A Gwinnett County judge handed down a life sentence to a man accused of stealing a car at gunpoint and trying to illegally cash a check that he found inside of it.
Timothy Arnell Ghiden was sentenced Thursday for armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle and aggravated assault. His life sentence does not include the possibility of parole.
The charges stemmed from a May 2016 armed robbery and stolen vehicle call in unincorporated Duluth, according to a news release from the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office. Gwinnett police officers responded to a home after a man said he had been robbed.
He told police he had just gotten home from his restaurant in Jonesboro and noticed a “suspicious vehicle” pull into his cul-de-sac while he was unloading his car.
“When (the victim) went to get other items from his car, he turned around and was rushed by two males armed with handguns,” the release said. One of the men shoved a handgun into the victim’s face and demanded his money and car keys. The victim complied, and the two robbers fled in a car driven by a third man.
The man reported his car stolen, along with several items inside of it, including a $5,000 check written to him by his business landlord, according to the release. The man reached out to his landlord, who was able to stop the payment on the check.
The landlord later received a call from Atlanta Check Cashers that someone had tried to cash the check.
“The person who attempted to cash the check left his Georgia ID card and was identified as the defendant, Timothy Ghiden,” the release said. “A thumbprint that was required to be placed on the front of the check by the Atlanta Check Cashers also matched the defendant.”
Additional fingerprints lifted from papers found in the victim’s car when it was recovered also matched Ghiden.
A jury deliberated for less than three hours and returned a guilty verdict on all counts in the indictment.
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