District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch sought to prevent Hoxit from regaining his badge, arguing that preserving the integrity of the critical institution meant keeping a corrupt sheriff out of power, while Hoxit’s defense team claimed that a message must be sent that a sheriff can execute his duties without fear of political retribution.

Welch filed the petition for Hoxit’s removal on Jan. 29, alleging he abused his power as his office built the case against County Commissioner Jacob Nelms, whose ex-wife Adarian Nelms had been in an on-and-off relationship with Hoxit since before he took office.

“When a sheriff uses the power and tools of his office and the justice system to actively investigate a citizen with whom he has a personal conflict that requires recusal, the public is not safe,” the petition reads.

The same day the petition was filed, Superior Court Judge Tessa Sellers signed an order suspending Hoxit pending the removal hearing. The following day, Graham County commissioners decided that Hoxit’s Chief Deputy, Travis Brooks, would assume the duties of sheriff. On Feb. 20, the board named Russell Moody, a Republican who’d served in the office from 2007 to 2011, sheriff. According to reporting from The Graham Star, at that meeting, Moody and Brooks got into a physical altercation that was escalating before they were separated.

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Hoxit had begun a campaign to gain the requisite signatures to appear on the 2026 ballot as an unaffiliated candidate, but he failed to retrieve enough endorsements.

“I was in the process of getting my signatures to get on the ballot and then this here happened,” he testified during the hearing.

Republican Primary winner Caleb Stiles will face off against Democratic sheriff candidate Reba Louanne Jenkins McMahan in November.

Hoxit’s removal hearing began Tuesday, March 24, at a heavily guarded Graham County Courthouse with Judge William T. Stetzer, of Gaston County, presiding. Welch was joined by Assistant District Attorney Jim Moore and other staffers. Hoxit showed up alongside attorney Stephen Lindsay, who owns his own Asheville law firm, as well as two lawyers he employs, Mary Ann Hollocker and Keith Gregory.

The hearing, which lasted through Friday, March 27, was unusual in several ways, most notably in how it will set case law, considering it was the first of its kind to make it to the finish line in as long as anyone can remember. In 1983, a hearing for the removal of then-Rutherford County Sheriff Damon H. Huskey established limited precedent as an interlocutory appeal was heard in a higher court. That case was cited in Welch’s Jan. 29 petition. In 2023, the removal petition of Columbus County Sheriff Jody Greene was never gaveled in as Greene resigned at the last minute. In January of this year, a Superior Court judge dismissed a removal petition against Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden.

It was brought up several times during the hearing how the parties were wading through unfamiliar waters together.

“We are in a statutory and case law framework that is almost entirely uncharted,” Stetzer noted at one point.

While the removal hearing was technically neither civil nor criminal, its structure largely mirrored a Superior Court criminal proceeding, albeit without a jury. The lack of a jury was in a sense, a good thing as there were several occasions that tricky issues arose, issues that could have been a headache for Stetzer had he needed to explain them to 12 laypeople.

“My intention is to proceed with this like a regular trial,” the judge said at the outset.

The hearing was the first time Welch or any other practicing attorney argued a removal petition in a North Carolina court, but in the last year, she has pushed two sheriffs out of office amid serious allegations. In June of last year, then-Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran was arrested on several charges that were filed in both Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Swain County courts related to the alleged sexual assault of two women. Cochran subsequently retired. On Feb. 5 of this year, Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith left office when Welch sent him a letter demanding his resignation following a series of serious problems that began on Dec. 12, 2022, when an unarmed man was shot in the doorway of his own home.

Welch, who has been in office since 2015 and acts as the chief prosecutor for a district encompassing the state’s seven westernmost counties, made it clear from the outset that she intended on sending a message to any crooked law enforcement leaders and the public alike that there is a means to remove corrupt officials, even those who hold a great deal of power.

“What we’re going to ask the court to do is undo what the voters of this county decided to do four years ago,” Welch said during her opening argument.

