BAINBRIDGE- A case that began in the summer of 2021, has finally come to a close. Garrett and Stacey Smith, the former owners of Smithco Recycling and SmithCo Transfer entered into a plea agreement on Thursday, November 14, 2024, and were sentenced by Judge Lawton C. Heard, Jr. at the Decatur County Jail Courtroom.

Garrett and Stacey each pled guilty to one count of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), one count of theft by receiving stolen catalytic converters, one count of theft by receiving stolen roll-off containers, one count of theft by receiving stolen copper wire, and one count of unlawful regulated metal transactions.

Garrett was sentenced to 50 years, 10 of which are to be served in the Georgia Department of Corrections, while Stacy was sentenced to 50 years, 5 of which are to be served in the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Heard also sentenced the Smiths to pay $40,000 in fines and banished them from the State of Georgia.

The sentence marked the end of a 3-year-long investigation conducted by the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office Career Criminal Unit.

During the investigation, investigators traveled to South Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas to conduct interviews and collect evidence.

During the sentencing, Assistant District Attorney Chris Quinn laid out the elaborate plan they had uncovered during the investigation.

“The business was a legitimate business until December of 2017,” he said. “It was at that time that Defendant Garrett Smith wanted to add roll-off containers to his business profile.”

Garrett believed having roll-off containers as part of the SmithCo business would increase profits and exposure in the community. However, new roll-off containers can cost anywhere from $7,000-10,000, depending on the construction materials, size, and add-ons. Used containers generally cost between $1,500-3,000 depending on the condition.

“It is common knowledge in the trash, recycling, and roll-off container business that no business will sell their roll-off containers to another business unless the selling business is going out of business,” Quinn explained.

Still, Garrett contacted Kathy Clark; the owner of Seminole Sanitation in 2017, asking if he could purchase all of Seminole Sanitation’s roll-off containers.

Clark rebuffed Smith’s offer, informing him the roll-off container business was the most profitable part of Seminole Sanitation.

At that time, co-defendant Jason Giannars was an employee for Seminole Sanitation and would drop off and pick up roll-off containers from job sites.

Garrett contacted Giannars and offered to purchase any roll-off containers that Giannars would pick up and bring to SmithCo Recycling, promising him $800 per container.

On December 4, 2017, Giannars Brought his first roll-off container to SmithCo Recycling. Between December 2017- June 2019, Giannars would bring 25 roll-off containers total, weighing a total of 155,720 pounds.

During the investigation, it was revealed not a single check used to pay Giannars matched the check number on any of Giannars’ tickets and all of the checks were solely signed by Stacey.

While working for Seminole Sanitation, Giannars got to know Michael and Pearl Baker. Pearl was the manager of the storage lot in Mitchell County where Seminole Sanitation stored some of its roll-off containers. Pearl asked Giannars if she could get in on the money-making venture, and later sold nine containers to SmithCo Recycling between January 2018 and January 2019.

Additional roll-off container businesses were also victimized during this time by the Defendants, including J.S. Rowe just outside of Augusta.

The Smiths have been ordered to pay restitution to J.S. Rowe in the amount of $37,006.20 within 90 days of their release from incarceration.

As the investigation continued into the roll-off containers, the DCSO began receiving a large amount of calls about stolen catalytic converters.

It was at this time, that Garrett began purchasing large amounts of catalytic converters.

In 2020, Garrett contacted a junkyard in Marianna, Florida, known as Cuumba, and inquired about purchasing the business. The owner was not interested in selling at the time and rebuffed the offer.

Following the rebuff, Garrett contacted co-defendant Cal Cowart and informed him of the junkyard. Garett told Cowart the junkyard had numerous junk cars and he would purchase all of the converters Cowart brought him.

Cowart informed investigators he stole approximately 30 catalytic converters from Cuumba Enterprises and Garrett purchased them with checks signed by Stacey.

The Smiths were warned by Bainbridge Public Safety to stop buying stolen catalytic converters.

Taking the warning, Garrett organized a plan with codefendants John Comerford and Burl Phillips in June 2020 to make them straw purchasers.

Customers wanting to sell converters were directed to Comerford and Phillips.

“This was done to effectuate a conspiracy to avoid detection by GBI and other law enforcement,” Quinn said.

During this same time, Moss Solar was constructing a large solar farm in Decatur County. It was reportedly a large job site and there were numerous employees in the area, including Robert Ebi and Breylan Tarrant.

During his time at Moss Solar, Ebi began to take metals to SmithCo and noticed no questions were being asked by Garrett or any other SmithCo employee.

When Ebi realized this, he began to take new rolls of copper wire to SmithCo. Photographs show rolls of copper wire still in the shrink wrap being purchased from Ebi and Tarrant.

Tarrant helped Ebi in this venture and stated that for payment, he was directed to Stacey. Employees later admitted after Ebi and Tarrant left, they were directed to pull off the roll and cut it into small sections, so it appeared to be scrap copper.

At the sentencing, Garrett and Stacey admitted this to be true, and agreed to pay $66,000 in restitution to Moss Solar.

In total, Garrett will serve 10 years in the Georgia Department of Corrections for violation of the RICO Act, pay $20,000 in restitution, and was sentenced to 10 years probation for theft by receiving stolen catalytic converters, 12 months probation for unlawful regulated metal transactions, 10 years probation for theft by receiving stolen copper wire, and 10 years probation for theft by receiving stolen roll-off containers.

Stacey will only serve 5 years in the Georgia Department of Corrections for violation of the RICO Act but faces the same amount of probation time.

“I think this is a fair conclusion,” Quinn said. “It was very important to me that they took responsibility for the things that they did, and that did include pleading guilty to at least one of the RICO counts.”

CCU Commander Adam Mobley and Sergeant Justin Kelly had numerous conversations with Quinn about what a plea would look like for this case and ended with one guilty plea from each category of the indictment.

“We felt like this would make the victims in this case whole, and we felt like it would make businesses in the same category look at this verdict and want to not get involved in something like this,” Quinn said.

Mobley, agreed, concluding “It takes a lot of time and resources to conduct an investigation of this magnitude. I would like to thank my partner Sergeant Justin Kelly, Chief Deputy Wendell Cofer, Sheriff Wiley Griffin, District Attorney Joe Mulholland, and Assistant District Attorney Chris Quinn for all their hard work ensuring this outcome. We still have 30 co-defendants to sentence, but today was a good start in providing justice to the many victims statewide that were impacted by this corrupt organization.”