Former GBI agent guilty of molesting boys he met at church

Jurors deliberated for about two hours before finding former GBI agent Charles Woodall guilty of molesting three boys he met through his work at Macon’s Northway Church.

Woodall, who was taken into custody after the verdict was announced, was found guilty of six counts of child molestation, five counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and one count of violating his oath as an agent. He will be sentenced at a later date.

District Attorney David Cooke said Woodall “abused the trust of two of our most sacred institutions, the church and the badge. Now he will have to answer for his crimes thanks to the courage of his victims who came forward to hold him accountable.”

Testimony in Woodall’s trial began Tuesday in Bibb County Superior Court.

The 36-year-old testified Thursday, calmly denying all the allegations against him. He said he didn’t know why the boys — whom he’d met during stints as a volunteer and other times as an employee of the Zebulon Road church — would make such serious allegations against him.

In her closing argument to jurors, prosecutor Nancy Scott Malcor recounted statements of 11 men — who were teenagers at the time of the alleged inappropriate contact with Woodall in Georgia and Tennessee — and reminded jurors of their “eerily similar stories.”

“Their stories are the same because the defendant is a pervert who hasn’t changed his playbook in 15 years,” she said. “These men are telling the truth. They have nothing to gain by lying. … They’re saying these things because they’re true.”

Allegations against Woodall date from 2005 to 2014.

Woodall testified he got a job at a Knoxville, Tennessee, church after dropping out of college following his freshman year.

At first he worked with the church’s afters-school program and then began volunteering with the youth group.

In 2005, he moved to Macon and began a summer internship working with youth at Northway Church, formerly known as Vineville North Baptist Church, Woodall testified.

At the end of the internship, he was hired as an assistant to the student pastor, a position he held until going back to college in 2007, with hopes of one day becoming a federal law enforcement officer.

In December 2011, Woodall was hired by the GBI as a crime scene specialist and was working as a field agent at the time of his 2015 arrest. The GBI assisted in Woodall’s prosecution.

Charles Cox, Woodall’s lawyer, said the actions of the men who accused his client of impropriety don’t match their words.

“Their words say Mr. Woodall is guilty. Their behavior says he’s innocent,” Cox said in his closing argument. “Actions speak louder than words.”

Cox said the men sought out a relationship with Woodall after the alleged inappropriate conduct supposedly occurred.

He said there’s no computer or credit card evidence that supports allegations Woodall purchased pornography he was accused of showing the men when they were teens.

There’s also no evidence he bought a sex toy he’s accused of providing to the boys, Cox said.

This story was originally published August 31, 2017 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Former GBI agent guilty of molesting boys he met at church."