Jail for Hospital Employee who Stole from Dead/Dying

One of my dearest friends was killed in a horrific auto accident on April 30th. A Loomis (armored) truck stalled out of gas in the center lane of a busy Atlanta interstate and my friend hit it. The driver of the truck has been charged with vehicular homicide and my friend has been cleared of any fault in the accident. She leaves behind a husband and two young children, ages 1.5 and 4 (at the time of the accident).

To make matters worse, her one of a kind wedding and engagement rings were stolen from her body at the hospital where she was airlifted following the accident. It was determined that the man assigned to log victim's personal items and to tend to the victim's family is the person who stole (and pawned) her rings.

Fortunately, her rings were recovered from an Atlanta-area pawn shop and the hospital employee was charged with felony theft by taking. It has since been discovered that he stole from another victim and he has been charged with a second count of theft.

The DA and the judge in this case are pretty jail-averse...very unfortunate as this man is so worthy of being locked up for a long time.  The DA offered this man 4-6 months (yes, MONTHS) in jail, but fortunately Alan (Katherine's husband) and another victim of Jawara, named Ron Goyette were able to compel the judge to throw the plea deal out and set a court date.

The man who stole her rings goes on trial October 20, 2008 (Katherine and her husband's sixth wedding anniversary) and I have started a petition to request that he be punished to the fullest extent of the law (ten years each count) should he be found guilty.

Anyway, my request is for people to sign this petition. I am asking people to send their first and last names and city/state no later than October 10, 2008. The trial begins 10/20 and Katherine's husband, Alan will hand-deliver the petition to the prosecutor and presiding judge in the case.

I encourage you to forward Katherine's story to everyone in your address book. Please encourage those friends to forward it to their friends as well. Add it to your blog if you have one!  I have collected over 500 signatures through an email address I set up (jailforjawara@gmail.com), but discovered this website after the fact.  If you sign the petition here, it is not necessary to sign the petition via email. 

The following link is a good recap of Katherine's case: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2008/05/17/seg.stolen.wedding.rings.mxf.cnn).
I am honestly hoping Katherine's story can become viral (passed on and on and on to strangers around the world) in order to demonstrate to the court the importance of this man serving the maximum time.

Sincerely,
Sheila Trimble

If you are a member of MySpace, I have created a site for Katherine here: http://www.myspace.com/jailforjawara.  Please join as a friend.  I will update the site whenever I learn something new.  Please encourage your friends to join and sign the petition as well.  Thanks.

9/2/08: Mr. Jawara has been arrested for a third count of theft by taking. His latest victim is the late Jane Pounds, a retired janitor who had $1,100 in money orders stolen from her purse as she was treated at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA.  Jawara used $800 of the money orders for spa treatments and cashed the other $300 for himself.

9/9/08 Update: I have received 602 signatures from an email account I set up (in addition to the signatures from this site).  Our goal of 1,000 is within reach.  Please spread the word.

9/30/08: When this site hits 381 signatures, we will have 1000 total.  Thank you. 

Mugshot of Tacuma Jawara: