A local woman is accused of using various sympathy scams to steal vehicles from unsuspecting men. She is accused in three recent thefts, including an armed robbery that happened earlier this month.
Jillian Murphy Stiles, also known as Jillian Murphy Burrell, Dustin Aaron Pressley and a third suspect who remains on the run are accused of carjacking an Andrews man at gunpoint after he tried to help them on the afternoon of Dec. 2.
Authorities say Stiles contacted the victim through Facebook Messenger and said she needed a ride. When the victim arrived in Marble to pick her up, Pressley and another man entered the vehicle along with Stiles.
Officials say the victim drove the trio to the 500 block of Blakemore Way, where Pressley pulled out a gun and placed it against the back of the victim’s head. During the carjacking, Pressley allegedly punched the victim twice in the face, and the second male suspect swung a knife at the man.
After forcing the victim out of the Ford Fiesta, Stiles allegedly climbed in the driver’s seat and fled with Pressley and the other suspect as passengers. Police later recovered the vehicle in Georgia; however, no one occupied the car when police found it.
Stiles is also accused of stealing a car by scam last month. Officials say a male victim reported that his girlfriend, whose name he did not know, fled with two male passengers in his Volvo on Nov. 13.
The victim told police his girlfriend was driving his car on Brasstown Road when she complained about an itch on her back. The woman then pulled over, and the victim exited the Volvo to assist her. Officials say one of the men in the rear of the car then jumped in the front passenger seat, and the woman sped away with the vehicle.
Authorities later found the Volvo in Forsyth County, Ga. A man driving the vehicle showed police a bill of sale proving he bought the car from Stiles for $800. The man told authorities Stiles said she traded sexual favors for the Volvo, and he didn’t know it was stolen.
When police questioned the victim after recovering the car, he admitted receiving a sexual favor from his “girlfriend” the day before she fled with his vehicle, but insisted that he did not outright give her the Volvo. Stiles reportedly admitted selling the car after police obtained photos that she shared through Facebook Messenger.
“She took pictures of the Volvo with her house in the background and sent it to [the buyer],” Cherokee County Sheriff Derrick Palmer said.
Stiles is also suspected of stealing a Chevrolet Colorado that belonged to a car rental business in Georgia. The man who rented the vehicle told authorities the truck was at Stiles house on Brasstown Road before it was stolen. Police later found it parked outside a business on Andrews Road in
Murphy.
Officials charged William Pressley, 39, with possession of a stolen motor vehicle after they found keys to the rental truck in his pocket on Dec. 2. Authorities are still investigating the theft itself, so Stiles has not been charged with the third accusation.
Stiles, 39, is charged with aiding and abetting armed robbery, larceny of a motor vehicle, felony larceny, obtaining property under false pretense and uttering a forged endorsement. Dustin Pressley, 26, is charged with felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and simple assault.
At the time of the armed robbery, Dustin Pressley was on probation for two offenses to which he pled guilty earlier this year.