Beefing Up Security

The Graham County Courthouse presents as a soft target, an outdated building with more vulnerability to security breaches than its counterparts in the other western counties. It sits out in the open and is surrounded by several vantage points and buildings with opaque windows. In addition, it has poor infrastructure and several entry points that are hard to secure.

The Smoky Mountain News verified from two independent sources that there was a credible threat against one of the parties in the hearing, witnesses or the proceeding itself, but details on the nature of the threat weren’t disclosed.

Superior Court Judge William T. Stetzer presided over the hearing. Kyle Perrotti photo

In response, the building was thoroughly swept for safety and security every morning throughout the hearing. A staggering law enforcement presence was seen each day, and a separate command center was set up about a half-mile away. In addition, a Cherokee Indian Police Department SWAT team, equipped with long guns and tactical gear, was staged  throughout at the courthouse.

In an email to SMN, Haywood County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Gina Zachary, who was also the PIO for the command center, said that officials couldn’t comment on who received law enforcement escorts, but each morning, Stetzer drove in behind a state trooper, and any time Welch went to or from the courthouse, she rode in an SUV with two law enforcement vehicles in front and two behind.

According to Zachary’s email, the operation was run off a “unified command structure,” with Moody, who is obligated by statute to provide courthouse security, requesting resources and coordinating. The email said that the effort began as a “coordinated partnership” with the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association, which worked with Moody to help develop a plan and engage nearby agencies to support the operation.

In the email, Zachary explained some of the logic, although she noted that she couldn’t speak to the nature of any specific threat or tactical details.

“The case had the potential to draw a large number of attendees to the Graham County Courthouse from both within and outside the county, and the hearing was expected to last numerous days and involve many witnesses,” she wrote. “We have had strong cooperation from multiple Sheriff’s Offices across the region — Henderson, Haywood, Buncombe, Clay, Macon, Swain, Cherokee [counties] and also the NC State Highway Patrol, Cherokee Indian Police, Graham County Emergency Services and Graham County 911.”

In addition, deputies and officers from those assisting agencies helped Graham County by answering calls for service and supporting overall operations. There is a formal memorandum of understanding that outlines the framework for the multi-agency coordination under North Carolina’s mutual aid statutes.

Motion to Recuse

During a Feb. 20 hearing, Hollocker said Welch should be disqualified from representing the state, telling Stetzer that because the district attorney was the petitioner, she had “inserted herself as a witness.” Welch said others could corroborate any information she had that could be pertinent to the case. Saying she “knew something bad was fixing to happen,” she kept people around who could serve as witnesses to key conversations so she wouldn’t have to.

Last Tuesday, Lindsay argued that his client had the constitutional right to confront and cross-examine his accuser on the stand, a right ubiquitously afforded to criminal defendants.

“As the petitioner, [Welch] is a party to this,” Lindsay said.

Welch said she’d consulted with the state bar and the University of North Carolina School of Government to determine whether she should recuse herself and received advice that she was not an essential witness. She told Stetzer she also wanted to limit the strain the hearing could place on her office should she step aside.

“This is such an uncomfortable proceeding,” she said. “Especially as a district attorney, I didn’t want people in my office to be involved for multiple reasons, one of which is safety.”

Welch also felt responsible as the elected district attorney to take on the matter.

Graham County Sheriff’s Office had a Humvee and other emergency response vehicles staged around the courthouse. Kyle Perrotti photo

“This is my job,” she added. “I’m bringing this on behalf of the people of the county, on behalf of Mr. Nelms, [witnesses] and the behalf of people of this county. It is my statutory and constitutional obligation to ensure that the laws and rules are being followed and the people of this community are safe, particularly from the people in the highest positions of power.”

Stetzer ruled that Welch was not an essential witness and could represent the state. After the state rested its case, prior to Lindsay presenting his own evidence, this was almost the basis for an interlocutory appeal — which is filed during a hearing rather than after its completion and is used to address a critical issue that can’t wait until a proceeding is over.  This could still be the focus of an appeal should Hoxit lose this hearing; however, by the time the appeals process plays out, Hoxit’s term would likely have ended, rendering such an action moot unless all Hoxit is interested in is shelling out more money for legal fees simply to clear his name.

