A 27-year-old will escape prosecution in the alleged ripoff of a Villager who had recently lost his wife.
Justin Childs had been arrested Dec. 6, 2018 after he had been accused of helping himself to $4,000 from the bank account of his neighbor on Sellers Court in the Village of Mallory Square.
The Villager told Sumter County sheriff’s deputies that his wife had passed away three weeks earlier and Childs had been helping him out. But he said he never gave Childs permission to access his bank account. The Villager later obtained an order of protection against Childs.
However, it was announced earlier this month in Sumter County Court that Childs will not face prosecution in the case due to “victim/witness issues.”
Childs was convicted in 2014 on charges of burglary and grand theft and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released in 2017. He also had been convicted in 2013 on multiple trespassing charges
He was on probation at the time of the arrest in the Mallory Square incident, but a probation officer wrote in a subsequent report that, “It is apparent that the offender does not take probation seriously.”
