Two men were found guilty Friday of nine criminal charges for holding a 16-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother at gunpoint while burglarizing their northwest Fayette County home Aug. 3.
Thaddeus Deonte Fowler, 20, of Atlanta and Arnold Alexander Floyd Jr., 20, of Union City were found guilty of two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of cruelty to children in the first degree, one count of kidnapping and one count of burglary. Floyd was also convicted of a second count of kidnapping and the jury found Fowler guilty of a lesser-included charge of false imprisonment in lieu of the initial felony kidnapping charge.
During the trial, Fowler had claimed that he was forced at gunpoint to participate in the burglary at his girlfriend’s house, located in the Ellen’s Ridge subdivision off Milam and Lee’s Mill roads north of Tyrone.
Fowler, who testified on his own behalf, claimed that he was forced to rob the home at gunpoint by Floyd, a friend of his from high school.
Prosecutor David Younker questioned a number of details in Fowler’s account, particularly how Floyd supposedly showed up unannounced at Fowler’s house the morning of Aug. 3 to “give him a ride” to his girlfriend’s Fayette County home.
Noting that Fowler testified he hadn’t seen Floyd in about a year prior to Aug. 3, Younker asked if Floyd “magically appeared” at Fowler’s house to give him a ride. Floyd stuck to his story.
Younker also asked Fowler why he didn’t leave on several occasions when he had the chance, as Fowler took items from the house to Floyd’s car while Floyd had the two victims, 12 and 16 years old, at gunpoint in an upstairs room.
Fowler testified that he stayed at the home because he was afraid of Floyd, and also because he was worried for his girlfriend and her younger brother.
Younker pointed out that Fowler never bothered to call police and report the incident after Floyd dropped him off following the incident. Fowler countered that he tried to call his girlfriend to check on her.
Fowler contended that Floyd decided to rob the place on his own, and that he pointed a gun at Fowler’s head, cursing at him and ordering to take items from the home.
Fowler said Floyd pointed the gun at him and said “(expletive) you better get everything or I’m going to shoot you.”
As they drove away from the scene, Fowler said he asked Floyd why he did it. Fowler recalled Floyd saying “it’s hard times and he needed some money.”
Fowler said he told Floyd to wait in the car for the half-hour or more that lapsed prior to Floyd entering the home with the gun.
After the burglary began, Fowler first insisted that he never went upstairs. If true, that would have contradicted testimony from the two victims that they saw Fowler take items from the girl’s upstairs bedroom.
But minutes later, Fowler changed his story, saying that he went to the top of the stairs once to get a TV that Floyd had placed there.
Younker also questioned Fowler’s recollection that Floyd slid a large open shopping bag full of video games in CD cases down the stairs with the contents remaining intact. Minutes later, Fowler said he didn’t see Floyd slide the bag down the stairs, and Younker asked how else could he have known that Floyd slid the bag.
Hours after the incident, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force had Floyd under arrest at his Union City home. Fayette County sheriff’s detectives found items taken during the burglary located in Floyd’s bedroom, including an Xbox video game system and a framed Hummer poster.
It wasn’t until three weeks later that Fowler was apprehended, officials said.
On Tuesday, the 16-year-old victim and her brother testified they were both afraid during the incident that they would be shot.
The girl said she was on the phone with a friend when she turned around and first saw Floyd pointing a gun at her.
“I said, ‘Oh my God, why are you in here?’” the girl recalled. “He told me: ‘Shut up and give me the phone.’ And I gave him the phone.”
Floyd then forced her upstairs and ordered her to disrobe, the girl testified. She explained to the jury that after taking off her shirt, she refused to go further, which caused Floyd to scream at her to “go faster.”
The girl testified that after putting her shirt back on she convinced Floyd to let her go into her brother’s room, and that’s where Floyd took the house phone and her brother’s cellphone before ordering the brother to pack up valuables including the Xbox video game system.
The girl’s brother testified that Floyd forced him to pack up several items from his room so they could be removed from the home easier, including the video game system and other valuables. The brother testified that he was “kinda scared” during the incident, and he was particularly startled when he was awakened by Floyd bursting into his bedroom and waving the gun.
