Georgia: Bobo sentenced 5 years in bad meat trial

LaFAYETTE, Ga. — As punishment for selling tainted meat, livestock dealer Charles Ricky Bobo will serve five years in prison and 13 years probation and be banned for life from working in the food industry.

Judge Kristina Cook Connelly, who sentenced Mr. Bobo on Tuesday, presided last month over his five-day trial in Walker County Superior Court. Mr. Bobo was found guilty on nine of 26 counts related to the sale and distribution of uninspected and adulterated commercial meat with the intent to commit fraud.

Mr. Bobo’s attorney, Steve Ellis, noted after the sentencing that his client was found not guilty on 17 counts.

“Obviously, there were questions of fact that needed to be decided by a jury,” Mr. Ellis said.

Mr. Bobo sat in the courtroom Tuesday afternoon, wearing a black-and-white-striped prisoner’s uniform, yellow handcuffs and leg irons. About a dozen relatives, friends and business associates spoke on his behalf and asked the judge for leniency.

“He didn’t finish high school and has been working in stockyards his whole life,” said his father, Hoyt Bobo. “I believe he was doing what was right.”

Billy Wheeler, of Canton, Ga., and Larry Yokley, of Columbia, Tenn., testified they knew Mr. Bobo from dealing in livestock. They considered him “honest and fair” and said he had a good reputation.

“This is a very disturbing case,” Judge Connelly said, adding that it was unfortunate that Mr. Bobo had “great support from his friends and family” yet “had taken horrible advantage” of his victims.

Mr. Bobo and four others were arrested in February 2007 on charges involving a slaughter plant on Lookout Mountain and the sale of meat to clients in the Atlanta area. Three of the four entered guilty pleas and are on probation. The fourth has yet to stand trial.

“Other people entered pleas and received probation,” Judge Connelly said. “If I tried those cases, I wouldn’t have accepted their pleas.”