An Austell man described as a career criminal was sentenced Tuesday after representing himself in court.
Morris Michael McCoy, 38, received seven years in prison from Cobb County Superior Court Judge Robert Leonard for a single theft charge.
Cobb police found that McCoy stole a trailer with $40,000 of nails from National Nail on Riverside Parkway in January 2013.
Police said McCoy came in a semi-tractor, hitched the 53-foot trailer and drove away.
A day or so later, surveillance video recorded McCoy at Rand Recycling in Atlanta selling the load as scrap for $450. Police know it was him because he used his photo identification to complete the sale.
Four people testified during the two-week trial that McCoy, once issued a commercial driver’s license, had also stolen from them.
McCoy has at least four prior felony theft convictions in metro Atlanta over the last two decades, mostly using the same process.
“This defendant has spent 20 years cleaning out the inventories of small businesses and jeopardizing the legitimate livelihoods of numerous hard-working individuals,” said prosecutor Sherwin Figueroa.
Once released, McCoy will serve 13 years of his sentence on probation. He has been in custody since October 2015 and will get credit for his time served.