A Messy Situation

Hoxit was elected sheriff in 2022 as an unaffiliated candidate, easily defeating Moody with over two-thirds of the vote. Previously, he’d voted in a couple of Democratic Primaries but for the last decade pulled Republican ballots. Prior to becoming sheriff, he was a state trooper and polygraph examiner.

According to Hoxit’s testimony, he began a sexual relationship with Adarian Nelms before he was elected. Jacob Nelms had been a Graham County commissioner since 2014 and finished third in the 2026 Republican Primary, just good enough to retain his seat amid no Democratic opposition.

In March 2023, Adarian and Jacob Nelms became business partners with Hoxit and his then-fiancé of 20 years in a food service venture at nearby Fontana Village. Hoxit testified that the business “never flourished.” 

In February 2024, after about 17 years of marriage, Jacob and Adarian Nelms separated. Hoxit said that in early 2025, he and his fiancé broke up, and he and Adarian Nelms began a serious relationship that has been “on-again, off-again.” On Aug. 7, 2025, they got married in Transylvania County.

The Investigation

In early 2024, GCSO began looking into Jacob Nelms, with Hoxit assigning the matter to Det. Graham Page, a purportedly straight-up deputy with strong loyalty to Hoxit. Page had already been the case agent on Operation Dirty Laundry, which utilized an undercover officer to infiltrate a local drug and gambling ring. The arrests that followed garnered praise from Sen. Ted Budd.

Page said he looked up to and admired Hoxit.

“I was going to ask him when my son was born to be the godfather,” he said.  

Around the time Operation Dirty Laundry wrapped up, Hoxit asked Page to work on the Nelms case, claiming he’d received complaints that inspections records and time sheets related to his job as a county building inspector were being falsified. Page said he coordinated details of the investigation and associated search warrants with David Wijewickrama, the attorney who represented GCSO at the time.

“Sheriff Hoxit didn’t want the district attorney’s office involved at all,” he testified.

District Attorney Ashley Welch takes a moment to speak with members of her staff. Kyle Perrotti photo

The case wasn’t even entered into RMS, a program that allows deputies to log incident reports and updates. This was unusual, but Hoxit expressed concern that county IT staff having access could compromise its integrity.

During Operation Dirty Laundry, Page persuaded the sheriff to buy vehicle trackers. On Feb. 8, 2025 — around the time Hoxit’s relationship with Adarian Nelms became more serious — the detective traveled to Buncombe County, where Superior Court Judge Alan Thornburg authorized the use of a vehicle tracker. That order was good for 90 days, and in May 2025, it was renewed for another three months. While Page requested to use trackers on both Nelms’ truck and work vehicle, Thornburg’s order, obtained by SMN, only authorized a tracker on Nelms’ truck. Trackers ended up on both vehicles, but this was not brought up during the hearing.

Page said that once the tracking devices were placed, Hoxit was in frequent contact, speaking to him “maybe hundreds of times” about Jacob Nelms.

“When he calls asking about a case, you answer what the sheriff wants,” he said.

Hoxit asked Page to reach out to the Office of the State Fire Marshall to see if it could pick up the case due to the sheriff’s conflict over Adarian Nelms. OSFM said the North Carolina Department of Insurance can investigate and even prosecute such matters. DOI Special Agent Jasmine Hanline took the assignment.  

On Aug. 28, 2025, Jacob Nelms traveled to DOI’s Gastonia office for an interview with Hanline. He showed up with his attorney, Zeyland McKinney, who was also in court for the entirety of the removal hearing. When the interview concluded, Hanline provided a search warrant for Nelms’ cell phone. Because GCSO had equipment that DOI at that time lacked, the phone’s data was then “dumped” and collected by deputies and forwarded to Hanline.

Hanline said that the data dump rendered evidence that supported their case. Despite his obligation to physically examine buildings, Jacob Nelms was receiving text messages with pictures of things like electrical boxes and then signing inspections complete. She testified that he said that practice was adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he thought was still acceptable. Likewise, he had an explanation for time sheets that didn’t align with tracker data that indicated he was claiming hours worked while not actually on the job.

