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Henderson promised to stay out of trouble weeks before carjacking incident
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Tom Spigolon
Published: Jan 16, 2021, 1:00 PM

COVINGTON, Ga. — The Covington man was in jail for not paying child support and faced spending Christmas there.

Jessie Henderson convinced a judge not to keep him locked up after his sentence ended in a few days because of some fines he owed.

However, a few weeks later, Henderson was charged with allegedly carjacking a man near downtown Monroe on Jan. 9.

Henderson, the son of Newton County Commissioner J.C. Henderson, asked Superior Court Judge Layla Zon during a hearing on a probation violation charge Dec. 21 if he could be allowed to go home to spend the holidays with his family, said Assistant District Attorney Griffin Bell.

Bell said Jessie Henderson told the court his time in custody on a child support charge was ending in a few days. A new charge of criminal trespass in early December also had been withdrawn, he said.

Zon agreed not to keep him in jail for late payment of the fines after his time was served on the child support charge, Bell said.

He was required to stay out of trouble, take his prescribed medications, and work to pay down the $3,600 in fines he owed, Bell said.

Zon then ordered him to return to court for a Probation Review hearing Feb. 25, Bell said.

On the night of Jan. 9, Jessie Henderson, 27, allegedly pulled a man from his SUV in a Monroe grocery store parking lot and drove off in the vehicle before crashing it into a tree.

Charges related to the incident include hijacking a motor vehicle, aggravated assault, kidnapping and criminal attempt to enter an automobile.

The Georgia State Patrol also accused him of driving under the influence, hit-and-run, driving without a seatbelt, failure to maintain lane and driving with a suspended license, The Walton Tribune newspaper reported.

Jessie Henderson also is no stranger to the local court system.

He pleaded guilty to a burglary charge in Newton County in 2014, received first-offender status and was placed on 10 years' probation.

In May 2018, he pleaded guilty to charges related to breaking the phone of the mother of his 1-year-old child as she tried to call 911 during an argument, and then hitting her car with a rock.

Jessie Henderson
Jessie Cordavious Henderson
Covington woman sentenced for drug courier charges
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Kate Verity
Published: Mar 11, 2025, 2:13 PM

ALBANY, Ga. — Keeli Nycole Wallace, a 34-year-old Covington woman, will spend the next three years in federal prison.

Wallace was sentenced in federal court on Feb. 28 to serve 40 months (3 years and 4 months) in prison followed by three years of supervised release for drug courier charges.

Co-defendant Wallace pled guilty to one charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine in August 2024. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Georgia, she was operating as a drug courier under the instruction of defendant Warren Frederick Courts and co-defendant Donald Jason Miles. 

Courts and Miles are both currently incarcerated in the state prison system and are members of the “Ghostface Gangsters.” The release described the group as “a criminal organization founded in the prison system.”

Courts, who is incarcerated in Rutledge State Prison in Columbus, and Miles, who is in Valdosta State Prison, were communicating with Wallace for “several months” through now-confiscated contraband mobile phones. 

The release also states that Wallace admitted to investigators that she performed “10-15 deliveries of 250 grams or less of methamphetamine” under Miles’ instructions.

In September 2022, Wallace was arrested after she went to a Motel 6 in Albany under Miles’ direction to sell methamphetamine that she had obtained from a Mexico-based source near Atlanta.

Courts pled guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He was also sentenced on Friday to serve 240 months (20 years) in prison followed by five years of supervised release.

Miles pled guilty in November 2024 and is awaiting sentencing. His charge was also one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He could see a minimum of ten years to a maximum of life in prison to be followed by ten years of supervised release and a maximum $10 million fine.