The third man in a trio of gang members convicted last month of terrorizing Atlanta neighborhoods in a deadly 2010 crime spree was sentenced Monday to 250 years in prison.
Robert Veal was 18 when he and Tamario Wise set out across the metro area violently robbing people, carjacking and, on the night of Nov. 22-23, killing Charles Boyer and sexually assaulting a Grant Park woman.
Monday, a Fulton County Superior Court judge gave Veal a sentence of life without parole – or the equivalent of at least 30 years – plus six additional life terms, plus 40 years.
“These guys should never, ever breathe a breath of fresh air again,” Fulton County assistant district attorney Lance Cross said, referring to Veal and co-defendants Wise and Fernandez Whatley. “These guys were very dangerous. This was one of the most prolific street gang crimes in the history of the city.”
Veal and Wise were found guilty Oct. 11 of a series of offenses in a 90-count indictment that included murder, rape, sodomy, aggravated assault and false imprisonment charges.
Whatley was not with Wise and Veal on Nov. 22, 2010, when the two killed Boyer during a stick-up, then tied up and raped a woman during a Grant Park home invasion hours later.
But Whatley was tried with the two, because prosecutors said he accompanied Wise in a home invasion days later in Atlanta’s Benteen Park, where the two tied up a family and their child before stealing jewelry and their car.
Whatley was convicted of armed robbery, hijacking a vehicle, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and cruelty to children, and was sentenced last week to 30 years in prison and 40 years of probation.
Wise received a sentence of life without parole plus an additional 14 life sentences and 290 years – a combined total of 740 years in prison.
All three men were convicted of participating in criminal gang activities – a charge against someone who overtly claims membership in a gang or associates with one while committing a crime.
Cross took the sentences as a message to would-be criminal gang members.
“If you are a member of a gang and you rape, you steal or you rob, you’re going to be brought to justice, and you’re going to get the maximum sentence,” he said. “I think this gave the (victims and their families) justice.”
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