A Cobb County man was sentenced to life in prison for holding a knife to the throat of a sandwich shop employee before stealing $255, the District Attorney said Friday.
A jury convicted Joel Stephen Easley, 31, of Smyrna, of armed robbery and two counts of aggravated assault in the Feb. 17, 2014 attack at the Firehouse Subs on Camp Highland Road, DA Vic Reynolds’ office said. Easley rejected a plea offer, but terms of the plea were not released.
A restaurant employee testified that Easley had twice been in the restaurant asking for free food. The first time, the employee gave the man a sandwich. But the second time, about an hour before the assault, the employee said no, but encouraged Easley to apply for a job there, Reynolds said.
“Mr. Easley rejected a young man’s kindness and instead used violence to take what was not his, terrifying hardworking employees and innocent families in the process,” Theresa Schiefer, assistant district attorney, told the court.
Dressed in all black and wearing a bandanna, Easley ambushed an employee from behind, put a knife to the man’s throat and demanded money, according to investigators. He got away with $255 in cash.
“Faced with the choice of applying for a job or robbing an establishment, he chose to rob the establishment. That was his choice that day,” Judge Stephen Schuster said. “Based on the evidence that I have heard, I’m going to sentence you to life.”
Easley will be eligible for parole consideration in 30 years, Reynolds said.
After the case was concluded, Easley pleaded guilty in a separate case in which he was charged with the armed robbery of a Little Caesar’s pizza shop in Smyrna. His 15-year sentence in that case will run concurrent to the life sentence, the DA said.
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