Fults found guilty of impersonating private eye
Already serving a 45-year sentence after being convicted for molesting a 16-year-old student, local resident Craig Fults now faces an even longer sentence with his conviction Wednesday for impersonating a private investigator.
Fults, 39, will face sentencing May 6 before Murfreesboro Judge Don Ash on the charge of impersonating a licensed professional. He faces one to two additional years in prison for the conviction.
Fults is presently serving 45 years after his conviction last year on charges of rape, statutory rape and sexual battery by an authority figure. He was convicted for having inappropriate relations with a Rutherford County boy.
Fults, a Warren County native and resident, was a teacher and soccer coach at Barfield Elementary in Rutherford County at the time of the crime.
The teen said Fults had relations with him on numerous occasions and threatened to tell people he was gay if he did not submit to the acts. Fults maintains the acts were consensual.
The latest case involving impersonation of a licensed professional stemmed from the original charges against Fults when a Murfreesboro businessman reported Fults questioned him about the boy and identified himself as a private investigator. The businessman had seen Fults on the news earlier and recognized him.
During Wednesday’s hearing in Murfreesboro, Brock Sharp of Circle K Market in Murfreesboro identified Fults as the man who questioned him. Sharp renewed his claim Fults had identified himself as a private investigator. Fults denied the claim, saying he was merely following up on leads his private investigator was pursuing in preparation for trial.
Prosecutors presented surveillance tape showing Fults inside the store in question for several minutes. They also showed proof Fults was in fact not a licensed private investigator.
The guilty verdict means Fults faces additional time on top of his 45-year sentence because the crime was committed while Fults was free on bond on the rape charges. Under sentencing guidelines, Fults must serve 100 percent of his 45-year sentence.