Woman pleads no contest

by Doug Thompson

A former Bank of Floyd employee, who embezzled $2,900 from the bank while working in the Willis Branch, received a 12-month suspended sentence in Floyd County Circuit Court Tuesday.

Karen Lynn Sutphin entered a no contest plea as part of an agreement worked out by attorney Angi N. Morris and Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Shortt.

As part of the agreement, Judge Ray W. Grubbs accepted a motion from Shortt to reduce the original felony charge of embezzlement to a misdemeanor. Sutphin made full restitution to the bank as a condition of the agreement.

Sutphin’s plea agreement closed out a short court day where Grubbs sent one person charged with multiple probation violations to jail for a year and gave another six months.

Charles Wayne Yopp, charged with four probation violations on earlier convictions of adduction, aggravated sexual assault and perjury, was ordered to spend a year in jail and then enter a drug rehab program to avoid another 13 years in prison.

Tanya Lynn Gibson, facing three probation violation charges on felony bad check convictions, can avoid her six-month term if she enters the New Life Recovery drug rehab program.

In other cases before Judge Grubbs on Tuesday:

--Curtis Junior Dalton received a 24-day jail sentence and 2 years probation under a plea agreement on charges of auto theft and driving on a suspended license;

--Grubbs sentenced Charlie Wayne Howard to 100 days of community service and deferred disposition on possession of a schedule II drug charges for 1 year under the first offender program that allows a defendant’s record to be cleared if he stays out of trouble for that year;

--Mark Wayne Dalton received a one-year suspended sentence under a plea agreement that reduced a felony charge of destroying property to a misdemeanor;

--Grubbs gave Franklin T. Kivett another chance at meeting the terms of his probation if he enters the New Life Drug Recovery Program;

--The judge took under advisement a defense motion to quash a subpoena seeking medical records of Larry Wayne Showalter, who faces four charges of attempted capital murder from an incident with Floyd County sheriff’s deputies.