Police charge fourth suspect with damaging property during DA-elect’s campaign video
Columbus police have charged a fourth suspect with damaging government property during the May 17 filming of a campaign ad for Columbus attorney Mark Jones, who this week defeated incumbent District Attorney Julia Slater.
Christopher Jamaal Garner’s family said six police officers showed up at his home about 7:15 a.m. Friday, after Garner had left for work at a furniture warehouse. The 21-year-old returned home and was taken into custody, they said.
At midday he was being held in the Muscogee County Jail on bonds totaling $600,600: $300,000 each on felony charges of interfering with government property and second-degree criminal damage to property; $500 on misdemeanor reckless driving and $100 on the misdemeanor of “laying drag.”
His attorney, Robert Wadkins Jr., later arranged a consent bond allowing Garner to be freed on his own recognizance, meaning he did not have to pay any money to secure his release.
Jones, 38, was released on those same terms after his arrest on conspiracy charges related to the Facebook video that featured a hip hop artist encouraging people to vote, and ended with a car “cutting doughnuts,” which means circling with the wheels leaving rings of tire residue on the pavement.
After the video shoot, city administrators asked police to investigate, alleging the damage would cost more than $300,000 to repair. Garner’s bonds were based on that damage estimate.
Garner’s mother Laura Dixon and girlfriend Abigail Buncayo waited at the jail Friday as Wadkins worked to get Garner released. They said he lives in the Edgewood Road area, where police arrested him that morning. He was freed about 4 p.m.
“I’m glad he didn’t have to spend the weekend in jail,” Wadkins said afterward, adding he didn’t think the case would hold up in court: “We think that when this process plays out, no charges will be left against Mr. Garner.”
‘Super high’
Jones also came to the jail Friday. He noted that with fees and other costs added to Garner’s base bonds, the total came to around $700,000.
“The bond is super high,” Jones said. “So what they did was, they did a $700,000 bond when the average median income in Columbus, Georgia, is $40,000, so that’s simply unattainable for the vast majority of us, and they dinged him with it because he took a stand, politically, apparently.”
Jones felt the case had no merit: “My thought would be the charges should be dismissed,” he said.
He alleged police are out to punish him and his supporters because Jones has pledged to reopen investigations into deaths involving police action. “I want to look into it, and hold some officers accountable, if there’s evidence to do that, and it appears to me there is,” he said.
Charges still are pending against Jones and two custom-car enthusiasts who allegedly were involved in shooting the video. The two drivers arrested May 22, Christopher Mandel Black, 23, and Erik Deangelo Whittington, 24, were each charged with felony interference with government property and first-degree criminal damage to property, plus the misdemeanors of reckless conduct, reckless driving and laying drag.
Jailed on Memorial Day weekend, Black and Whittington initially were ordered held without bond, before their defense attorneys negotiated to get Black’s bond cut to $31,100 and Whittington’s to $31,600. They were released the day after their arrests.
On May 26, police announced they also had warrants for Jones, who turned himself in at police headquarters the next day. He is charged with attempting to commit reckless conduct, conspiracy to commit reckless conduct, conspiracy to commit interference with government property, conspiracy to commit criminal damage to property, and two counts of attempting to commit interference with government property.
His arrest sparked allegations Slater instigated the police investigation to damage her political opponent, though both Slater and the police department said she was never consulted. Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson said city administrators pushed for the probe after complaints about the damage.
The arrests boosted Jones’ campaign, drawing the public’s ire just weeks before Tuesday’s election, in which Jones defeated Slater by a margin of 52 to 48 percent in the six-county Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit based in Columbus. Jones will take office in January.
Besides Muscogee, the circuit’s other counties are Harris, Chattahoochee, Talbot, Taylor and Marion.
This story was originally published June 12, 2020 at 1:38 PM.