From The Tribune Staff Reports
MONTGOMERY—Attorney General Steve Marshall announced the conviction and sentencing of Tommy Wayne Baxley, 74, of Slocomb, for stealing from the Slocomb High School Future Farmers of America on Wednesday, September 29.
Baxley, a farmer and a trustee for the Slocomb High School FFA’s Blue Chapter trust, pleaded guilty Wednesday to property theft in the first degree in Geneva County Circuit Court. Because Alabama’s presumptive sentencing guidelines govern Baxley’s offense, the court sentenced Baxley to three years imprisonment, which was suspended, and placed Baxley on five years of supervised probation. Additionally, Baxley was ordered to pay $105,000 in restitution to the FFA Blue Chapter trust and a $1,000 fine. The court further ordered that Baxley’s sentence run concurrent with a federal sentence Baxley is serving for a conviction in federal court in Georgia for the theft of livestock.
Attorney General Marshall’s Special Prosecution Division presented evidence to a Geneva County grand jury on August 6, 2020, resulting in Baxley’s indictment for first-degree theft of funds. Baxley had been appointed as one of three trustees of the FFA Blue Chapter trust in October 1985. Shortly thereafter, Baxley began writing checks on the trust’s accounts and converting the proceeds to his own use.
“Mr. Baxley’s guilty plea and conviction is another example of the collaborative relationships my office has forged with the Federal Bureau of Investigation throughout Alabama,” Attorney General Marshall said. “Just this year, my office has initiated the impeachment of the Clarke County Sheriff, obtained felony convictions of two Birmingham Water Works Board contractors, the Limestone County Sheriff, and several former employees of the Montgomery Public Schools system as the result of joint federal-state investigative efforts.”
In addition to thanking Assistant Attorney General James Houts and investigators of the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division for their work, in this case, Attorney General Marshall also expressed his appreciation for the invaluable assistance provided by the Geneva County District Attorney’s Office.
