A state inmate serving time for attempted murder and working at the Limestone County District 3 shed stole a county truck just before 10 a.m. Nov. 9 after learning he had been denied parole and would be serving five more years. He flipped and wrecked the truck on Zehner Road west of Athens before Limestone County sheriff's deputies arrested him at the scene.

Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles compiled by The News Courier staff about the news that shaped Athens and Limestone County in 2016. Additional articles will be published this week as the year draws to a close.

Limestone County is no stranger to the odd crime story. The past year of crime proves the point once again.

From an accused shoplifter claiming to be Jesus to a naked man trying to break one of the laws of physics at the Alabama Welcome Center in Ardmore, here’s a look back at some of the unusual crimes logged countywide during 2016:

No Jesus here

In May, an Athens woman allegedly wheeled a shopping cart of merchandise out of a Dollar General without paying for it and, when confronted, claimed to own the cart, the store and to be Jesus Christ.

Pamela Graves Thornton, 54, of 18078 E. Limestone Road, was arrested May 4 on a charge of fourth-degree theft.

Dispatched to the store at 15024 E. Limestone Road, Sheriff’s Deputy Shannon Thrasher arrived to find Thornton in the parking lot next to a cart full of items. Standing nearby was a Dollar General employee who told Thrasher the woman had left the store without paying for the goods.

The employee told the deputy Thornton was unresponsive and incoherent and had been acting strangely while in the store, consuming a sherbet Push-Up without paying for it.

The deputy found 73 items in Thornton’s cart valued at $338.

Unbearable news

A state inmate serving time for attempted murder was arrested Nov. 9 after stealing a truck from a Limestone County District 3 work site and crashing it west of Athens, records show.

Aaron Tyrone Mims, 34, of Phenix City, had served about 13 ½ years of a 35-year sentence for attempted murder. He had been assigned to the minimum-security Decatur Community Work Center to prepare him for eventual release, according to Alabama Department of Corrections records. From there he was assigned to District 3 in Limestone.

Distraught after learning he had been denied release and would be serving five more years, Mims stole the county truck from the District 3 shed on Zehner Road, lost control and flipped multiple times on Zehner near Alabama 72. He emerged from the truck, cut and bleeding, and was arrested.

Privately placed pills

A prisoner in the Limestone County Jail received additional charges after 173 pills stored in a Pop Tart wrapper were found in her vagina.

Heather Leanne Rice, 32, of 16358 Blackburn Lane, Athens, had turned herself in to the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office July 22 because there was a warrant for her arrest on a probation violation. During her stay, corrections officers noticed Rice appeared to be under the influence of narcotics.

When questioned, Rice told a jail supervisor she knew beforehand she would be coming to jail so she made sure she had enough drugs to last until her court date.

When she refused to tell officials where she had stashed the drugs, officials obtained a warrant to thoroughly search her person. She was taken to Athens-Limestone Hospital Aug. 4, where a nurse removed from her body the foil toaster pastry wrapper containing approximately 32 Xanax, 80 Ambien, and 61 buprenorphine (Subutex) tablets.

She received an additional charges of second-degree promoting prison contraband and possession of a controlled substance, records show.

Not so mellow fellow

A Michigan man was arrested Sept. 22 after sheriff’s deputies responded to a call about a naked man running around the Alabama Welcome Center in Ardmore.

Deputies were dispatched around 9:20 p.m. to check on a nude man chasing a woman around the parking lot of the welcome center, just off Interstate 65 South.

They arrived to find Michael Charles Bodak, 64, in the truck/recreational vehicle parking area, yelling at a family sitting inside their car. When confronted by officers, Bodak complied with orders and was taken into custody.

When asked what he was doing, Bodak said he was in a contest to see who could “break the light barrier” and he was trying to run faster than the speed of light.

Inside his vehicle, deputies found a purple plastic container containing a leafy green substance and a glass pipe.

Bodak was charged with public lewdness and public intoxication. Deputies surmised Bodak may have smoked marijuana laced with another drug.

Crazy pool party

In June, a Limestone County grand jury formally charged two men and one woman with kidnapping in a case where a man was allegedly beaten with a brick and shovel, thrown into a pool, held under water and struck against concrete before being fired upon.

The grand jury formally charged the three — Timothy Ray Gordon, 51, Vickie Lynn Goode, 50, and Justin Clay Goode, 21, all of 16891 Browns Ferry Road, Athens — on charges of first-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault in connection with the case, records show.

The victim, who knew all three of the accused, suffered a broken arm as well as other cuts and scratches, said Limestone County Sheriff’s Deputy Stephen Young.

Two of the people arrested believed the victim had set up Justin and had also tried to plant drugs at the residence on Browns Ferry Road. The victim told the deputy Justin had tricked him into going with him to look for some stolen property but instead brought him to his home where he was assaulted.

A deputy dispatched to the home found Vickie Goode standing guard over the victim, who was soaking wet, shaking, bleeding and appearing to be in extreme pain.

The victim claimed Justin had punched and kicked him, beaten him with a brick and a shovel, thrown him into a wheelbarrow and a swimming pool, and attempted to hold his head under water from the edge of the pool, Young said.

