Judge hands down 20-year sentence
in Quitman attack

By Staff
from staff reports
May 10, 2003
Circuit Judge Robert Bailey has sentenced a Clarke County man to 20 years in prison for attacking a Quitman business owner as she locked up for the day.
The attack happened about 6 p.m. on Sept. 24, 2001, as Jessie Kay Riley was closing her business Curves for Women in Quitman. Three men robbed her at gunpoint and forced her into the trunk of her car.
The driver lost control of the car shortly afterwards, and the car came to rest in a ravine.
Benjamin Freadie Bass Jr. originally picked up by local law enforcement officers in another state on an unrelated drug charge confessed to the crime.
Bass was indicted for armed robbery and kidnapping in July 2002.
The case went to trial in February and Bass was convicted. His sentencing hearing was held Friday in Clarke County Circuit Court. The judge gave Bass 20 years for each of the two counts; the sentences are set to run concurrently.
The district attorney's office attempted to prosecute the two other suspects in the case, but a Clarke County grand jury declined to indict them.