Lawbreaker gets chance for a better life

A young lawbreaker has been given a chance to lead a better life, as the result of a good impression made today on the part of his sentencing judge in the Oconee General Sessions Court.  Malik Forte spent 533 days in jail awaiting trial on the charge of assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.  Forte, 22 years old, pleaded guilty today.  But seven different people who are related or have had good personal experiences with him impressed Judge McIntosh, who decided to credit Forte with time served and place him on five years’ probation.  The defendant’s character witnesses told of Forte’s newly-found relationship with God, his care for the one surviving member of his immediate family, his studies toward a college degree, and his accomplishment of finding gainful employment two days after he was released from jail on a bond.  Forte ran afoul of the law in 2020 when, according to the prosecutor, he fired a gun and wounded a man who he had sought to buy marijuana.  The victim of that shooting was wounded in the torso, and the solicitor’s office attempt to alert him to today’s proceeding was unsuccessful, according to Deputy Solicitor Jason Alderman.