For weeks, Skyy Mims’ mother asked Carla Marable to meet with her private investigator.
Marable, Mims’ Michigan-based attorney in her pending Whitfield County, Ga., murder case, wasn’t comfortable with the idea. She usually works with investigators she already knows, former law enforcement officers she can trust.
She had never heard of the investigator, who called himself Larry Cooper, but he had endeared himself to Mims’ mother, Ylet Noelle Patterson.
The arrest of Mims, a 21-year-old aspiring rapper, dancer, model and fashion designer from Detroit, gained national media attention in March. Six months later, she remains in the Whitfield County Jail without bond, awaiting trial.
But this case may result in another arrest, Marable said. She plans to turn Cooper in for impersonating a law enforcement officer and for stealing from Mims’ family. It is unclear how much money they paid him, though Marable estimates he received about $1,500.