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Home invasion suspects to go on trial in August
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Three men charged with an August 2010 Rincon home invasion are expected to stand trial beginning Aug. 3 in an Effingham County courtroom.

Jury selection has been continued until Aug. 3, and the trial of Justin Timothy Crawford, Robert Lionel Jackson and Mark Anthony Williams will commence after the jury is picked. An Effingham County grand jury indicted all three last October. Crawford was indicted on 20 counts while Jackson and Williams each were indicted on 18 counts, ranging from aggravated assault to kidnapping to burglary to cruelty to children.

Authorities allege that three men forced their way into a home on Exley Drive on the morning of Aug. 4, 2010. In the indictment,

Crawford, Jackson and Williams are charged with entering the house after attempting to kick in the door.

Once inside the home, according to police, the three men pointed weapons at four people in the home, including a child, and demanded money.

Rincon Police responded and as they arrived they encountered two of the men leaving the house. One of the men, according to the indictment, fired two shots from AK-47 at one of the officers. The officer was not hit by either round.

After a brief manhunt, Crawford and Williams were apprehended. Jackson was arrested three days later in Atlanta.

Chariece Edmondson of East Point and Ashley Thomas of College Park were indicted in connection with the case. They were charged with harboring Jackson while he was in Atlanta and face one count each of hindering the apprehension of a criminal.

Two Savannah men charged in the attempted armed robbery of a Rincon credit union are awaiting their sentence.

Stafon Davis and Rashamel Bradford changed their plea from not guilty to guilty to one count in a federal indictment handed down against them Oct. 14.

Davis and Bradford were charged with armed bank robbery for the Sept. 21, 2010, holdup of the GeoVista credit union on Columbia Avenue in Rincon.

Davis and Bradford entered the business just after 10 a.m. on Sept. 21 and immediately brandished firearms. The four employees were forced into a small office and then one of the employees was taken by one of the gunmen, later identified as Davis, to the cash drawers.

Bradford kept the other three employees in the office and taped their hands behind their backs.

Bradford and Davis later fled through a rear door and headed toward a wooded area. They were captured within an hour of the robbery, and federal agents said Davis’ clothing and a laundry bag he had were heavily stained with red dye.

Bradford and Davis were indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 14, 2010, for one count of armed bank robbery and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. They entered a change of plea motion in May.