PANAMA CITY, Fla. – An attorney for a woman accused in a string of armed jewelry store robberies across the South says some of the charges against her should be dismissed because they don't qualify as a "crime of violence."
In a motion filed over the weekend, attorney Michelle Daffin argues that forcing clerks at gunpoint to be bound in a back room is not violent by definition. She cites a U.S. Supreme Court case known as the "Hobbs Act."
The News Herald (http://bit.ly/1WBgrlH ) reports 24-year-old Abigail Kemp and three men are accused in the robberies of stores in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The FBI says Kemp and 35-year-old Lewis Jones III stole an estimated $4.3 million in jewelry. Two other men are accused of providing security for the crimes.
___
Information from: The (Panama City, Fla.) News Herald, http://www.newsherald.com
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
