Check fraud case is no more
UPDATE: A warrant for the arrest of Jamayel Smith was withdrawn due to the inability to sustain a conviction against John Henry Smith, according to the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court.
BROOKSVILLE — John Henry Smith was arrested in September and wore a global-positioning device around his ankle since posting bail. On Tuesday, he turned the GPS over to the state and walked out of a courtroom a free man.
Smith was accused of depositing a fraudulent check for $150,000 and then paying his son with a cashier’s check in the amount of $145,000.
During an interview with detectives in September, the 55-year-old Spring Hill resident made admissions in the check-depositing scheme and implicated his son, according to reports.
Jamayel Smith, 27, is a former wide receiver at Mississippi State University and played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League in 2010.
On Oct. 5, a warrant was obtained to arrest the younger Smith for one count of organized fraud, according to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities said they thought he was living with his girlfriend in the Miami area, but he was never located.
The man whose checks were stolen never pursued charges. Detectives suspected he knew where Smith was hiding, but he didn’t return their calls, according to reports.
“(The lead) detective and the state attorney’s office made multiple attempts to get the victim in Miami to file a report and provide a written statement, which is needed for them to proceed with filing on the case, but the victim never did,” said Cpl. Wendy McGinnis, a sheriff’s spokeswoman.
“So, the (prosecutor) was forced to drop the case, due to a lack of cooperation from the victim.”
The dropped case meant the felony charges against John Henry Smith — grand theft, uttering a forged document and dealing in stolen property — also were dismissed.
He stood in a Hernando County courtroom Tuesday morning in front of Circuit Judge Daniel Merritt Jr., who wished him good luck.
Detective Dustin Mormando, the lead investigator in the case, stated in his report the older Smith opened an account Sept. 12 at the Wells Fargo bank in Lakewood Plaza.
Four days later, he deposited the stolen check, and four days after that he obtained the cashier’s check for his son, Mormando stated.
Originally, Smith said the checks and accompanying loan agreement were sent to him by a Miami businessman. Eventually, he changed his story, according to a sheriff’s report.
“(Smith) advised that he received the checks in question and the loan agreement from Jamayel,” wrote Mormando. “He advised that Jamayel contacted him and advised him that Jamayel was going to send him the checks and that he was to deposit the checks … then give the cashier’s checks to Jamayel, so that Jamayel could deposit the money into his own account(s).”
The elder Smith told Mormando he didn’t know the checks were stolen but had his suspicions, according to the sheriff’s office.
“He advised that he asked Jamayel about the checks and that Jamayel told him, ‘Don’t worry about it, it’s straight,'” Mormando stated in his report.
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