“He said he had permission to flex his time, and sometimes the sheet may differ from what is said on inspections,” Hanline said.

A DOI special prosecutor reviewed the evidence and declined to file criminal charges, instead referring the case to a branch that handles regulatory issues. While that arm of DOI can levy fines and suspend licenses, it can’t press criminal charges. Hanline said she thought there was evidence of Nelms generating false reports and perhaps embezzlement.

The Turning Point

Page and Hoxit met Welch in her office at the Haywood County Courthouse on Aug. 13, 2025, to talk about the details of the Nelms investigation. At that meeting, Hoxit said that DOI was working the case because he had a conflict, but he didn’t elaborate. What he failed to tell Welch was that less than a week earlier, he and Adarian Nelms got married.

A few days after the meeting, Welch found out from Zeyland McKinney that Hoxit and Adarian Nelms were in a relationship. When she called Wijewickrama, he told her they had been but that he thought it had been over for a little while. A few days later, she received a phone call saying the two were married. Dani Burrows, a retired Macon County Sheriff’s Office captain who now works as an investigator in Welch’s office, pulled the marriage license.

Hoxit said he wanted to clear the air with Welch, who couldn’t meet again in short order but invited the sheriff to her office on Jan. 6. Chief Deputy Brooks accompanied Hoxit to the meeting, and Welch brought along Burrows. Burrows recorded the conversation on a device hidden on a chair across from Hoxit and Brooks. This is allowed by state law as long as one party knows a conversation is being recorded. That recording, almost two hours long, was played in court.

The conversation was circular with Welch repeatedly expressing concern over Hoxit’s secret marriage and the sheriff reiterating that he had nothing to hide, that he was an “open book.” Welch told him that his failure to inform her of the conflict was tantamount to lying by omission.

“You know me well enough to know I don’t like surprises,” she told Hoxit in the recording.

Hoxit insisted he stayed out of things, but Welch continued to push.

“What you failed to disclose to me is that there was a relationship at all,” she said.

The reason for his reticence, Hoxit explained, was that he didn’t want controversy prior to the candidate filing period for the 2026 election. Welch said she didn’t care about any relationship he may have, but to not disclose it to her is an action worthy of a Giglio order, which requires a prosecutor to disclose when a law enforcement officer has had credibility issues before calling them as a witness in a criminal case, essentially rendering them useless in criminal investigation.

“I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t have reported it; you most certainly should,” Welch said. “Problem is that you should have stayed out of it. This is why we have the [State Bureau of Investigation]. It’s why you’ve got the Department of Insurance. It concerns me that your judgment is so poor that you still don’t understand why this is a problem.”

Throughout the conversation, Hoxit shifted blame to Wijewickrama, claiming he knew about the relationship — although not the marriage. Hoxit said the attorney instructed him not to tell Welch unless she asked. On the recording, Welch said Wijewickrama had already refuted that assertion and told Hoxit that if the attorney was lying, she would be obligated to file a bar complaint.

“I’ll put my hand on the Bible, whatever you want me to do,” Hoxit told her.

Wijewickrama testified that in September, he resigned the same day he heard about the marriage. The next morning, as Hoxit was en route to his parents’ home in Transylvania County, he made an unannounced visit to Wijewickrama’s downtown Waynesville office. Wijewickrama pulled into the parking lot at about 7:30 that morning, he said, and before he even got out of his truck, Hoxit pulled up and tried to convince him to stay on as the GCSO attorney.

Wijewickrama answering Welch’s questions about a former client required him to walk a tightrope between providing accurate testimony and not violating attorney-client privilege, which the state contended had been waived due to Hoxit’s discussion of privileged conversations during the Jan. 6 meeting. Despite Lindsay’s frequent objections on those grounds, the testimony continued. On two occasions, Wijewickrama requested to pause his testimony to consult with his attorney, Raleigh’s Mitch Armbruster, who was hired specifically to help protect him as a witness in this case. While this is uncommon, Stetzer was happy to accommodate considering the sensitive nature of the testimony.

