(June 21, 2007)—After about ten hours of deliberations, a jury Thursday in Marlin found former falls County Tax Appraisal District office official Candace Grams guilty on all but one of 320 counts in an alleged scheme to forge checks and change appraisal values.

The punishment phase of the trial now gets underway.

Jurors heard closing arguments Wednesday morning and deliberated until about 8 p.m. Wednesday.

They returned to the courthouse Thursday morning and returned the verdict shortly before 10 a.m.

Grams was indicted in July 2006 for theft by a public servant after an investigation determined that signatures had been forged on appraisal district checks.

While she was free on $50,000 bond on that charge, she was named in additional indictments in August 2006 charging 19 counts of tampering with government records and two counts of fabricating physical evidence.

Those indictments stemmed from allegations that appraisal values were changed on several properties and that false documents were filed.

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