A Fayette County jury Tuesday afternoon convicted a Fayetteville man for robbing two businesses in town April 14, 2011.
Anthony Craig Dobson, 46, of Beacon Drive was sentenced to 40 years in prison by Fayette County Superior Court Judge Christopher C. Edwards.
Dobson was convicted of two counts of armed robbery for incidents at Jan’s Flower Shop on Ga. Highway 85 south and the Rite-Aid pharmacy on Ga. Highway 54 near Gingercake Road.
District Attorney Scott Ballard in his closing argument read the jury a note that Dobson presented to an employee of Jan’s Flower Shop during the first robbery: “I have a gun. No funny shit. Put the money in the bag. Don’t do something stupid.”
Dobson’s attorney argued that he should be convicted of robbery by intimidation instead of armed robbery because he never produced a gun at either crime scene.
Ballard countered that since Dobson threatened that he had a gun during both incidents, it made the victims believe he had a weapon, which Ballard contended was legally sufficient to sustain a conviction on armed robbery.
In the second robbery later that day at the Rite Aid, Dobson was spotted on surveillance video first trying to grab cash from a register, Ballard said. When the cashier tried to fend him off physically, Dobson verbally threatened that he had a gun and the cashier put her hands up and backed away, Ballard reminded the jury.
“Why did he do it?” Ballard asked. “He wanted to create the impression, he apprehension in her mind, that he had a gun.”
Dobson’s attorney, Chris Ramig, suggested that if the employees of both stores truly thought Dobson had a gun, they wouldn’t have run after him as he made his getaway from both locations.
Dobson is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for a conviction from Henry County for robbery by intimidation in an incident that occurred on Jan. 1, 2012, according to state prison records. Ballard said the two consecutive 20-year sentences tacked on by Judge Edwards would be served by Dobson after he completes the first sentence from Henry County.
