It didn’t take long for sheriff’s detectives to identify a gunman and his accomplice from an Aug. 3 home invasion in northeast Fayette County.
Less than an hour after the incident, the victims were able to identify both suspects using their photos on Facebook.
And when Alexander Floyd Jr. was put under arrest at his Union City home hours later, he had one of the victim’s cellphones in his front pocket, police said.
The victims, a 16-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother, testified that Floyd held them at gunpoint while Thaddeus Deonte Fowler removed items from the home and loaded them into Floyd’s car.
A Fayette County jury found Fowler, 20, of Atlanta and Floyd, 20, of Union City 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.
The jury verdict was handed down Friday, but Superior Court Judge Tommy Hankinson delayed sentencing in the case until Thursday, Dec. 15.
The female victim testified that she knew Fowler after they were introduced by a mutual friend several months before. They also were Facebook friends, which allowed detectives to determine that Floyd was one of Fowler’s friends on Facebook.
The incident occurred at the family’s home in the Ellen’s Ridge subdivision which is located near the intersection of Milam and Lee’s Mill roads.
The female victim said that just before the incident she was on the phone with a friend. At one point, she turned around and 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 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.
Fowler, who was arrested several weeks following the robbery, contended that he was forced at gunpoint to participate.
Fowler testified that Floyd, who he knew from high school, pointed the gun at him and said “(expletive) you better get everything or I’m going to shoot you.”
Fowler also said that as they drove away from the home following the robbery, he asked Floyd “why he did it.” Fowler said Floyd replied that “it’s hard times and he needed some money.”
Fowler also said that instead of leaving the scene he decided instead to stay and protect the girl, whom he claimed was his girlfriend.
“I didn’t want them to get hurt,” Fowler said. “I didn’t know. He could have shot them or anything.”
In addition to a victim’s cellphone found in Floyd’s front pocket, detectives also found an Xbox video game system, a TV and a framed Hummer poster inside Floyd’s bedroom, detectives said. All of those items were taken from the victims’ home, detectives said.
Prosecutor David Younker questioned a number of details in Fowler’s account, particularly how his claim that Floyd, a friend of his from high school, 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 for about a year before, Younker asked if Floyd “magically appeared” at Fowler’s house to give him a ride. Floyd stuck to his story, insisting that he had not contacted Floyd for a ride but rather Floyd “just showed up.”
Fowler said after they arrived at the home, 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.
