Decatur Police Update: Charges Filed Against Burglary Suspects
Decatur Metro | July 29, 2013 | 4:16 pmFrom Decatur PD’s Sgt. Jennifer Ross…
Update on Winonna Park/South Candler Street/Oakhurst Burglaries:
On Friday, July 26, 2013, Decatur Police filed a burglary complaint with DeKalb County Juvenile Court against a 15-year-old male for a burglary that occurred on June 19, 2013 in the 100 block of West Hill Street. Investigators are still working with DeKalb Police to identify additional suspects and physical evidence is still being examined in the series of related burglaries. The most recent burglary that appeared to be related to this series occurred on East Lake Drive on July 8, 2013.
Update on Previously Arrested Burglary Suspect:
On July 29, 2013, a third burglary charge was filed against 18-year-old Antonio Bernard Harris of DeKalb County for a burglary that occurred on May 27, 2013 in the 1100 block of South Candler Street. Harris was caught by Decatur officers on June 2, 2013 shortly after a burglary was reported in the 900 block of South Candler Street and later charged with an additional burglary that occurred in the 400 block of East Pharr Road on May 20, 2013. The additional cases were solved through physical evidence.
Good news! Thanks Decatur police!
Looks like good police work is starting to pay off.
Yeah!!!
Thanks for the hard work DPD! I hope this is the first of many more arrests!
Great news!! I am so happy some of these guys were caught!
My house has been robbed twice over the yrs. Cops caught them both times.
What is the likely consequences? How long before these guys are back at it? Couple months?
I thought the same thing. The media and police are great when it comes to announcing the capture of such perps. The follow-up in the courts — eh — not so much.
True that they may not be in jail long but I still think that intense policing and solving cases works. The message may get out there that’s it’s easier to avoid City of Decatur. That’s certainly how some cities have reduced violent crime.
The 18 year old can be convicted under Title 16, Section 16-7-1 of GA “A person convicted of the offense of burglary, for the first such offense, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 20 years. ”
I’ll say a year is nothing to sneeze at.
I’d be happy if the 15 year old were not incarcerated. Locking up teens is just a good way to further acculturate them to criminal activity. Better they get close supervision. This is one thing where I like what Nathan Deal has been doing, namely trying to move away from punitive measures and try measures that might actually reduce recidivism…
I disagree regarding minors. Harris was arrested and charged last summer with robbery as a minor. He bonded out and served no time with a simple slap on the wrist from the judge. He had to pay retribution to the victim for the insurance deductible, (I’m willing to bet that someone else’s TV or laptop that went missing in May provided him with that money) and write a letter/essay about how wrong it was to steal. The victim is still looking for the letter. His mother, at the court hearing, said it was the responsibility of the court system to keep an eye on him and out of trouble. Clearly, she wasn’t willing to do that for him.
This recent spree of his in Decatur is not the only thing he has been arrested for in the past year. Hopefully this will make the system wake up and realize that most of these minors are not first time offenders, but instead it is only the first time they have been caught and arrested.
Court red tape cuts both ways. The adult perps in the break-in at my house ended up spending more than a year at the DeKalb County Jail because they couldn’t post bail and the process was so slow. They ended up doing more time than I ever thought they would.
I would like to thank the decatur PD and all of the concerned citizens that cooperated with the PD’s efforts including reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhood.