Alma Williams' sentence vacated

May 16, 2008 11:05 pm

— WATLANTA (AP) — Federal appeals judges have upheld the conviction but vacated the 33-month prison sentence of a woman found guilty of defrauding the government through grants for a non-profit organization that provided pre-kindergarten child care and infant daycare in Valdosta.
Alma Williams was executive director and chief financial officer of Eastside Training Academy. She was convicted of five counts of wire fraud and one count of federal funds theft for diverting $107,000 of $320,000 grant money in 2001. Williams maintained the charges constituted double jeopardy, but a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in an opinion filed Friday.
The panel also ruled 2-1 that a U.S. District Court judge erred in applying certain factors that increased her sentence, sending the case back to the lower court for re-sentencing.