High-profile embezzlement and robbery cases are on the agenda for people selected this morning to serve as Warren County grand jurors for the October term.

Former Vicksburg Housing Authority maintenance supervisor Charles Jones, whose trial is pending on a drug indictment, might also be formally charged with embezzlement.

Four Vicksburg teenagers, including highly recruited basketball player Sha’Kayla Caples, will have armed robbery charges reviewed by the panel, which meets behind closed doors to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to take a case to trial.

“We do anticipate presenting all those cases to the grand jury,” District Attorney Ricky Smith said today. They are among about 95 cases to be presented. “The vast majority are going to be property- or drug-related cases,” he said.

Jones, 45, is accused of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars worth of tools, equipment and merchandise from the public housing agency overseen by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The case was developed locally, with no known participation by the U.S. attorney or HUD investigators.

Jones is already scheduled for trial in November on drug trafficking charges from his arrest in December. Police arrested him outside the VHA office where they say he accepted a package reportedly containing 2.2 pounds of cocaine addressed to him. Former Police Chief Tommy Moffett said it took five years to develop the case.

Jones’ home at 924 Bowmar Ave. was searched after the arrest, and he was charged with embezzlement several weeks later after investigators said they traced ownership of the goods to housing authority purchase orders using serial numbers. He has been free on a $250,000 bond after the drug arrest and a separate $50,000 bond after the embezzlement arrest.

Caples, the former Warren Central High School basketball star whose scholarship offers have been rescinded, Deshawn Williams, Jacorey Wright and Blake Reed are accused in a spurt of robberies, some of them violent.

Caples, 18, 414 Ford Road, was arrested May 13, along with Williams, 17, 119-B Elizabeth Circle; Wright, 16, 1405 Locust St.; and Reed, 17, 2501 Culkin Road Apt. G8. The four were released after posting bond. Caples has since enrolled at Meridian Community College but is reportedly not playing basketball.

Also facing indictment is Fadell Wilson, 46, who is accused of throwing hot grease on 16-year-old Micah Andrews during a dispute over a television. At the time of his arrest Wilson lived in the Andrews home at 201 Springridge Drive with Micah and his grandmother.

Most cases will be presented by Smith and assistant district attorneys Dewey Arthur, Angela Carpenter and Lane Campbell, with testimony by law enforcement officials. Cases can also be presented by County Prosecutor Ricky Johnson as well as the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.

If the jury decides there is sufficient evidence, suspects are indicted and arraigned — formally notified of the charges against them — and a trial date is set.

Grand jurors also can hand down a secret indictment, in which the accused has not previously been arrested for the crime and is not aware that evidence has been collected and is being reviewed by the grand jury.

Duties of the grand jury include touring the jail and preparing a report with recommendations about judicial needs and facilities in the county.

This will be Circuirt Judge James Chaney’s first Warren County grand jury term. He was appointed to the bench June 1 by Gov. Haley Barbour to fill the vacancy created when former Judge Frank Vollor retired. He presided over the Issaquena grand jury June 22.

Smith said no indictment is expected for the January death of Shawn Sponholz. “The case is still under investigation,” he said, and no one has been charged with his murder.

Sponholz, who was 50 and lived at 5125 Warriors Trail, died Jan. 23 of multiple stab wounds. His neighbor and landlord, Ben Bearrick, disappeared several days later. Sheriff Martin Pace has said foul play is suspected in Bearrick’s disappearance.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com