ALBERTVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — It has been a month since Marshall County Sheriff’s investigators, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) raided Joe’s Pawn Shop in Albertville.
Six people were charged with first-degree receiving stolen property and most of those defendants are due in court this week.
Court filings show the listed owner of the pawn shop, Joe Cephus Campbell III, is set for a preliminary hearing on the charge Wednesday at the Marshall County Courthouse. The preliminary hearing is normally where the prosecution has to show a judge it was enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury. But, Campbell’s lawyers have filed a motion asking the judge to delay that hearing, that is, until every person charged has a hearing the same day.
Other arrested in the case include John Eller, Zachary Shake, Dylan Green and Santo Andres. Court records show all of them have a preliminary hearing set for Wednesday morning, along with Joe Campbell.
But, the sixth defendant arrested in the case, Wanda Campbell, who owns the property where Joe’s Pawn is located and is Joe Campbell’s mother, does not have a preliminary hearing date set.
Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims said the Aug. 4 raid followed a four-month investigation. During an Aug. 8 news conference, Sims said loss prevention officials from several large area stores, including Walmart, Target, Lowe’s and Home Depot, were involved in the investigation. He said many items seized in the raid were in their original boxes.
“The estimated total of these items is approximately $42,000, that’s what was recovered in just those stolen items from those department stores,” Sims said. “Also, there were 263 guns, a mixture of handguns and rifles, long guns, were recovered from the pawn shop. Along with $88,000 in cash was also seized.
ATF officials said Campbell did not have a federal license to sell guns. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to a federal charge of conspiracy to deal firearms without a license.
A Marshall County Sheriff’s Office spokesman told News 19 today the investigation continues, but no other arrests have been made.