Attorney Stephen Lindsay argues that former Graham County Sheriff’s Office Attorney David Wijewickrama should turn the files from his work for the sheriff over as District Attorney Ashley Welch and Wijewickrama’s attorney, Mitch Armbruster, look on. Kyle Perrotti photo

He answered most of Welch’s questions with a simple “yes” or “no,” largely refuting Hoxit’s previous statement that he’d instructed his client to withhold information regarding his conflict. He said that about three and a half months before Hoxit and Adarian Nelms got married, the sheriff had told him the relationship was over.

Hoxit’s testimony pointed the finger back at Wijewickrama, saying that the attorney helped Adarian Nelms in her search for a separation lawyer in early 2024. Text messages introduced into evidence corroborated the claim that Wijewickrama knew there was some form of a romantic relationship at some point. However, Hoxit did not provide testimony or evidence that indicated Wijewickrama instructed his client to withhold information regarding his conflict or that he had knowledge of the relationship at the time he and Adarian Nelms got married.

Lindsay surprisingly waived cross-examination of Wijewickrama but did request that he turn over all files related to his representation of GCSO, saying that the testimony was broader than Hoxit’s legal counsel expected. He wanted a chance to review any concurrent notes and documents to corroborate or impeach Wijewickrama’s testimony, he said.

“This is a hearing in which due process is supposed to apply,” Lindsay said. “I have a right to cross examine him fully and thoroughly.”

Armbruster spoke on Wijewickrama’s behalf, arguing that they’d already discussed whether there was any other discovery that Hoxit’s counsel would want.

“There was a long period of time that if we needed to resolve something, if they needed something, I would have tried to work it out with them,” Armbruster said.

Lindsay wanted to keep Wijewickrama under subpoena in case he would like to call him as a witness. At this point, Welch voiced her frustration with Hoxit’s counsel, going as far as insinuating that they were causing undue hardship for Wijewickrama, who was paying Armbruster out of his own pocket even though he wasn’t a party in the hearing. She further alleged that Hoxit’s attorneys were using vague threats to intimidate herself and Wijewickrama.

“I don’t know if Your Honor’s picked up on it — I suspect that you have — but throughout this hearing … there have been insinuations of bar complaints coming towards that man right there and me, and it’s coming from that table,” Welch said, gesturing toward the defense attorneys. “It’s offensive, it’s inappropriate, and it keeps coming.”

Stetzer ruled that the files wouldn’t need to be turned over, and Wijewickrama was never called back to testify.

Continuing the Push

By January of this year, Page was dealing with medical issues and was unable to work the Nelms case, so it was handed over to GCSO Det. Dillion Daniels.

Tracking data indicated that Jacob Nelms, while on the clock, had spent two hours at a Swain County business, Smoky Mountain Consultive Services, owned by former Swain County Commission chair and licensed building inspector Kevin Seagle, who abruptly resigned from that board in August of last year. With that information, Daniels wrote a search warrant to obtain records from Seagle, apparently to see whether Nelms was employed at SMCS and was double dipping by logging hours with the county while working there.

On Jan. 6, the same day Hoxit and Brooks met with Welch and Burrows, Daniels traveled to Swain County, where Superior Court Judge Tommy Davis was presiding. Between sessions, Daniels visited Davis in his chambers. Davis reviewed the warrant and determined it was too broad. Daniels attempted to rework it, but Davis still refused to sign it.  

It’s unusual for a sitting Superior Court judge to take the stand, but Davis was subpoenaed and testified, expressing how bewildered he was by the warrant. He questioned what kind of evidence Daniels expected to find but didn’t receive a clear answer.

“It appeared that the focus of the search warrant was a Mr. Nelms, but the person who was being searched was a Mr. Seagle,” Davis said.

