Fifth former Alachua County Jail inmate sentenced for fraudulent voter registration

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Henry Thomas Shuler, III, 38, has entered into a plea deal to serve one year and seven days in prison for committing perjury on his voter registration form. The deal will not extend his time in prison.

Shuler, who is serving a state prison sentence of six years and six months on three charges of robbery, entered a plea of nolo contendere to one count of perjury for falsely swearing that he was eligible to vote. His sentence of one year and one week will be served concurrently with his state prison sentence; he is scheduled to be released in March of 2024.

Shuler is the fifth to be sentenced of at least ten convicted felons who registered to vote in the summer of 2020 at the Alachua County Jail but were unqualified to vote for various reasons; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) investigation into the allegations found that Shuler did not vote in 2020 but falsely stated on the voter registration application that he was not a convicted felon or his rights had been restored.

The maximum sentence would have been 5 years.

Dedrick Baldwin and Therris Conney were sentenced to 364 days in July, Daniel Roberts was sentenced in June to three years in state prison, and Arthur Lang was sentenced to 18 months in state prison a few days later, all on similar charges.

Five defendants still have open cases:

• Xavier Lavell Kevon Artis is in the Alachua County Jail awaiting trial;
• Kelvin Bolton is in the Alachua County Jail awaiting trial;
• John Boyd Rivers has not been arrested, but charges have been filed;
• Leroy James Ross, Jr., is out on bond awaiting trial;
• Christopher T. Wiggins is in the Alachua County Jail awaiting trial.