{"id":34,"date":"2024-06-27T22:26:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T22:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/2024\/06\/27\/guilty-lee-county-jury-convicts-john-squirrel-cross-of-attempted-murder-of-lee-county-sheriffs-deputy\/"},"modified":"2024-10-07T20:47:49","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T20:47:49","slug":"guilty-lee-county-jury-convicts-john-squirrel-cross-of-attempted-murder-of-lee-county-sheriffs-deputy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/2024\/06\/27\/guilty-lee-county-jury-convicts-john-squirrel-cross-of-attempted-murder-of-lee-county-sheriffs-deputy\/","title":{"rendered":"Guilty: Lee County Jury Convicts John &#8220;Squirrel&#8221; Cross of Attempted Murder of Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Deputy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><br \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; white-space-collapse: preserve;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEivIM_695osJF_Ulx7KYbKvAgZIyiMftAaIf0d5vTxOAcwpVplwhY8a168879qmMVUTtzJjKXjTKXqZfNDCEoIP95JcXbXX1yxPO0xqhO1ODGjEqIr-D2EljlcRxSjN8BoY72qZTjxXr04qGVJNop8kHzhg_Y01T8xiyW0kMRgrkhyWoD0OSKaN4ef7KHhg\/s400\/IMG_1164%20(1).JPG\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"400\" data-original-width=\"300\" height=\"595\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEivIM_695osJF_Ulx7KYbKvAgZIyiMftAaIf0d5vTxOAcwpVplwhY8a168879qmMVUTtzJjKXjTKXqZfNDCEoIP95JcXbXX1yxPO0xqhO1ODGjEqIr-D2EljlcRxSjN8BoY72qZTjxXr04qGVJNop8kHzhg_Y01T8xiyW0kMRgrkhyWoD0OSKaN4ef7KHhg\/w446-h595\/IMG_1164%20(1).JPG\" width=\"446\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week,  a Lee County jury convicted John &#8220;Squirrel&#8221; Cross (45) of the Attempted Murder of Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Deputy Tyron Ponds and Possession of a Controlled Substance.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;\">Deputy Ponds attempted to stop Cross <\/span><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;\">during a<\/p>\n<p> traffic stop on Lee Road 121 on October 20, 2021<\/span><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><span style=\"background-color: white; font-family: &quot;Source Sans Pro&quot;, arial, helvetica, verdana, sans-serif;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/span><span style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; white-space-collapse: preserve;\">for driving without a tag. Cross refused to stop, wrecked, and opened fire on Deputy Ponds striking him three times. Ponds lost part of his finger and suffered nerve damage as a result of a bullet, which is still lodged in his arm. <\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: &quot;Segoe UI Historic&quot;, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left; white-space-collapse: preserve;\">\n<p style=\"font-family: inherit;\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">After multiple surgeries and <span style=\"font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit;\"><a style=\"color: #385898; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit;\" tabindex=\"-1\"><\/a><\/span>months of rehabilitation, Deputy Ponds returned to the Lee County Sherif&#8217;s Office where he was later promoted to investigations.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">&#8220;We&#8217;re grateful Investigator Ponds continues to diligently serve the citizens of Lee County.  Additionally, we are thankful to Investigator Ponds&#8217; family, and all law enforcement families, for having the courage to share their loved ones with our community so that we can enjoy all of the benefits a safe community has to offer&#8221;, said <\/span><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">District Attorney Jessica Ventiere <\/span><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><br \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: large;\">&#8220;A special thank you to the Opelika Police Department and lead detective, Sgt. Brandon Hutto.  The Opelika Police Department investigated the case and demonstrated their professionalism and quality work ethic&#8221;, added <\/span><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;\">Ventiere.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;\">  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">Additional agencies assisted in the investigation of this case, including Auburn Public Safety-Police &amp; Fire, and ALEA.  Beauregard Fire Department provided medical assistance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;\">Sentencing is set for September 30th.  The State intends to offer evidence of Cross&#8217; extensive criminal history, including convictions for Federal weapons charges, burglary, battery, and narcotics.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week, a Lee County jury convicted John &#8220;Squirrel&#8221; Cross (45) of the Attempted Murder of Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Deputy Tyron Ponds and Possession of a Controlled Substance. Deputy Ponds attempted to stop Cross during a traffic stop on Lee Road 121 on October 20, 2021&nbsp;for driving without a tag. Cross refused to stop, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adntesting.online\/chambersledger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}