Davis was also confounded by the nature of the case itself. Even without knowledge of Hoxit’s relationship with Adarian Nelms, he considered that county commissioners hold the purse strings for the sheriff’s office, which is enough of a conflict that it should have been passed off to a state agency.

“Haven’t y’all got better things to do than search this guy?” Davis recalled thinking at the time.

Meanwhile, Hoxit was still trying to find an avenue to continue the investigation. The state called former Graham County Sheriff Jerry Crisp, who served from 2020-2022, to the stand. During a January meeting, Hoxit requested Crisp help with the Nelms case, adding that he would also help supervise other investigations. At some point, the conflict regarding Adarian Nelms came up, and Crisp told Hoxit that the state should be brought in to handle the matter. Nonetheless, he told the Hoxit he’d think on it.

Crisp was enjoying retirement, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of contracting with the sheriff’s office. He went home, spoke with his wife and prayed. That night, he got a phone call from Graham Page, someone he initially hired on at GSCO but hadn’t heard from since he’d left office.

“He said he had enough dirt on Sheriff Hoxit to throw him under the jail, but he didn’t go into no details,” Crisp recalled.

It was enough to for Crisp to decide he wanted nothing to do with the Nelms case.

“Me personally, I’d want to stay away from it like a loaded gun,” he said.

Special Agent Hanline testified that on Jan. 8, she had a missed call from Hoxit that she returned the next day.

“He stated that he’d had a meeting with DA’s office … and they were requesting us to continue the investigation,” Hanline said.

Around that time, Chief Deputy Brooks requested that DOI Criminal Investigations Western Commander Leonard Stump — Hanline’s supervisor — come meet with Hoxit. On Jan. 20, Stump was in Asheville with DOI Regional Director Ken Green for a meeting, and the men made the two-hour drive over to Robbinsville. Hoxit asked them why the criminal case against Jacob Nelms hadn’t been prosecuted, adding that Welch had given the “green light” to pursue the matter, Stump said.

“What he said was she was good with the prosecution and that I could call her to confirm that,” he testified, adding that he never followed up with Welch.

According to testimony, Hoxit also requested a meeting with the DOI special prosecutor who had declined to charge Jacob Nelms, but that meeting never came to fruition.

Hoxit’s alleged abuse of power during the investigation into Nelms was the first of three misconduct claims Welch argued.

Other allegations

Cody George became chief deputy at GCSO once Hoxit took office and said he worked well with his boss until he learned of just how serious his situation with Adarian Nelms was. George found out about the clandestine relationship in August of last year but didn’t yet know the two had gotten married. Late last summer, Hoxit asked George if he would be willing to step up and run to replace him.

“He said if I decided to run for sheriff that he would let me run, but I had to stand behind the Jacob Nelms investigation,” George said.

But George said that once he became aware of the marriage, he couldn’t in good conscience back what he considered a moral and ethical conflict.

“I was A-OK with an outside agency, but I felt like the Graham County Sheriff’s Office did not need to be involved in that investigation,” he testified

George said Hoxit began acting odd and at one point told him he’d “heard” George had physically assaulted his wife. It was “out of character” for Hoxit to mention such a baseless claim, Geroge recalled.

“It was an attack on my character, and I was very upset,” he said.

Hoxit told George to not tell anyone about the rumor, but George told his wife that night. George said Hoxit called him the next morning and was upset. Word had already gotten back to him.

“When I tell you not to say something to somebody, I expect you not to say it,” George said Hoxit told him.

On Oct. 10, 2025, Hoxit called George to inform him he was going to run for reelection and that the chief deputy needed to get on board. A few days later, George requested a meeting with Hoxit. The two agreed to meet at the sheriff’s office at 8 a.m. Once 10 o’clock rolled around and Hoxit still wasn’t there, George packed up his office with the intention of resigning.

The next day, Hoxit showed up at George’s house and asked him to go for a ride. According to testimony from both George and Hoxit, the sheriff drove his chief deputy around Graham County’s backroads for over two hours, trying to convince him that all he needed to do was tell people that the office had received a complaint regarding Jacob Nelms and then  the DOI took over. But the problem was George hadn’t even seen anything about the investigation, even in RMS, despite his status as administrator over the system. He’d been kept in the dark.

