Toccoa Man Indicted on Stolen Weapons Charges

A Toccoa man has been indicted by the Stephens County Grand Jury after authorities say they discovered a cache of stolen weapons in his possession.

On February 10th, the stolen guns were seized from 35-year old Zachary Johnson.

Authorities say the guns had been stolen from a home on Friar Road.

Stephens County Sheriff Randy Shirley said at the time the victim had an idea about who had taken his guns.

“The Stephens County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a resident on Friar Road here in Stephens County on the 14th of February,” Shirley said. “The victim stated that he had recently noticed he was missing multiple firearms at his residence, and he believed that the firearms were stolen from an individual known to him.”

Shirley said Toccoa Police had received a tip that Johnson, a convicted felon, was transporting guns in his black Kia Optima.

As officers performed a traffic stop, they found multiple firearms in the vehicle.

The guns recovered included a Ruger mini 14, a Smith & Wesson MP22 handgun, a black Colt revolver, a Ruger 22 pistol and a Sig Sauer riffle with scope.

One of the handguns also had the serial number filed off.

Shirley said his investigators and the Toccoa Police Department’s detectives were able to identify the multiple guns as the ones stolen from the victim on Friar Road.

He said Johnson was initially facing charged from both law enforcement agencies.

“As a result of that, Zachary Johnson, 35 of Toccoa was charged with four counts of Theft by Receiving stolen firearms. Those charges will be combined together. And because he’s a convicted felon, he will have that to deal with as well,” the Sheriff said.

On July 3rd, the Grand Jury indicted Johnson with four counts of Theft by Receiving Stolen Property, one count of Possession of a Firearm by a convicted felon, one count of Criminal Use of an Article with Altered Identification Mark, and one count of Driving While License Suspended.