Trio Who Stole Crime Victims' Money Sent to Prison

Two former workers with the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDOC) and a flower shop owner received federal prison sentences Wednesday for stealing state funds set aside for crime victims.

Tammi Stephens, 37, of Forsyth, was sentenced to three years in prison while Daynna Gregory, 41, of Lithonia, received two years and nine months, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Stephens and Gregory formerly worked in GDOC’s banking department and conspired with Richard Cantrell, 54, of Marietta, to divert more than $232,000 in restitution funds to their personal use, “which they then spent on a variety of retail purchases,” the DOJ said.

Cantrell, the flower shop owner, received a two-year prison sentence, the DOJ said. In addition, each defendant must pay back the full amount the trio stole ($232,426.76) and serve three years of supervised release.

The sentencing hearing took place in the U.S. District Court in Atlanta.

“By printing false checks and delivering them to Cantrell to launder through his business, Stephens and Gregory ... preyed upon crime victims a second time,” said John Horn, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, in the statement.

According to Horn and court documents, from September 2013 to June 2014, Stephens and Gregory were responsible for issuing checks drawn on a state restitution fund set up to compensate crime victims. The defendants conspired to steal the money by having Stephens and Gregory issue fraudulent checks payable to Cantrell’s flower shop, to launder the money and hide the defendants’ involvement in the theft.

After printing the fraudulent checks, Stephens and Gregory altered GDOC’s financial records to disguise their theft, the DOJ said. They issued 29 fraudulent checks to the flower shop, which were then delivered to Cantrell, who cashed them and split the proceeds with Stephens and Gregory.

GDOC Commissioner Homer Bryson thanked the FBI and his department’s internal investigations unit for uncovering the theft. “The sentencing of Stephens and Gregory sends a strong message that this type of conduct will not be tolerated,” he said in the DOJ statement.