A Cherokee County jury has convicted 35-year-old Ball Ground resident Jeremiah Joshua Cornette of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, stemming from a January incident in which he allegedly fired a rifle in a wooded backyard in Nelson, Georgia, then told deputies the weapon in his hands was just a stick. A judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but because the term runs concurrent with a prison sentence he's already serving, his actual time behind bars will not increase.
According to FOX 5 Atlanta, a family member called authorities after hearing a gunshot at a home in Nelson, and witnesses reported that Cornette ran into the wooded backyard carrying a rifle. Cherokee County Sheriff's Office deputies found him hiding inside the garage, where he claimed the object he'd been carrying was simply a stick. Deputies and K9 units weren't convinced, and a search of the backyard turned up an Anderson rifle buried under a pile of leaves.
Georgia law bars convicted felons from possessing firearms, and prosecutors say Cornette was out on bond at the time for a separate felon-in-possession charge. That earlier case traced back to May 2025, when Cornette was arrested along State Route 372 in Ball Ground after officers stopped him on an active warrant. Officers found 23 grams of methamphetamine and a Smith & Wesson .22 caliber pistol in his pocket, and had to revive him with two doses of Narcan after he swallowed fentanyl at the sight of patrol cars, according to the Cherokee County government.
A Repeat Offender Faces Georgia's Recidivist Statute
Cornette was convicted and sentenced in that earlier drug and gun case in June 2026, when Cherokee County Superior Court Judge Shannon Wallace handed down a 30-year sentence — 10 years in prison followed by 20 years on probation — after a bench trial. Per the Cherokee County government, Wallace sentenced Cornette as a repeat offender under Georgia's recidivist statute, O.C.G.A. § 17-10-7(a), ordering him to serve the maximum allowable sentence under state law on three of the four charges.
It was while awaiting trial on those charges, free on bond, that Cornette allegedly obtained another gun and fired it behind the Nelson residence in January. Nelson straddles the Cherokee-Pickens county line, with roughly 61% of its land sitting in Cherokee County, per MMCG Analytics — which is why Cherokee County law enforcement and prosecutors retained jurisdiction over the shooting even though the small rural town of under 1,200 residents is split between two counties.
Prosecutor Points to a Troubling Pattern
Assistant District Attorney Leland J. McElveen Jr., who served as the prosecutor for the State in both of Cornette's 2026 court cases, said Cornette's repeated disregard for the law shows a troubling pattern and poses a clear community safety risk. McElveen said Cornette obtained another gun and discharged it while out on bond for drug and firearm charges, according to the same Cherokee County release. The case was prosecuted out of the Office of the District Attorney for the Blue Ridge Judicial Circuit, led by District Attorney Susan K. Treadaway, who was appointed in June 2023 and elected in November 2024 after Wallace moved to the bench.
Authorities have not released why Cornette discharged the rifle in the backyard, and officials have not identified the specific state facility where he's serving his sentence. Because the judge ordered Cornette's 10-year sentence in the October case to run concurrently with his existing prison sentence from June, his active prison time will not increase despite the second conviction, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.
How Georgia Law Treats Felons With Guns
Under Georgia statute O.C.G.A. § 16-11-131, it's a felony for any convicted felon to possess, receive, or transport a firearm, carrying a one-to-five-year state prison sentence per count, according to Davis Madden & Associates. A 2022 change to that law under Georgia Senate Bill 479 specifies that each individual firearm possessed by a convicted felon constitutes a separate criminal offense, according to the Southern States PBA — a measure meant to prevent repeat offenders like Cornette from facing only a single charge when caught with multiple weapons.
Federal law goes even further: under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), felon gun possession can draw up to 15 years in federal prison, and Davis Madden & Associates notes that North Georgia district attorneys frequently coordinate with federal prosecutors in habitual offender cases. For now, Cornette's fate rests with the state court system that has twice found him guilty of possessing a firearm within the same year he was supposed to be awaiting trial on similar charges.
