Douglas County Man Stole $120,000 In Metals (ICYMI)

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — A Douglas County man has been convicted of stealing $120,000 worth of aluminum, lead, steel and other metals from his employer.

Justin Owenby, of Villa Rica, was sentenced Monday to 20 years, with the first five to be served in prison.
A Superior Court jury convicted Owenby of stealing from ALUM-A-LIFT, a design and construction company in Winston. The thefts spanned a period of two years in 2014 and 2015.

Prosecutors say Owenby stole the metals from work and sold them as scrap, earning about $30,000 in the process. The crime was discovered when Douglas County Sheriff's Office deputies spotted Owenby emerging from a woods line near Interstate 20 carrying large amounts of aluminum.

When questioned, Owenby gave conflicting statements which were quickly proven false, prosecutors said. An investigator was able to identify the metal as belonging to ALUM-A-LIFT due to the company's packing slips still being attached to the aluminum.

Owenby's attorney had asked Superior Court Judge William H. "Beau" McClain to sentence him to straight probation, despite the six-figure theft. The judge ultimately agreed with the sentence proposed by Assistant District Attorney Sam Newman.

"I don’t give probation to people who steal thousands and thousands of dollars," McClain said during sentencing. "If you wanted to steal thousands and thousands of dollars and get probation, you should have done it in Fulton County."

Newman said the sentence "ensures the defendant is held responsible and accountable for his theft, while also making sure the sentence is long enough to enable the victim to seek restitution from the defendant once he is released from prison."

District Attorney Brian Fortner called the conviction and sentence "a just result that makes certain our local businesses are not victimized and robbed into bankruptcy by those who have no respect for the law."

Photo courtesy Douglas County District Attorney's office