passenger front headrest and through the bottom right side of the front windshield. McCarty stated he called 911 on his cell phone and the call was answered by Lee County 911.
According to the incident report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, filed by Hale, “McCarty was very hysterical, screaming and crying, ‘They are trying to kill me.’ He stated that someone had shot at his vehicle.”
Hale told McCarty that he had not shot at his car. Hale reported that the only “other people I noticed during the chase (other than law enforcement officials, McCarty and Ware), were three men — Aaron Cosby, Ricky Crook and Mark Israel — all who were present at Crook’s residence, unloading equipment from a hog hunting trip.”
As a result of the shooting allegations, Sheriff Pete Smith turned the investigation over to the district attorney’s office.
Charges brought against Aaron Cosby were two. He was charged with one count of reckless conduct and discharge of a firearm on or near a public roadway.
Barnes sentenced Cosby to probation as well as a fine of $400, and it was ordered that the fines be paid by Monday, July 6, 2009.