An Acworth man pleaded guilty to attacking and threatening to kill his pregnant wife on several occasions while they were going through a divorce, authorities said.
Zachriah Kenneth White, 37, will spend 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of aggravated assault, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, armed robbery, false imprisonment and battery, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office said in a Friday news release.
In November 2016, White and the woman were in the middle of a divorce after having been married for 11 years, the release said. On Nov. 14, he grabbed her by the neck and dragged her inside his home during an argument.
A neighbor saw what happened and called 911, but White forced her to keep quiet and wouldn’t answer the door when police arrived, the release said. It’s unclear why police left the scene.
Two weeks later, he sent her threatening text messages, including one demanding she meet him at the Costco on Barrett Parkway “or she would regret it,” the release said. While going to meet him out of fear, she saw his truck on the side of I-75 and thought it had broken down.
When she pulled over, White took her cellphone and a gun she had brought for protection and pointed it at her stomach and head, threatening to kill her, the release said. At one point, he told her he would “blow her brains out” in front of their infant son, who was in the backseat, if she tried to get help.
He put the gun’s barrel in her mouth before forcing her to drive to Costco, where he said they would talk, the release said. The woman told a friend about the meeting, and the friend called Cobb police who found them in the parking lot.
Officers spotted White plugging the woman’s phone into a computer so he could download and review her messages, and they also found the victim’s gun and a second gun in the car, the release said. Police found the threatening texts he had sent her, prompting his arrest.
While in custody at the Cobb jail, he called the victim about 100 times a day, sometimes using other inmates’ information to place the calls, the release said. During this time, the woman had a protective order prohibiting him from contacting her.
During the calls, he would threaten her or encourage her to help him avoid prosecuting, even offering her money if she would get him out of jail, the release said.
White has been in jail since Nov. 30, 2016, and the time he’s already served will be subtracted from his prison sentence, the release said. He was also sentenced to two years of probation after his prison time.
Judge G. Grant Brantly presided over the case.
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