Guilty plea influenced by ex's testimony

After her ex-husband took the stand and testified against her, a woman on trial for shoplifting items and selling them on the Internet changed her plea to guilty on Tuesday.

Kerri Neal will be sentenced on Feb. 19 by Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell after she filed an open plea of guilty to two counts of theft of property between $500 and $1,000 and theft under $500.

An additional charge of theft between $1,000 and $10,000, was dismissed.

Neal and her ex-husband Troy have been accused of taking thousands of dollars worth of weight loss and make-up items from the shelves of several area Walmarts and selling them on the popular Internet auction site eBay.

Troy is due to appear in Bedford County Circuit Court on Friday on similar charges.

A jury spent most of Tuesday listening to testimony from employees of the retail giant, who described what they found in the aftermath of the thefts in which Mrs. Neal was accused of participating.

Matt Simmons, who handles asset protection for Walmart, told assistant district attorney Mike Randles that Shelbyville Police Detective Brian Crews returned a total of 239 different items valued at $8,539.05.

However, Simmons also said under cross examination by defense attorney Will Fraley that there was no way to tell which area Walmart the items were taken from or if they even came from Walmart in the first place.

Simmons also said that recovered perfume items could not have been taken from the Shelbyville store since those products were kept inside a locked display case.

Another problem encountered by Walmart employees in identifying the Neals was the fact that the Shelbyville store was being remodeled at the time and that no security cameras were in operation.

But it was the testimony of Kerri's ex-husband that brought the trial to an early close.

Ex talks

Troy, who has been in jail since his arrest on the charges last June, testified that he was married to Kerri for nine years and divorced in 2008, yet they continued to see each other.

Neal admitted that he stole the items from Walmart and that Kerri was with him when they did it. He said that he took only a few items at first and then Kerri would sell them on the Internet marketplace eBay, receiving about $50 to $60 per item.

Troy said they the two of them began to take more and more items during each visit and that they worked together on the scheme, with Kerri handling the Internet transactions through Pay Pal, a popular method of making online purchases.

Neal testified that they stole from Walmart around middle Tennessee for several months, hitting the Shelbyville store "four or five times."

However, detectives from Shelbyville and Tullahoma were closing in on the Neals and the couple were arrested on June 23 of last year after they returned from a trip to Florida so that Troy could make a Bedford County court appearance.

The Neals were discovered with a car full of the stolen items, some of which had already been sold on the Internet, but not shipped. Troy also testified that they only stole the items from Walmarts.

While under cross examination by Fraley, Troy testified that he was in court on a marijuana charge and that he stole to support a painkiller habit, which he said had caused problems with his marriage to Kerri.

Fraley also suggested that Troy could not have remembered committing the thefts, since he was on drugs, but Neal told the jury that he recalled taking the items. Troy also testified that he wrote in his original statement to police that Kerri was not involved because he wanted to protect her.

However, when Troy told the jury that he and Kerri had already pleaded guilty in Coffee County to stealing from Walmarts in that county, Fraley asked Judge Russell for a recess.

Less than 30 minutes later, Kerri stood at the podium before Judge Russell with Fraley and entered an open plea of guilty.

Before being taken into custody, Kerri was heard telling tearful members of her family to "take care of my son."