She was just returning home from church when a young man pointed a gun at her, setting off a terrifying event that still haunts her three years later, the now 80-year-old woman told the judge after Coreon Jackson was convicted of kidnapping and robbing her.
“I’m still afraid for my life. I’m scared to be by myself. I’m afraid to go to work in the morning.
“I don’t feel free at this age to do what I’ve always done,” she told Judge J. Wade Padgett on Wednesday afternoon at the conclusion of Jackson’s Columbia County Superior Court trial.
“There was a reason you let her live,” Padgett said. “But Mr. Jackson, that lady never did a thing to you.”
Wednesday, Sept. 21, Padgett sentenced Jackson to life in prison plus an additional 30 years in prison.
It won’t be the first time Jackson, now 27, has spent an extended period in a locked facility.
When Jackson was just 12 years old, he participated in an armed home invasion which resulted in the fatal shooting of 65-year-old Roosevelt Cowins the night of March 19, 2008. A 21-year-old arrested with him committed suicide after Cowins’ killing.
Because he was only 12, Jackson couldn’t be prosecuted as an adult. In juvenile court, the judge ordered the maximum penalty possible, commitment to a juvenile facility until Jackson turned 21.
MORE: Operation Grace results in confiscated guns, drugs and $200,000 plus almost 200 arrests
After Jackson shot Cowins, he laughed, Assistant District Attorney Alejandro Pascual IV said Wednesday in making an argument to impose the maximum sentenced on Jackson. It was the only way to keep the community safe, he said.
Jackson was released early from a juvenile detention center because it was believed he was rehabilitated and remorseful, Pascual said. Now, everyone knows that wasn’t true, he added.
The evening of Jan. 9, 2019, Jackson is accused of taking a Glock .40-caliber handgun, that he allegedly stole a day earlier, and attempted to rob a Dollar General store in Augusta. He failed in completing that crime but as he fled the scene, he crossed paths with a 77-year-old woman who lived nearby and had just returned home in Augusta.
Pascual said they didn’t know until talking with the victim recently that Jackson had used a phone to call Wells Fargo before he made her call the bank to get the balance in her account. With that nugget of information, they were able to pinpoint the call on a phone Jackson had on him when arrested. They were also able to track down the owner of the stolen handgun Jackson also had on him when arrested.
Defense attorney Terence Theus asked the judge to consider a sentence more in the range 15 to 20 years in prison. Jackson earned a GED and he was working before his arrest.
Jackson has pleaded not guilty to other charges filed in Richmond County Superior Court including criminal attempt to commit armed robbery, aggravated assault and weapon violations. Those crimes allegedly occurred in connection with the Columbia County charges.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
