Craft Arrest Went Smoothly, Authorities Say

Rayfondia Craft

Rayfondia Craft

Rayfondia Craft and Kristen Odister, the two suspects charged in the murder of Lavonia business owner Samuel Harbin, remain in the Franklin County Detention Center without bond.

Franklin County Magistrate Judge Cody Grizzle denied the couple’s bond last Thursday shortly after their arrest.

Harbin was found dead in his home on Gilmer St. Monday after he failed to show up to his office at the Pointe South mobile home park he owned.

An autopsy by the GBI Crime Lab determined Harbin had died of blunt force trauma to the head.

After an around-the-clock investigation by Lavonia Police, the GBI as well as the Franklin and Hart County Sheriff’s offices, Craft was arrested late Thursday morning on a farm in Bowersville where he worked, according to Hart County Sheriff Mike Cleveland.

Cleveland said Craft is well-known to law enforcement in Hart County with dozens of past warrants on his record – most having to do with family or domestic violence.

“He had a total of 28 warrants taken out on him in the past,” Cleveland said. “A lot of it was on domestic violence. Most of it was violence. He had a really short fuse. We arrested him about 10 days ago on a familyc violence charge. Everytime we deal with him, it’s not pleasant. He had a really short fuse.”

For that reason, Cleveland said he was concerned about how and where Craft’s arrest would take place.

But he said with multiple law enforcement agencies involved, the operation to take Craft into custody Thursday went very smoothly.

“We were dreading serving a warrant on him at a house. We worried he would find out and hold up in a house,” Cleveland explained. “At the moment we obtained the warrant, the GBI were down here. The Lavonia Police were down here. We had some GSP and I called in some folks and it went just like clockwork. The GBI and GSP set up a perimeter. My guys went in in two older farm trucks and rode right up to the tractor he was on and he never knew we were there until we bailed out and had our hands on him. He didn’t have a chance to run, fight, nothing.”

Investigators with the Lavonia Police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are not saying what Craft and Odister’s motive was for allegedly killing Harbin.

However, they do say the investigation is ongoing and there could be more arrests.