Taking a ride from strangers has landed a Jackson man behind bars at the Sunflower County jail. James Conley Wilson 45, 315 Audubon Place, Jackson was arrested on Tuesday and charged with forgery.
The charge stems from a March 6 incident where he and a 31-year-old Nobel Street, Jackson man went to Planters Bank branches in Inverness and Indianola and presented and cashed counterfeit checks totaling thousands of dollars.
In March, the Indianola branches told police that four checks, two for each man, were cashed for a total of $8,118. There was no indication of whether or not that amount included the checks that were reportedly cashed at the Inverness bank.
According to Indianola Police Sergeant Irish Johnson, a National Crime Information Center alert was issued for Conley and his accomplice so the Indianola department was alerted after officers ran Conley’s license when they found him going through the garbage at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
Johnson drove to Jackson and transported Conley back to Sunflower County where he was arrested and charged. He said Conley alleged that he was persuaded to commit the crime by two men in a Chevrolet SUV with Georgia license plates.
According to Conley’s statement, he is homeless and was standing outside of a Jackson business when two men drove up and asked if he wanted to make some quick money. Conley purportedly stated that he and the men rode around Jackson until they found another man who was provided with the same proposal.
Then the men drove them to Inverness and wrote checks to them and instructed them to enter the bank and cash them and did the same thing at both branches in Indianola.
However, at the Catchings Street location Conley’s cohort took too long to exit the bank so they drove off, assumingly leaving him in the bank, and drove back to Jackson.
Conley then reported that the men gave him $500 and dropped him off at his original location. Johnson said Conley explained that he took the offer only because he was broke, homeless and fiending for drugs.
He said Conley maintained that he did not know the men or the other person they picked up.
