Prosecutors failed to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt in a murder trial last week in Jenkins County.
Teresa Kim Mobley was arrested in November 2021 by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for the stabbing death of 52-year-old Kenith Scott. Scott had been found stabbed in his apartment on Old Waynesboro Road in Millen in June of 2015.
In a press release from the GBI in 2021, then-Special Agent in Charge Chris DeMarco cited DNA evidence processed at the GBI Crime Lab as the basis for the arrest the came more than six years after the Scott’s death.
“Evidence recovered at the scene was successfully processed by the GBI crime lab for DNA,” the GBI said at the time. The agency used the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, to submit the DNA profile and a match was made to Mobley’s profile. Mobley was on probation at the time of the match and her DNA profile had been entered into the system.
Noteworthy is the fact that the evidence submitted to the crime lab was collected at the time of the death. The arrest followed the return of the processed, raising questions about the timeline for processing of samples submitted to the state crime lab.
But despite DNA evidence, Jenkins County jurors were not convinced, at least not beyond a reasonable doubt. They acquitted Mobley of the charges after a multi-day trial. The case was prosecuted by ADA Casey Blount before Superior Court Judge Lovett Bennett.
Having been denied a bond, Mobley remained behind bars in the Jenkins County Jail from the time she was arrested in November 2021 until her acquittal last week for a total of 718 days. She was released at the end of the trial.
This sounds about right! Someone knew someone!