An attorney for a woman accused in a string of armed jewelry store robberies across the South - including one on in north Georgia - 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 in Florida, attorney Michelle Daffin argued that forcing clerks at gunpoint to be bound in a back room is not violent by definition. She cited a U.S. Supreme Court case known as the "Hobbs Act.''
The News Herald reported 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 robbery In Dawson County happened on August 5, 2015 at the Zales store at North Georgia Premium Outlets on Georgia 400. Kemp is also implicated in a jewel heist in Woodstock in Cherokee County.
The FBI said 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.
AccessWDUN staff contributed to this report.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2016/5/400637/lawyer-for-accused-jewelry-store-thief-argues-for-some-charges-to-be-dropped