SAN ANGELO, TX — Coty Lynn Veach, 41, of San Angelo ran from the law here and could not be found when she failed to appear for her court hearings. She is wanted for jumping bail on charges for bigamy. The bail she jumped was in the amount of $30,000, posted Oct. 17, 2017, and her bail bondsman was hot on her trail.
Veach failed to appear at a court hearing Dec. 5, 2017 and has been on the run ever since. Previously, she was arrested in the Midwest U.S. and hauled back to jail after jumping a $15,000 bond. When she was out of jail on the previous bond, she failed to appear June 6, 2017, according to court records. How she was able to convince the court to let her out a second time on bail is curious, though the second bail bond was for double her original bond’s amount.
It didn’t matter. She took off again and this time no one knew where she went and as her trail cooled, her trial, scheduled for March 19, was cancelled.
It turned out she ran to Florida and was living in a cottage with her latest beau, Jason Veach, in Okeechobee County.
How was she found?
She is the proud owner of a pre-owned Jeep Wrangler, purchased at Carl’s Buick GMC in Stuart, Florida a few days ago. Her car salesman proudly posted a photo of Coty in her new Jeep. “Congratulations and Thank you to Coty and Jason Veach for your purchase of your Jeep…” the car salesman boasted on Facebook underneath the photo.
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Above: Coty Lynn Veach in Facebook post of Florida car salesman. (Facebook)
What Coty and Jason, and surely the car salesman, didn’t realize was that her bail bondsman in San Angelo, Ricky Villarreal at Freedom/Libertad Bail Bonds, had a team watching for Facebook posts with her name.
The discovery of the announcement of the Jeep purchase gave enough information for private investigators to draw a radius around the car dealership and begin their search. It didn’t take long to locate the Jeep.
“I was able to obtain two addresses. Upon arriving at one address, I spotted the newly purchased Jeep Wrangler. I ran the plate and it came back with no information; which, is typical on a new vehicle because the dealership will often record with the DMV in batches so that was another clue that I was on the right track,” said the private investigator in Florida hired to track Mrs. Veach down.
Since the bounty hunter knew he was hot on her trail, he called the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office for backup and went to the door.
“I knocked on the door several times but, of course, no answer. I decided to call the number on the [landlord’s sign for the cottages] to see if I could gain a key instead of kicking down the door. While the manager was in route, I tried the window on the side of the cottage and it opened. I announced myself and ordered anyone in the home to come out, namely Coty and Jason; and, of course, nothing,” the PI said.
The air conditioning was running and the television was on, signs someone was inside. He discovered food on the table, too. “It was obvious that I had to search the home,” the PI said.
The manager arrived but the master key did not work, so the PI entered the home through a window that was unlocked. He opened the front door and allowed the sheriff’s deputies inside.
“The place was a disgusting pigsty, but I had to keep searching. The kitchen area, no Coty. Under the bed, no Coty. The bathroom was next but vacant. My last door was a closet with a blanket hung over the door as to hide it,” the PI said.
“I opened the door, pulled down the blanket but the door opened up only half way. I grabbed my flashlight and shined it through the door jam to find a blond head of hair hiding behind it. I ordered Coty out and she was placed in custody without incident or resistance,” the PI said.
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Above: Coty Lynn Veach, at age 40. She is 41 as of 1/7/2018 (Photo provided by TGCJ)
A Tom Green County grand jury noted that Coty Lynn Veach aka Coty Shott Jackson, “while being legally married to Floyd Jackson, intentionally and knowingly live[d] with Jason Veach, a person other than her spouse, in the State of Texas under the appearance of being married.”
The then-soon-to-be-ex-husband Floyd Jackson, who goes by Wayne, told us in 2016 about his ex-wife Coty. She filled out a marriage license application with the Tom Green County Clerk on Jan. 6, 2016 then filed for divorce from Wayne on Jan. 11, five days later. Before the divorce was final, she married the new spouse on Jan. 30, posting a photo of her signed and dated Tom Green County marriage license on Facebook, according to Jackson.
Jackson’s attorney forwarded the evidence to authorities. Coty was arrested for bigamy March 29, 2016 but then posted the original $15,000 bond that day to avoid sitting in jail.
Court records offer a glimpse into the rocky marriage of Coty and Wayne. Coty acquired a protective order against him in Sept. 2015. She filed for divorce Jan. 11, 2016, three-and-a-half months later.
The divorce to Jackson was finally granted on May 24, 2016.
According to the Texas Penal Code, bigamy is a third-degree felony that is punishable by up to five years in prison and can sometimes be accompanied by a hefty fine. The "spouse" of the bigamist can sometimes be fined if they knew the person was already married.
A grand jury here charged Mrs. Veach with an additional offense, bail jumping and failure to appear, a Third Degree Felony, in May. Her court-appointed defense attorney for both felonies is San Angelo attorney Andrew Graves.
As of right now, Coty Veach sits in an Okeechobee County, Florida jail awaiting transport back to Tom Green County. She was arrested Wednesday, July 25.
There is no bail.
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