Press release
Ivory Lewis Brown of Athens was convicted of felony theft by a Henderson County jury Tuesday in Judge Carter Tarrance’s 392nd District Court after a two day trial.
Assistant District Attorneys Jenny Palmer and Daniel Cox represented the State of Texas for Scott McKee’s District Attorney’s Office.
Brown was indicted by a Grand Jury earlier in the year for stealing several air conditioner motors from Cole Air Conditioning in February 2014. Chris Saylors, a detective from Athens Police Department, testified at trial that he viewed several videos showing a person fitting Brown’s description stealing and later scrapping the motors.
Two days after the theft occurred, Detective Saylors located Brown in the vicinity of the theft wearing the same jacket he wore while committing the theft. In addition, Brown was positively identified by an employee of Cole as having committed the theft.
Brown has a lengthy criminal history spanning over the past 25 years. In addition to having been twice before convicted of delivery of a controlled substance, he has been convicted of criminal mischief four times, criminal trespass, attempted burglary of a building in November 2013, and additional misdemeanor offenses. He will be sentenced by Judge Carter Tarrance on January 7, 2015. He faces up to two years in State Jail.
McKee praised the work of the Athens Police Department and his staff for the successful prosecution of the case. “I’m very happy to have a career criminal like Brown off the streets,” he said. “This community is tremendously blessed to have a family owned and operated business like Cole. Thieves like Brown make it difficult for good and honest people to make a decent living.”
McKee indicated that aggressively prosecuting burglars and thieves like Brown helps to create a positive business environment, especially for small businesses.