He said he was high on methamphetamine during a two-week spree of armed robberies, including one that culminated in the New Year’s Eve 2013 murder of a gas station attendant outside her apartment in Cobb County.
A little more than 19 months after police found the body of Manju Poonmanger in her vehicle, Cobb Superior Court Judge Reuben M. Green on Tuesday told Sergio Vera Lule he was going to prison for life.
Lule, 27, of Smyrna, robbed or attempted to rob workers at seven different businesses in unincorporated Cobb, Smyrna and Marietta from December 2013 to January 2014, according to Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds. One of his victims was Poonmanger, who worked as an attendant at a BP station on Windy Hill Road.
According to information presented in court, Lule followed Poonmanger, 37, after she closed up the station in the early morning of Dec. 31, 2013, and drove home to her nearby apartment. As she sat in her vehicle, Lule tried to rob her, then shot her in the head with a .38-caliber handgun, killing her instantly.
Just five days after shooting Poonmanger, Lule tried but failed to rob another woman at a check cashing business.
Police suspected the same person was committing the series armed robberies in the area and tried to identify him from surveillance video and witness descriptions of him and his vehicle.
Lule was finally arrested after a Jan. 9, 2014 traffic stop. During that stop, police found methamphetamine in his Jeep Cherokee. Lule has been held without bond since his arrest.
“This defendant has acknowledged having a long-term addiction to methamphetamine,” deputy chief assistant district attorney Jesse Evans said. “That led him to terrorize innocent people on multiple occasions, in multiple locations, and it cost Mrs. Poonmanger her life. This is the toll that drugs have on individuals, and on a community.”
According to Lule’s sentence, if he is ever paroled, he will be deported. He is a native of Mexico.
Poonmanger’s husband attended the hearing and said he was satisfied with the negotiated plea. He did not address the court himself.
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