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Man who helped in lottery fraud says charge should be dismissed
By Carey Phillips
A man charged in connection with defrauding a Jackson County lottery winner of $21,000 says he is innocent, and the charge of obtaining property by false pretenses should be dismissed.
Shawn Adams, 32, of Sylva, says he was misled by his girlfriend and knew nothing of her scheme to claim the lottery winnings.
The girlfriend, 23-year-old Jodi Gibson of Sylva, is also charged with obtaining property by false pretenses.
The lottery winner was Cecil Green of Savannah community. Green said he bought the Black Jack ticket Aug. 13 from Gibson, a clerk at the Mountain Breeze Mart across from Harold’s Supermarket.
When he presented it to Gibson to see how much he had won, she told him the computer was down, according to Green. She kept the ticket and called him about an hour later to say he had won nothing.
Knowing he had won at least $500, Green contacted Mountain Breeze owner Hugh Thompson, who in turn called lottery officials. He was told a $21,000 ticket had been sold at his store and cashed in at the Asheville regional lottery office.
Adams said Gibson called him Aug. 13 and told him she had won $21,000. She asked him to accompany her to the Asheville office to cash in the ticket, he said.
Gibson wanted Adams to cash in the ticket because if it was in her name the money could jeopardize Medicaid and other assistance for their 19-month-old baby, he said.
Adams said he did not know anything was amiss until a deputy from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office came to his home a few days later, saying the Sylva Police Department had a warrant for his arrest.
“He said I had defrauded Cecil Green of money,” Adams said. “I had never heard of him and didn’t know what was going on.”
It wasn’t until the deputy told him his girlfriend, who was not home, was also charged that Adams began to realize what had happened, he said.
Sylva Police Detective John Buchanan said Gibson and Adams both confessed to what happened although Adams didn’t confess to any criminal conduct.
“Shawn gave me all the money,” Buchanan said. “He had deposited it at Wachovia Bank. He is cooperating, and the district attorney is considering dropping the charges against him.”
The charge had not been dropped as of Tuesday morning. Adams said until that happens he is suspended from his job with an EMS company in Henderson County and is unable to re-enlist in the Air National Guard.
“If they are going to dismiss the charge, why does the state of North Carolina have to pay for me to have an attorney?” he asked.
Graham Duls was appointed by the court to represent Adams.
“If I knew what was going on, I would have tried to hide the money,” Adams said. “I wouldn’t have put it in the bank.”
Adams and Gibson are both scheduled for a Sept. 5 court date.
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