Kelley pleads guilty to shooting into home

Three guilty pleas were heard in Bedford County Circuit Court on Friday that involved gunfire, forgery and exploitation of a minor.

Michael Adam Kelley, 27, of Chapel Hill, pleaded guilty to three counts of reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon -- a class E felony.

Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell sentenced Kelly to four years at 30 percent, meaning he could be eligible for parole in about 15 months.

According to Det. Sgt. Scott Jones of the Bedford County Sheriff's Department, bullets found at the scene of a shooting in 2008 on Fruit Valley Road matched a gun that was found in Kelley's possession several months after the incident.

According to a report filed in September 2008 by Deputy Kevin Roddy, a woman on Fruit Valley Road believed that someone had fired bullets into her home.

Two incidents of gunfire and a car speeding off were reported and bullet holes were found in the walls inside the home.

"There was also a 20-month-old female inside the residence during the shooting and further 2 rounds appeared to have went through the room where the infant was sleeping," Roddy's report read.

Two days later, Jones spoke to Kelley about the shooting since it involved his ex-wife, daughter and ex-mother-in-law. Kelly claimed he didn't know anything about it "and wasn't real sure where he was or what he was doing the night the incident occurred."

Jones stated in his report that Kelley had been involved in several domestic incidents with his ex-wife and family in the months prior to the shooting and that they claimed that Kelley "pulled a gun on them more than once telling them he would kill them."

Kelley denied owning a firearm to Jones, but several months later, Kelley was arrested for domestic assault on his current wife and when deputies arrested him, he was found in possession of a Ruger SP 101 .357 revolver, which was the same gun described to Jones by the Fruit Valley Road residents.

The firearm was sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations lab, along with the rounds recovered from the shooting scene on Fruit Valley Road last year "and they came back a positive match," Jones said.

Forgery

Leeta Marie Thomas, 31, of Evergreen Lane made a plea of guilty to three counts of forgery and was sentenced to five years at 35 percent -- which means it will be one year and nine months before she would be eligible for release.

Three other counts of forgery and a single count of criminal impersonation were dropped as part of the plea.

On June 22 of last year, Nora Allen told the Bedford County Sheriff's Department that someone took a box of checks from her mailbox and that a Regions Bank official said the first check was forged three days after the box was mailed. At the time, four fraudulent checks had been written totalling $1,151.

Detective Sgt. Brian Farris investigated and spoke with a clerk at Two-Way Market who cashed the checks in question -- saying that two of the checks were made out to a Mary Brown and two to a Fernando Velasquez.

The clerk told Farris she knew the female by the first name of Leeta, but not her last name, and that she had come to the store with a woman thought to be her aunt. However, Farris then learned that Leeta had been booked into the Bedford County jail on June 27 under the name "Mary Bruce."

Using the jail's intake photo of "Mary Bruce," a photo lineup was made and shown to the clerk, who identified that woman as the person who cashed the checks and "was known to her as Leeta."

Farris then went to the Evergreen Lane address in Unionville and spoke with a relative, who stated that "Mary Bruce" was in fact Leeta Thomas, but was not home at the time.

Farris returned to the home later with Sheriff Randall Boyce, Capt. Tony Barrett and Deputy Kevin Holton to pick up Thomas. With Holton at the back door, the authorities made contact with a relative at the front door, who stated "he didn't know if Mary was there, but would check."

The report states that Thomas tried to exit through the back door, but was told to halt by Holton. Thomas allegedly ran back into the home, where she was later found in an upstairs bedroom and taken into custody without incident.

Under questioning, Thomas allegedly stated her name was Mary Bruce, but could not remember her Social Security number. Thomas was read her Miranda warning and signed her name as Mary Bruce.

Thomas also allegedly said that she did not know any "Fernando" and claimed she knew nothing about the stolen checks.

However, when asked if her real name was Leeta Thomas, she allegedly stated that it was "and that she and Fernando had cashed the checks," adding that Fernando's real name was Enrique Cano, who was in jail in St. Louis booked under the name of Fernando Velasquez.

When Thomas was asked why she used the "Mary Bruce" name, she allegedly said that she may have a probation violation in California, and a check of Thomas' criminal history showed her to be wanted in that state for a parole violation.

Exploitation

April 1 is the day that Aaron Jay Chaney, 20, will learn his sentence after he made an open plea to a single count of exploitation of a minor by electronic means.

Judge Russell told Chaney that the class C felony carries a sentence of 3 to 15 years and a $15,000 fine, but the judge added he does not know how long of a sentence he will pass down until he see a report on Chaney's criminal record and the results of a psychosexual evaluation.

According to a warrant filed by Bedford County Deputy Todd Hammond last February, Chaney sent a picture text message to a 12-year-old juvenile and also allegedly tried "by means of persuasion to engage in sexual activity with a juvenile that is 12 years of age."