by THE FOREST-BLADE STAFF
A first appearance hearing took place last week in Emanuel County Superior Court on Wednesday, April 20, for Amahri Huston, former resident of Swainsboro. Huston appeared before the honorable judge Bobby S. Reeves and entered a plea of not guilty on one indictment consisting of five charges, burglary in the first degree, aggravated sodomy, rape, aggravated assault and cruelty to a child in the first degree. These allegation stem back from an incident that took place around June 11, 2016 at a Lewis Street residence in Swainsboro.
Huston fled the general area not too long after committing the criminal acts, with his location being kept unknown to law enforcement until a potential DNA match flagged the justice system. According to information released by KSN.COM and KAKE.com, Kansas news outlets, Huston was arrested in November 2016 after sexually attacking another woman at an apartment complex in Maize. He was arrested just two days after the offense took place, with the knife he used to force his way inside the victim’s home being found in Huston’s vehicle. Huston pled guilty on rape and aggravated burglary charges on June 20, 2017 and was sentenced to 165 months in prison.
Since the potential DNA match was made known, Huston was transported back to Emanuel County to face his five alleged charges from the June 2016 incident. Having already been indicted by the grand jury, bond was not discussed at last week’s court hearing. Kelly Weathers with the district attorney’s office advised that the office and the investigating SPD officer were seeking a search warrant for the defendant’s DNA so that the GBI crime lab can run a comparison. Huston is represented by Public Defender Tobe Karrh.
PHOTO CREDIT: THE FOREST-BLADE STAFF
