From the prison room set up for teleconferencing with courts around the state, Jarris T. Kennedy told the judge Thursday, May 26, that he didn’t have a clue about what he was going to do with the semi-tractor trailer loaded with $300,000 worth of blood-pressure medication that he stole in Savannah.
He was stressed out and then got high and was thinking he had to get to Augusta, Kennedy said. His pregnant wife was in the hospital here in Augusta with COVID, and he was in Savannah. She told him she could die along with the baby, he said.
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So, Kennedy, 30, hopped into the $30,000 semi loaded with the medical goods and headed to Augusta. He made it to Sand Bar Ferry Road in the early morning of Jan. 7, 2021, before crashing. Richmond County Sheriff officers found his driver’s license inside the overturned tractor trailer, and they found Kennedy in a local emergency room, Assistant District Attorney Sarah Strickland told Chief Judge Daniel J. Craig on Thursday.
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Kennedy pleaded guilty in Richmond County Superior Court to two counts of theft and several traffic offenses. The judge accepted the plea negotiation of four and a half years incarceration. Because of Kennedy’s drug addiction, considering his latest crime and a criminal history of drug convictions, Craig also granted the defense’s request to include specifically the prison drug rehab program as part of his sentencing order.
Although the truck’s owner, the company that leases the truck and the company that owned the medication reported the value of the property involved at $355,000, Strickland told the judge that repeated calls to the businesses and insurance companies only confirmed a loss of $11,000. Craig also ordered restitution of $11,000, secured with liens legally filed in Richmond County and Kennedy’s home county.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
