CLASSIC CITY NEWS

By Joe Johnson An Athens woman has been sentenced to prison for intentionally crashing her car into the Alps Road Kroger last year. Several people were injured when the car plowed into a checkout area, including an employee whose skull fractured. Authorities said that 40-year-old Lonneshia Shafaye Appling was high on a combination of fentanyl and methamphetamine on the morning of December 16th, 2025. According to police reports, Appling had sat in her car outside of the super

file photo By Joe Johnson A 51-year-old man was recently assaulted in the driveway of his home on Cherokee Road. He told police that the suspect used brass knuckles when punching him in the head and face, It happened on the afternoon of September 20th when the victim was taking out the trash and was accosted by a man who he knew as Nick who approached him from behind hurling threatening insults and throwing punches. He accused the victim of stealing from him, but the alleged

By Joe Johnson An Athens-Clarke County grand jury has indicted four codefendants in a downtown.shooting incident last summer in which an assailant rifle was used, Among other weapons an AR-15 automatic assault rifle was used in an exchange of gunfire on East Clayton Street. No one was injured, but several businesses were riddled by bullets, The indictment filed last Tuesday in Superior Court charges the defendants with multiple counts of aggravated assault, possession of a fi

By Joe Johnson Anthony Earl Collins, 43, of Candler Road, has been charged with aggravated assault and felony theft for hitting a woman in the head with a bottle of brandy and stealing her phone when she tried to call 911. The incident happened late the night of September 16th at the 62-year-old victim’s home on Jockey Club Drive, when he struck her in the head with with a bottle of Paul Masson then ran out the back door. The victim told police that Collins is homeless and sh

By Joe Johnson A 38-year-old man was reportedly attacked on September 18th while he was walking to his mother’s home on Venita Drive. It happened at around 9 p.m near the intersection with South Milledge Avenue, where he was struck in the head from behind. He told police that he had just passed a man and woman who he’d never seen before. He didn’t remember what happened after being knocked unconscious. The man’s mother called 911 when he arrived with blood dripping his head

By Joe Johnson A 38-year-old man was reportedly attacked on September 18th while he was walking to his mother’s home on Venita Drive. It happened at around 9 p.m near the intersection with South Milledge Avenue, where he was struck in the head from behind. He told police that he had just passed a man and woman who he’d never seen before. He didn’t remember what happened after being knocked unconscious. The man’s mother called 911 when he arrived with blood dripping his head

By Joe Johnson Alexandria Ann Dupree, 21, of Monty Drive, was arrested Tuesday for assaulting another woman two nights before in downtown Athens. She was charged with aggravated battery for brutally beating the victim, who was treated at the hospital for a deep gash across her entire forehead. The victim reportedly was the girlfriend of Dupree’s ex-boyfriend who she followed from a Clayton Street bar to a parking deck where she grabbed the victim by the hair from behind and r

By Joe Johnson Jennifer Ashley Lueke, 39, of Glendale Heights in Winterville, was arrested for aggravated assault after she allegedly threatened neighbors with a gun According to police, the incident occurred on the afternoon of August 20th when Lueke reportedly waved a handgun while yelling at Hispanic neighbors across the street. One woman told police that she left with her children because she claimed Lueke pointed the gun and was afraid she was going to shoot them. The w

By Joe Johnson Terry Bernard Ball Jr., 38, of Simmons Street, has been indicted for shooting a man last month on The Block, a popular hangout in east Athens. On July 17th he committed assault with a deadly weapon “by shooting Mario Orlando Baker in the butt,” states the indictment filed in Superior Court last week. The incident happened at around 12:30 a.m. when Ball shot Baker at the corner of Vine and Gressom streets, according to the police report. Baker, a 38-year-old

By Joe Johnson Tony Lynn Fleming, 68, of Prickle Lane in Watkinsville, was arrested on the afternoon of July 26th after he savagely beat a woman with a wood stake. The incident happened on Newton Bridge Road after Fleming argued with the woman for refusing to get out of his truck. Police said he stopped at a construction site where he got a long wood stake and assaulted the 28-year-old woman and drove away. Police said they found the victim in a roadside ditch, covered with b

