A Ripley man has been sentenced in federal court for a timber theft case involving white oak trees cut from the Holly Springs National Forest near Falkner. Kelly L. Holliday, 51, received six months in federal prison and was ordered to repay the U.S. Forest Service more than $30,000, according to the Daily Journal’s report on the case.
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Mills handed down the sentence on Thursday in the Northern District of Mississippi. The six-month terms on each of the two counts will run at the same time, and Holliday gets credit for time he has already spent in custody.
How the Timber Theft Case Started
The investigation began in December 2022, when Forest Service officials noticed freshly cut trees on national forest land near Falkner in northern Tippah County. Investigators later found that white oak timber had been sold to area sawmills several times during 2022.
To link the logs to the forest, investigators compared samples taken from the stumps with wood that had been sold, the report said. White oak is among the most valuable hardwoods in the region and is in demand for barrel staves, flooring and furniture.
Charges, Plea and Sentence
A federal grand jury indicted Holliday in July 2025 on four felony counts:
Theft of government funds
Trafficking in illegal wildlife or plants
Theft of government timber
Willful injury to trees on U.S. land
In June, Holliday pleaded guilty to two of those counts: trafficking in illegal plants and theft of government timber. Under the sentence handed down this week, he must:
Serve six months in federal prison on each count, run concurrently
Pay $30,621 in restitution to the U.S. Forest Service
Holliday has already spent more than four months in federal custody at the Lafayette County Detention Center, so roughly six weeks of the sentence remain, according to the report.
Pretrial Release Was Revoked
After his indictment, Holliday was released on a $1,000 bond. In March, prosecutors asked the court to revoke that release after he reportedly failed a drug test. U.S. Magistrate Judge Roy Percy declined at that time and instead ordered him into an inpatient rehabilitation program.
Holliday was arrested again in late May for violating the terms of his pretrial release. At a second hearing on June 3, Judge Percy ordered him held until trial, writing that the defendant was “unlikely to abide by any condition or combination of conditions of release.”
Protecting the Holly Springs National Forest
The Holly Springs National Forest covers parts of Tippah, Benton and several nearby counties and is used for hunting, hiking and timber management. Commercial timber can be cut there only through Forest Service sales and permits. Anyone who sees suspicious cutting or log hauling on national forest land can report it to the Holly Springs Ranger District office or local law enforcement.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
