string of felony charges led to a 10-year prison

sentence for a man in Fayette County Superior

Court last week.

James

E. McDonald pled guilty to 13 counts of entering

an auto, five counts of second-degree forgery,

five counts of transaction card fraud, along with

charges of giving a false name and driving with a

suspended license. Judge Paschal English gave

McDonald three years to serve.

� John Sharman pled guilty to

marijuana possession and misdemeanor obstruction.

According

to court records, he was a passenger in a car

that was stopped last year and after an officer

smelled what he believed to be drugs in the car,

he found them on Sharman's person.

Defense

attorney Lee Sexton said that the obstruction

charge stemmed from the defendant's reaction to

being patted down in the crotch by the officer.

Sexton

requested first-offender status for Sharman, whom

he said was gainfully employed as a plumber and

needs his driver's license in order to work.

English

granted that request, sentencing Sharman to five

years probation - the first year being

intensive probation - on the drug charge,

and 12 months probation on the obstruction

charge.

� Travis Lawton pled guilty to

misdemeanor criminal trespass over what his

attorney said was a school prank gone awry.

His

offense has already gotten him a two-semester

suspension from school, and he is now in

alternative school in North Carolina. He has

abided by his court-ordered curfew since May, his

attorney said, and he is entering the U.S. Marine

Corps in a few months.

Lawton

received 12 months probation as a first offender,

and English suspended six months of that term.

� Bryan Keith McElroy pled

guilty to criminal trespass and simple battery,

both misdemeanors, and received concurrent

12-month probated sentences on each.

He

is to have no contact with the victim, his

ex-wife, and visitation with his children is to

be arranged through a third party, the court

ordered.

� Carolyn Michelle Gates pled

guilty to shoplifting, an offense she committed

while already on probation, and received an extra

five years tacked onto the end of her current

probation.

Her

attorney said that she served as the lookout

while an accomplice stole about $302 in

merchandise from Wal-Mart in Fayetteville. He

added that the defendant has three children, to

which the judge remarked, "She had them when

she committed the crime, didn't she?"

English,

while sticking with probation in this case,

warned Gates that if she appeared before him

again, she would go to prison, no matter how many

children she has.

� Arthur James Edwards pled

guilty to theft by receiving a stolen vehicle,

shoplifting and cocaine possession. He received a

five-year prison sentence, two to serve.

� James Richard Cochran pled

guilty to misdemeanor battery, receiving 12

months probation.

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