During the conversation, George told Hoxit that he’d found a discrepancy in Det. Page’s time cards. The hours just didn’t add up. Page may have been logging hours he didn’t work. What George didn’t know was that Page was logging those hours to quietly work on the Nelms case. George said that when he brought up the issue, Hoxit’s tone became “aggressive.”

“I had never seen him snap the way he snapped,” George said.

George asked to be taken home multiple times. Hoxit repeatedly insisted that the two should keep talking but eventually brought him back. One of the three allegations in the removal petition is that Hoxit used his position of power over George to hold him against his will; however, George said he never felt threatened and didn’t think Hoxit did anything illegal in urging him to stay in the vehicle.

Hoxit speaks with his attorneys. Kyle Perrotti photo

The third allegation the petition raises is that Hoxit extorted one of his former employees, Detention Officer Vanessa Carpenter. Carpenter was an outspoken advocate for increased detention-officer pay and improving hazardous jail conditions, including mitigating the presence of lead and asbestos.

Carpenter said Hoxit requested she create a fake email account from which she could request Jacob Nelms’ tax and pay information. She told the court that Hoxit told her not to tell anyone. If she did, Carpenter testified, she’d “never work in law enforcement again.” This was the basis for the extortion claim.

Tangentially, Carpenter also alleged that while “using” an inmate as a narc, Hoxit urged him to discuss a detention officer suspected of bringing illegal drugs into the jail. She was present for one meeting between the inmate and Hoxit before which she said Hoxit mentioned he would try to provoke the inmate so they could tase him.

Hoxit told the court that he brought a taser into the room to control the situation if it became physical since the inmate was physically imposing and could become a threat, but he said he never said anything about goading anyone into acting aggressively. He also claimed that Carpenter made the fake email address and sent information requests of her own volition as part of her quest to raise awareness around jail issues.

“If I wanted to do it, I would have done it myself,” he said.

Making the case

The most dramatic moments of the hearing came during Welch’s cross-examination of Hoxit, during which two uniformed law enforcement officers sat front-and-center in the gallery, watching intently.

The prosecutor began by asking questions about the sheriff’s oath. Hoxit, admitting he hadn’t reviewed the oath since he took it, struggled to recall what it said.

“What if anything does it say about personal bias and prejudice with regard to your role?” she asked.

“If you’re telling me it’s in there, it’s in there,” Hoxit replied.

“So you’re just going to take my word for it?” Welch bit back.

The district attorney averred that because Hoxit and Adarian Nelms were in an “on-again, off-again” relationship with plenty of break-ups and make-ups, the sheriff would become curious what she was doing when they were in an “off-again” phase. During one breakup in 2025, Adarian Nelms was living at home with Jacob. Welch asked a few different ways whether Hoxit was worried about Adarian Nelms being back with her family, and Hoxit responded each time flatly that he didn’t care.

About the time of the breakup Welch referenced, Page obtained the initial tracker warrant. Hoxit testified that he never tried to gain details from Page and hadn’t even logged into RMS. However, he admitted that he asked deputies to print off the large volume of text messages obtained through the data dump of Jacob Nelms’ phone, messages that filled thousands of pages. Welch had several binders containing information from the Nelms investigation that Hoxit had in his personal vehicle even after Sellers issued her suspension order, which also barred him from the sheriff’s office.

“I didn’t study it,” Hoxit said. “I wasn’t infatuated with it or anything like that.”

“Are you aware that after the [Feb. 20] hearing, this didn’t come from the sheriff’s office,” she said, plopping a binder full of tracking data in front of Hoxit, “but that it came from you?” 

Hoxit said that following that hearing, he gave the binders to his attorneys.

“Were you in possession of material that would show you where Jacob Nelms was during the period of time where you and Adarian were broken up?” Welch asked.

“Yes,” Hoxit said with a hint of frustration.

