A former Volunteer Energy Cooperative accountant who pleaded guilty in October to embezzling nearly $1 million from his employer was sentenced Wednesday to 17 years in prison and ordered to repay the money.
Jason Timothy Kittle, 46, of Athens, Tennessee, was facing a 15-to-25-year sentence for a felony charge of theft over $250,000, Assistant District Attorney Robert Edwards said Thursday in a phone interview.
Kittle pleaded guilty Oct. 3, the day his trial was set to begin in Roane County before Judge Mike Pemberton. The cooperative serves all Meigs County residents but only a tiny portion of Roane County’s residents, so the jury pool didn’t include anyone from that small area, according to prosecutors.
Kittle’s lawyer, Cleveland, Tennessee, attorney David Calfee, didn’t immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment. Kittle has a right to appeal the sentence Pemberton handed down Wednesday, Edwards said.
Kittle’s arrest stemmed from a Tennessee Comptroller’s investigation launched in 2018 that found he stole almost $995,000 during a period of more than six years while working for the cooperative, according to the state agency. The theft occurred between June 2011 and December 2017.