Five big Houston County cases are still awaiting trial; some are getting close to going before a judge while others are still hanging out with no target date given.
The five main cases the Houston Home Journal are rounding up are: Carmen Collins, Shelly Simmons, Matthew Caleb Pierce, the Perry mammogram case and the Pike and Slaton case
Carmen Collins case
Houston County District Attorney George Hartwig is handling the Carmen Collins case and said the case was scheduled to go to trial in July. However, on Tuesday he said the case has been pushed back to September.
Collins, 17, was charged with murder and arson in the death of her 12-year old sister India Collins. The charges stem from an incident that occurred last July in which police said that Carmen shot her sister with a .40 caliber weapon and then used gasoline to start a fire on the interior of the family’s home. Police said Carmen fled the scene immediately, taking the gun and the family poodle with her.
According to a previous press release, Carmen was found in Columbus a few days after the incident driving the 2011 Acura TL that had been reported missing from the Addington Lane home just after the fire.
The autopsy for India Collins ruled the cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds.
Public Defender Nick White said that his client maintains her innocence and he feels comfortable with the Judge Katherine Lumsden denied bond for Collins in September of last year after hearing arguments from both sides on the case.
Pike and Slaton case
Matthew Jacob Pike, 27, William Allen Slaton, 29 and Daniel Lee Slaton, 35, all of Warner Robins, were arrested and charged with felony murder in connection with the death of Justin Arthur Klaffka, 25, of Centerville.
Investigators said they believe that Klaffka and the three men charged in his murder committed an armed robbery a few days before the slaying happened in April 2012.
Houston County Sheriff’s Capt. Robert Clark said on April 10 the men got into an argument about whether Klaffka was telling people about the robbery. The argument took place on Dixie Lane in Warner Robins. Investigators said the argument got physical and led to the beating and strangulation of Klaffka.
The three then took Klaffka to Knowles Landing and dumped his body in the water according to police. Klaffka was found in the river a few days later by a group of people swimming in the area.
Hartwig said the case is now being handled by Greg Winters of the Houston County District Attorney’s Office and that the case is scheduled to go to trial in July.
Matthew Caleb Pierce case
In July 2011 a 21-count indictment was handed down from the Grand Jury on a man accused of molesting three boys.
Matthew Caleb Pierce, 32, was indicted on six counts of aggravated child molestation, six counts of aggravated sodomy, six counts of sexual battery and one count of child molestation.
Pierce was also indicted on one charge of possession of Hydromorphone, a prescription medication also known as Diladid, with intent to distribute and one count of possession of Xanax.
Pierce is accused of molesting three 14-year-old boys at his apartment.
Franklin J. Hogue, a Macon attorney is representing Pierce. He said Pierce maintains his innocence.
Most of the charges in the multiple-count indictment are related to the alleged actions of Pierce with two of the boys. The indictment alleges the acts occurred between June 27 and July 8, 2011, with one boy and between July 6 and July 9, 2011, with a second boy.
According to the indictment, Pierce also is accused of asking a third boy whether Pierce could perform a sexual act on the child. The one count of child molestation stems from this allegation that allegedly took place between July 5 and July 9, 2011.
In November of 2011 Judge George Nunn granted Pierce a $10,000 bond. The salon owner has been working in his salon since released on bond.
Hartwig didn’t give a timeline on when he expects this case to go to trial; he did say that his office is ready and just waiting on the case to go on the trial calendar.
Shelly Simmons case
In December 2011, Shelly Simmons, 82, the former announcer for the Warner Robins High School football team, has been charged with four counts of child molestation.
The four charges of molestation against Simmons concern four different victims that officials say are his granddaughters.
In December, Simmons was granted a $20,000 bond. Hartwig said no trial date is set on the Simmons case yet.
Perry mammogram case
The oldest of the five cases is the Perry mammogram case from 2010 in which over a thousand women were given test results that were never seen or signed off on by a physician.
Rachel Michelle Rapraeger, a former Perry Hospital employee, faces numerous counts of reckless conduct and computer fraud. The case involved 1,289 mammograms according to the district attorneys office.
It was determined that Rapraegar allegedly submitted negative results on all the mammograms she “reviewed” when in fact 10 of them had positive results.
The case has yet to go to trial and some of the women that were given negative results that actual tested positive have since died from breast cancer.
Hartwig didn’t give a timeline on when he expected the case to go before a jury.
HHJ News
