Georgia Woman Gets Four Years For Role In Hijacking Possession Of Vacant Houses, Then Using Craigslist To Reel In Unwitting Renters

In Cobb County, Georgia, The Marietta Daily Journal reports:

• A Powder Springs woman has pleaded guilty to racketeering, burglary and other charges related to a real estate scheme and was sentenced to four years in prison [], according to the Cobb District Attorney’s office.
  
  As jury selection was about to begin for her trial, 60-year-old Mona Lisa Smiley pleaded guilty to 18 charges against her, said Kim Isaza, spokesperson for the Cobb DA’s office.
  
  According to investigators, Smiley and two others entered vacant houses, took them over and then advertised the houses for rent on Craigslist in the fall of 2014. Five houses in Cobb County were rented to tenants in this way, and evidence showed the three defendants had more planned, Isaza said.
  
  Smiley also falsely notarized a Quitclaim Deed on one of the properties and filed it in the Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s office, Isaza said.
  
  After Smiley pleaded guilty to the charges against her, including two counts of racketeering, five counts of burglary, five counts of theft by taking, four counts of theft by deception and a count each of forgery and filing false documents, she was sentenced to 10 years, with four to serve in custody and the rest on probation, by Cobb Superior Court Judge Tain Kell.
  
  Kell also ordered Smiley to pay $1,100 in restitution to two of the victims and perform 100 hours of community service in addition to the prison sentence, Isaza said.
  
  “The charges in this case are significant,” Kell told Smiley. “People’s right to be secure in their homes is serious.”
  
  In December, one of Smiley’s codefendants, Elishia Betts, pleaded guilty to one count of theft by taking and received four years of probation. The third codefendant, Edgar Lee Rodgers, has not yet been arrested on charges related to the case. Rodgers is last known to have lived in Atlanta, Isaza said.

Source: DA: Powder Springs woman broke into homes, advertised them online.