Child molestation charges dropped, man pleads to statutory rape

Brunswick News - 4/22/2017

April 22--During the summer of 2015, Neal Elvis Cohen was accused of sexually abusing a girl younger than 16 at his apartment on Altama Avenue, and was arrested in August 2016 for the alleged crimes. An indictment charged him with two counts of child molestation, two counts of aggressive child molestation and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes.

However, those charges were dropped, and a new count of statutory rape filed, to which Cohen pleaded guilty Monday. He received a sentence of 20 years probation with 240 days in prison, time-served. He is also required to pay a $1,500 fine and have no contact with the victim.

Meanwhile Jessica Charlene Norris pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of first-degree arson. She was accused of setting on fire a house aflame in the 100 block of Yorktown Drive on Oct. 16. A woman who was in the house told police Norris walked to the back of the house, and when she returned, told her to get out. The victim later said she smelled and saw the fire start at the back of the residence.

Also, Chance Joseph Wells pleaded Thursday to two counts of entering an automobile, related to a series of car break-ins on St. Simons Island in March 2016. Byron Watt Floyd and Kyle Brandon Higginbotham -- the two other co-defendants in the case -- were scheduled to plea Friday.

Wells received five years probation, fined $1,000 and instructed not to contact his co-defendants. He is also banned from St. Simons Island for the duration of the probation.

U.S. District Court

Friday in federal court, Romia Daniels -- also known as Romia Bell, Mike, Homie and Big Homie -- pleaded guilty Sept. 19 to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute as part of an ongoing case against a group of 19 alleged Bloods gang members. At that hearing, Michael Scott Sapp of the Brunswick Police Department and the FBI Violent Gang Task Force testified Daniels was the "primary provider of power cocaine to the entire (local Bloods street gang)."

He received seven years in federal prison, to run consecutive to a parole term and three years of supervised release. Daniels is also to be placed at the prison in Jesup should space allow. The U.S. Attorney's Office also made a motion to seal a document April 12, and Chief U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood granted that motion, but because of the nature of placing documents under seal, it is unknown what to what exactly the document was in reference.

Also sentenced in the Bloods case was Kevin Smith, who is also known as Kevlo Kool and Kevlo Ok Kool. He received a federal prison term of one year and a day, along with three years of supervised release. The court also allowed him to self-report, so he has 30 days to turn himself into the U.S. Marshals Service office in Brunswick.

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