Ohio sources say an embezzler nabbed under a false identity on the Appalachian Trail this spring is thinking of changing his ‘not guilty’ plea, amid rumors that the white-collar crook could also be a killer.
The family of James Hammes’ first wife, who perished in a fire at the couple’s Kentucky home in 2003, has always suspected him of foul play, although the deadly incident was never labeled suspicious.
Hammes, who has since remarried and divorced a second woman, was reportedly “walking the dog” when his house started burning to the ground, killing 40-year-old Joy Johnson.
Relatives of his deceased first-bride ultimately urged federal inspectors to reexamine the charred site for evidence of arson, but a faulty electrical cord was later determined to have ignited the fatal fire.
However, charges in 2009 that the Pepsi-Cola accountant systematically embezzled millions from his Ohio-based employer only deepened the family’s doubts over their loved one’s death. Especially when Hammes fled prosecution.
Someone hiking on the Appalachian Trail during the spring of 2015 recognized the 53-year-old bearded fugitive from a television special, and this May he was apprehended by FBI agents at a trailhead in Virginia, then jailed in Cincinnati.
Jim Hammes subsequently pleaded innocent to the nearly 80 criminal-fraud counts he’d been indicted of in absentia, but recently sent the court notice of his intent to change that plea to guilty.
