Three teenage defendants have pled guilty to robbing a woman at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Kohl’s department store at the Fayette Pavilion March 14.
The pleas accepted last week by Fayette County Superior Court Judge Fletcher Sams were entered by Kevin Jamal Matthews, Quentin L. Hardy and Quintez Deshon Smith. Although the defendants were all under age 16, they were indicted as adults and thus faced the much steeper penalties of Fayette County Superior Court instead of juvenile court.
Each defendant was sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison after admitting to charges of armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and theft by receiving stolen property, according to Fayette County Assistant District Attorney Warren Sellers.
The incident happened March 14 around 5:15 p.m. when the defendants approached the victim as she left the store, Sellers said. One of the defendants put a gun to the front of the victim’s head and ordered her to step back from her vehicle, and her purse was taken as she was shoved to the ground, he added.
Matthews, Hardy and Smith entered the victim’s vehicle and left the scene, fleeing north on Ga. Highway 314 as they were pursued by Fayette County sheriff’s deputies into College Park, Union City and later Atlanta before they were apprehended, Sellers said. The chase reached speeds of 130 mph, he noted.