By Joe Johnson An Athens Superior Court grand jury has indicted a man who wore a Nazi uniform when he assaulted a woman last year outside of a downtown bar. Kenneth Leland Morgan, 33, of Appleby Drive in Athens, was charged in the Tuesday indictment with aggravated assault for striking a University of Georgia student in the face with a glass beer mug during an altercation at the entrance of an East Clayton Street bar in October 2025. Dressed in the black Gestapo uniform, he a

By Joe Johnson Sandy Nashalle Franklin, 35, of Broadacres Court, has been charged with stabbing another inmate at the county jail in Athens. Franklin had been in jail since May when she was arrested for setting a trash can fire in Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center that caused extensive damage. The assault occurred three weeks later when she stabbed the other inmate with a pen in the cheek and forehead, In addition to first-degree arson, Franklin is now charged with aggr

By Joe Johnson Julio Cesar Hernandez-Bueno, 56, of Cherokee Road in Winterville, has been indicted for an incident outside of a bar downtown in which he stabbed one man and shot at another. He was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to the indictment filed Tuesday in Superior Court. The incident occurred early in the morning of May 10th outside of Tropical Bar on West Clayton Street, A

By Joe Johnson Spencer Thurlow Long, 41, of Hill Street, was arrested after he assaulted his elderly grandmother and robbed a man on consecutive days last week. The first incident happened on the afternoon of July 21st when Long assaulted his 83-year-old grandmother at their home. “She said Spencer snapped at her and began striking her, causing lacerations to her arm and face,” then smacked the phone from her hand when she tried to call 911, according the the police report, H

By Joe Johnson Andera Lashandra Howard, 41, of Vine Street, was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend with a car and gun. The incident happened on the afternoon of July 12th in the parking lot of Triangle Plaza on Nellie B Avenue, where the 47-year-old victim went to go shopping. The victim had no sooner parked his truck when Howard drove up and purposely sideswiped the vehicle with her car and then tried getting into the truck while holding a pistol. She

By Joe Johnson A 33-year-old woman was cleaning her home this weekend when struck by a bullet that punched through the door. The incident happened at about 2 a.m. July 19th at Rolling Ridge Apartments off Kathwood Drive and witnesses identified the shooter as a man from Oglethorpe County whose intended target was another man with whom he had an ongoing feud. The victim was injured when one of the bullets ricocheted and struck her in the leg near the ankle, according to polic

Ball By Joe Johnson Terry Bernard Ball, 38, of Simmons Street, was arrested early in the morning of July17th after he shot a man on The Block, a popular hangout in east Athens. The victim, 38-year-old Mario Orlando Baker of Ramble Hills Circle, was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries to his buttocks and leg. The incident reportedly happened at around 12:30 a.m. when Ball shot Baker at the corner of Vine and Gressom streets, according to police. Alth

By Joe Johnson A Jackson County man reported that someone assaulted his daughter as they were trying to eat in the Waffle House on Atlanta Highway. The incident happened early in the morning of July 9th when the suspect accused the 44-year-old Jefferson man’s daughter of giving him “the stank eye,” called her a slut and then lunged at her. The suspect then threw a beverage on the man before leaving with a Waffle House employee who was later identified as his sister, according

By Joe Johnson A 46-year-old man reported that he was walking on Barber Street early in the morning of June 30th when someone fired a gun at him. He told police that he was passing by Kwik Kar Wash at around 4 a.m. when a shot rang out and he heard the bullet whiz past. He ran through the car wash and hid in a nearby building where he called 911. The man told police that just prior to being shot at he saw someone ducking into some bushes near the car wash. Police located witn

By Joe Johnson Julio Cesar Hernandez, 56, of Cherokee Road in Winterville, was arrested early the morning of May 10th after he reportedly stabbed another man outside of Tropical Bar on West Clayton Street, According to police, he stabbed 21-year-old Nelson Gomez of Smokey Road during a brawl between two groups of men outside the bar and tried several times to shoot another man but his gun failed to fire. Hernandez fled the scene but was arrested shortly afterwards after poli