The mother of a 21-year-old murder victim appeared in court Tuesday afternoon, answering drug charges connected to her son’s death.
Autumn Lynn Tillery, 37, was booked into the Muscogee County Jail late Monday after turning herself in. Tillery is facing nine charges that involve LSD, meth, marijuana, Oxycotin and other pills.
A Columbus police detective told the court that more than $1 million in drugs, mostly THC in various forms, was found in Tillery’s Upatoi Ridge home during their search after the initial home invasion in January, where Tillery’s son died.
The home was searched by police in the wake of the home invasion where her son was killed.
In an interview with police, they say Tillery was ordering marijuana by mail and having it shipped to her home. She had a system in place to pull the THC from marijuana.
Large quantities of edibles, oils, and extracts that contained high contents of THC were found during the search. Police say Tillery was selling the edibles for $5 to $10 each, depending on the amount of THC.
The oils alone confiscated at the home were worth nearly $450,000. The street value of the drugs was determined by a drug unit based in Atlanta, police say.
Police say the six suspects charged with Henderson’s murder are members of a local street organization known as F-N Gang. And they say this is not the first time they have targeted people suspected of dealing drugs.
Tillery says her life has been threatened by members of the gang that killed her son. Her attorney, Jennifer Dunlap, asked for Tillery to be released on her own recognizance.
Instead, Tillery has been ordered held without bond by Judge Julius Hunter.
As Tillery left the courtroom Tillery yelled: “I am going to die in jail. I am in here with murderers.”
“Mrs. Tillery lost her son — and it’s only been 30 days ago, exactly 30 days to now — and she participated in efforts to cooperate with law enforcement,” Dunlap said. “And I think we just saw that used against her.”
And now she is in real danger, Dunlap said.
“It’s unfortunate,” the attorney said. “She is seriously still in mourning. She has another child who is also in mourning. And now the family has to deal with this. We are concerned for her safety, being here incarcerated with the alleged killers. They are all right here in the same facility.”
That’s not how Hunter saw it.
“This court is sympathetic to your client but is also sympathetic to those harmed by her enterprise,” Hunter said.
Dunlap said she will now ask a Superior Court judge for a bond.