Hoxit confirmed that he and Adarian Nelms weren’t together around Memorial Day of last year. Welch called attention to a page in the binder marked with a sticky note.

“And what’s the day on the GPS on that printout where you’ve got the sticky note?” Welch asked.

“May 31, 2025,” Hoxit responded.

“Convenient information to have when you break up with somebody and she might be going back and forth, correct?” Welch said.

“It wasn’t used in no official capacity other than the investigation,” Hoxit replied.

Welch questioned why Hoxit continued to pursue — or least call on his detectives to pursue — the Nelms case despite his conflict and the fact that DOI had already declined to press charges. But there was an even simpler question. As sheriff, to avoid even the appearance of ignoring a clear conflict, why not just pick up a phone and pass it along?

“You had every authority as sheriff to pick up the phone and call SBI,” she said.

Hoxit agreed.

“But you didn’t do that,” Welch said.

During her closing argument, Welch claimed that Hoxit demonstrated a pattern of manipulation and even intimidation. She recalled Hoxit’s expertise in interrogation learned at polygraph examiner school, expertise honed over thousands of interviews with suspects.

“When he realized that he’d gotten caught, he comes into the DA’s office, and you heard that recording,” Welch said. “He never raises his voice … but what it sounds like is an interrogation.”

The sheriff is the most powerful person in any county, and Welch asserted that in smaller counties (Graham County has about 8,000 residents), that power is even more outsized. She said Hoxit felt he could use his power for personal ends, even at the expense of others in the community. In her final words to Stetzer, she drove home her thesis. By removing Hoxit, the judge would maintain the public faith in the justice system so crucial to its functionality. In a case this rare and this important, the precedent set will echo well into the future.

“It’s not for his punishment,” Welch said. “It’s for protection, because if we don’t set an example, and we don’t stand up and say, ‘You can’t do this; you are not allowed to get away with this,’ then what are we doing? Why do we have a constitution?”

During many of his cross examinations, Lindsay asked what individuals’ prior relationships with Hoxit were like, and each testified that it had been positive up to the point the Nelms operation complicated things.

“Sheriff Hoxit was very good to me the first two years,” former Chief Deputy George said. “I’ve not hid that from nobody.”

Likewise, Lindsay worked to paint Hoxit as someone less interested in micromanaging the Nelms case than a leader who just wanted to be updated on a sensitive matter.

“If I got any information, I passed it on,” Hoxit had said during testimony.

Like Welch, during his closing argument, Lindsay highlighted the great power vested in the sheriff’s office. Deputies serve at the pleasure of the sheriff, and the sheriff has the ability to hire or fire at will in a way he thinks best serves his office’s mission. Loyalty is necessary, Lindsay posited, adding that the claims against Nelms were strong enough that not investigating would have itself been an injustice.

“This type of thing has been ignored for too long in this county,” he said.

As defense attorneys frequently do in closing arguments, Lindsay painted witnesses favorable to Welch’s case as people with grudges against Hoxit, especially George, Carpenter and Page — all former sworn GCSO employees who left under acrimonious circumstances.

Lindsay also called attention to things Hoxit had done throughout his career, especially focusing on the success of Operation Dirty Laundry, a difficult investigation that required commitment from Hoxit and those working under him.

Finally, he said that while Hoxit has made mistakes, he did the best he could in a difficult situation, and granting Hoxit’s removal would send a message to other law enforcement leaders that would give them pause during complex, urgent situations.

“Return him to the position that the people of this community elected him to, so that he can serve up the balance of his term to the end of this year,” Lindsay said. “He’s not on the ballot. Next time, somebody else will take over the position, and hopefully they’ll move forward with diligence and duty and honor.”

Following the closing arguments, Stetzer explained that he had three legal pads full of notes and plenty of case law to review, and that while he will try to deliver a timely ruling in accordance with state law, it could take up to two weeks.

Correction: A previous version of this article said that Graham County Republican candidate for sheriff Caleb Stiles was not going to face a Democratic challenger. Democrat Reba Louanne Jenkins McMahan is running in that race and will face Stiles in November.