Attorney for Accused Jewelry Store Thief Says Charges Should be Dropped

MARIETTA, GA -- An attorney for a Smyrna woman accused in a string of jewelry store heists across the southeast says charges should be dropped against her client.

Abigail Lee Kemp was arrested back in January, along with Lewis Jones, 35, of Atlanta.

Kemp, 24, is facing charges with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats or violence, according to federal prosecutors. A conviction carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

Kemp allegedly participated in six armed robberies of jewelry stores in in Panama City Beach, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In each robbery, store employees were forced at gunpoint into a back room, where their hands were tied behind their backs.

• Sign up for the Smyrna-Vinings Patch newsletter!

But Kemp's attorney, Michelle Daffin, filed a motion this past weekend, according to the AJC, arguing that forcing clerks at gunpoint to be bound is not a violent crime, and that charges against Kemp should be dropped.

“Placing someone in fear of future injury, at best, contemplates a threat of physical injury, not a threatened use of violent force,” Daffin wrote in the motion.

Jones is accused of participating in the Aug. 12, 2014 armed robbery of the Navy Federal Credit Union on Briarcliff Road and is also considered a suspect in the Sept. 9, 2014 armed robbery of the Regions Bank on Cumberland Parkway in Smyrna, the FBI says. He is being held at the DeKalb County jail.

---

Image via FBI/DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office