The victim said Vickie had slapped and punched him, saying he was “[expletive] with the wrong family.” The victim also claimed Gordon had slammed his head on the concrete and fired shots at him. Gordon admitted firing a Smith & Wesson 9 mm pistol.

Defamation charge against East teen dropped

A defamation of character charge against an East Limestone High School senior was dropped because it was deemed unconstitutional, prompting Limestone County District Attorney Brian Jones to get the state law changed.

Tyler Marquis Harris, 18, of 18373 Foxford Lane, Athens, was arrested April 7 on the charge. He was accused of posting a picture of a high school coach who was not under investigation with a news story about another East Limestone coach, Trey Alton Stinson, who was arrested on a charge of school employee engaging in a sex act with student.

Harris was accused of posting the fake charges against the employee to social media sites, including Facebook and Snapchat. Harris admitted he had concocted the arrest but told investigators he had done so as a joke.

Although the charge was dropped, Jones contacted lawmakers representing Limestone County to seek an amendment to state law that would allow such charges to stand in the future. It was passed by the state Legislature.

Beer demand turns violent

One man’s demand for more beer apparently led to a Jan. 25 shooting on Greenbrier Road in Limestone County.

Witness Jessica Alvarado told a sheriff’s deputy she and Brandon Reed had driven to a home on Cotton Tree Way that night to visit a friend. When they arrived, Ramon Minjares Sanchez, 37, of 23809 Norman Lane, Elkmont, came out to the driveway, got into their vehicle and demanded Alvarado take him to a store to buy more beer.

Alvarado told Sanchez he was already drunk and she would not take him to buy more beer. Sanchez became irate and fired a .380-caliber pistol toward the vehicle’s center console. He exited the vehicle and fired twice into the vehicle’s passenger side.

Alvarado backed out of the driveway and left the property. When Reed, 29, of the Capshaw community, told her he had been shot, Alvarado drove him to Madison Hospital for treatment. Although initially in critical condition, Reed stabilized and was later released.

Sanchez is charged with first-degree assault and shooting into an occupied vehicle.

Short bread

A Limestone County woman was charged June 5 with third-degree theft for allegedly stealing $1,100 from a Girl Scout cookie fund she managed.

An unnamed area Girl Scout manager had reported the money missing May 12. Eight days later, investigators interviewed Dusty Tracy Stewart, 35, of 11238 Ripley Road, Athens.

The manager who reported the theft had given Stewart an opportunity to repay the money but she failed to do so after two weeks.

Woman allegedly forged DA’s signature

An Athens woman was arrested in California and booked into the Limestone County Jail on June 14 after investigators say she forged a document claiming her arrest warrants were dropped.

Melanie Renae Farmer, 43, of 16340 Travertine Drive, used a falsified letterhead from the office of Limestone District Attorney Brian Jones and forged his signature on a note to her California employer confirming her outstanding warrants were recalled in Alabama when they were still active.

The DA’s office contacted investigators on June 1 after being notified the company had received the document, which the DA’s office had not sent. Investigators obtained warrants for Farmer’s arrest on charges of second-degree forgery and criminal impersonation.

Jones said Farmer, a travel nurse, was looking to renew her contract and sent in the documents when confronted about “multiple outstanding warrants” for failure to attend court on charges of negotiating a worthless negotiable instrument.

Jones said Farmer allegedly copied and pasted the department’s logo into a document and added the falsified signature and a bar code used when the office files documents.

The director of the company then contacted Jones’ office to see if he had sent it.

DA’s AR-15 stolen

A rash of vehicle break-ins occurred one night in January, including one in which the district attorney’s AR-15 semiautomatic rifle was stolen from his locked vehicle.

On Jan. 18, someone broke the rear window of District Attorney Brian Jones’ SUV while it was parked at his home in east Athen. Police Chief Floyd Johnson said there were three other vehicles broken into the same night, all of which might be linked.

In one of those break-ins, another semiautomatic rifle and two pistols were stolen. In another, a purse containing several debit cards was stolen. One of those cards was then used at a gas station in Jefferson County, the chief said.

Counterfeit gold, silver sales

Arrests were made beginning at the end of July in a multi-agency investigation into the sale of counterfeit gold and silver.

The Limestone County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office and the Huntsville Police Department after each department recorded cases of people being scammed out of money by buying fake gold and silver bars or coins at area flea markets, including Dog Days in Ardmore.

Residents were advised simply weighing the item or doing an acid test could identify a counterfeit in seconds.

Woman arrested for clobbering ex with paint roller

An Athens woman was arrested in September after going to her estranged husband’s home and clobbering him with a paint roller.

Kristie Leigh Hammond, 34, of 11462 Lentzville Road, was arrested Sept. 30 on a charge of third-degree domestic violence and violation of a protection order.

Hammond’s estranged husband, who had obtained a protection from abuse order against his wife, called the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office to report his wife was at his home.

Deputy Terry Johnson was dispatched to the 21100 block of Harris Loop to investigate. He arrived to find Hammond at the home. He arrested her for violating the protection order.

The estranged spouse told the deputy Hammond had struck him with a paint roller, according to Johnson’s official report.

The deputy noticed paint on the man’s torso and legs, and found a wet paint roller in the seat of the accused’s truck. So, he added the domestic violence charge.

Hammond was taken to jail without incident.