Meet Narquita Frank. While many in the CSRA were shopping for Christmas gifts over the weekend, this 23-year-old Augusta woman with the colorful hair was shoplifting Sunday night at the Gordon Highway Kmart, police say.
Narquita allegedly stuffed four sets of pajamas and a bra in the storage compartment underneath a baby stroller and rolled out of the store. She was confronted by a loss prevention officer and arrested for shoplifting.

Charles Kelly III, 21, of Augusta, was charged Friday with DUI and failure to maintain lane. The Richmond County Jail snapped this bloody mugshot of the young man.
We wondered what happened to him, so we called Kelly tonight. He told us that he “busted a tire” and was being tailed by a deputy. He said the tire made his vehicle swerve in the lane and he accidentally hit a traffic light pole, crashing the vehicle.
Since Kelly wasn’t wearing a seat belt, his face hit the windshield, leading to the injuries. While cops charged him with DUI and he admits drinking two or three beers before the wreck, he told us that he passed the cop’s Breathalyzer and was arrested anyway.
At the detention center, he says jailers didn’t let him clean the blood off his face. Kelly says he plans to fight the DUI charge since he wasn’t drunk.

An Augusta woman was charged with murder today after allegedly beating her boyfriend to death with a shoe, according to authorities. Thelma Carter, 46, first told officers she came home this morning to find the body of 58-year-old Robert Higdon.

“Subsequent investigation has determined that at some time (Sunday) evening Carter and Higdon were involved in a dispute that turned physical.  During the altercation, Carter struck Higdon in the head with a shoe,” sheriff’s Capt. Scott Peebles said in a press release.

Officers say the victim appears to have died from trauma to the head, but an autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday to determine the exact cause.  Carter is in custody charged with one count of murder.

This is Richmond County’s 14th murder this year.  There were 21 murders this time last year.

AIKEN HOMICIDE: An Aiken man was charged with strangling a woman to death after a front-yard fight on Barton Brother Lane just after midnight today, authorities said.
James Conway Gray, 30, allegedly was arguing with the victim in the front yard of her home when the fight turned physical and he strangled the woman.
“Two juveniles observed the incident take place and called 911,” sheriff’s Capt. Troy Elwell said in a release. “While en route to the scene deputies observed an individual matching the description provided by the witnesses and detained him. Investigators later determined the individual detained was the person responsible for the crime.”
While the sheriff’s office was withholding the woman’s identity and official cause of death, relatives of the woman identified her as 32-year-old Helen McGee, according to WRDW-TV.
The suspect’s address was listed as 1538 Hamilton Drive in Aiken. He remains in jail under a single count of murder.

Jason Rose, of North Augusta, was arrested July 19 in Aiken County for a theft by taking warrant out of Columbia County, Ga.

Darryl Wilson, 45, of Augusta, Lewdness, indecent exposure

Child pornography was found on the computer of a North Augusta man, leading to the seizure of his computer and a felony charge of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to Public Safety Chief John Thomas.

William Berry, 28, of Linnet Loop, was arrested Monday, three days after a search warrant was served at his residence as part of the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The arrest was made with the assistance of North Augusta Department of Public Safety.

More charges are pending the outcome of an investigation into the contents of Berry’s computer. A roommate in Berry’s home was not charged.

South Carolina’s Task Force is operated through the Attorney General’s Office and works closely with law enforcement around the state, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and several other state and federal agencies.

The purpose of the ICAC program is to help State and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to cyberenticement and child pornography cases that encompass forensic and investigative components, training and technical assistance, victim services, and community education.

Gina Young, 27, of Augusta, was charged Wednesday with theft by shoplifting in Richmond County. She allegedly went into a dressing room and loaded her purse with four shirts and four dresses from J.C. Penney’s at Augusta Mall. Another woman with Young allegedly stole items too, but pushed the loss prevention officer out of the way and fled, a report says. Young gave deputies the other woman’s name, and an arrest is expected.

An Hephzibah mom arrested Monday for leaving her 3-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter at home alone had an excuse: She had to get to work and didn’t have a babysitter.

Shari Hill, 27, was charged with two counts of contributing to the deprivation of a minor, according to a report by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.

A tipster notified DFACS about the unsupervised children at the home on Pebble Creek Drive, and the social worker notified deputies. The DFACS worker called the children’s mother, who came home and told the officer she had to be to work at Verizon at 3 p.m. and had no one to watch the children.

The two children were turned over to their grandmother and Hill was arrested. She remains in jail today under a $7,000 bond.

If you are going to speed 37 mph over the limit, make sure you can pay bail once you are arrested. Bartraill Blockett, 20, of Augusta, was busted around lunchtime Saturday for flying down Interstate 20 in Augusta at 92 mph in a 55 mph zone. Deputies took him to the Richmond County Jail, and he remains there right now unable to pay $700 to get out, according to jail records.