A Cobb County man will spend decades in prison after he was convicted of assaulting four women at a Marietta employment agency, including one victim who was stabbed twice in the neck.
Willie Elbert Kidd Jr., 28, was found guilty of going on a June 2022 rampage at Rock Staffing over a money issue. He was sentenced Monday to 85 years in prison, which Superior Court Judge Kimberly A. Childs ordered must be served after a 20-year sentence for a probation violation.
The judge described the attack as “a violent episode,” according to the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.
“When I sit through a jury trial, I see every single life this has affected,” Childs said during sentencing. “I see the fear on their faces. I see what law enforcement must go through. I see the scar on the victim’s neck.”
Kidd was temporarily employed through the staffing agency when an issue arose with his compensation. According to an arrest warrant, he believed the agency owed him $200, but his direct deposit payment didn’t go through. Kidd appeared irate when he went to the Austell Road location the afternoon of June 20 with a serrated hunting knife that had a five-inch blade.
Authorities said Kidd entered the lobby, knocked over a computer and beat on a glass window until it shattered. He then kicked open a locked door leading to a secure employee area, where he confronted a woman at a reception desk and repeatedly threatened to kill her, according to the warrant.
Kidd also announced that he was homeless and had “nothing to lose,” a Cobb police investigator attested in the warrant. The woman managed to get away and barricaded herself in another office.
Soon after, Kidd entered an office shared by two other women and threatened to kill one of them and punched another in the face, the investigator stated. He then held the second woman to the floor and stabbed her in the neck, according to the warrant, before she was able to run to a manager’s office.
The injured woman and the manager attempted to lock the door, but Kidd was not far behind them.
Kidd kicked it open, punched the woman again and stabbed her in the opposite side of the neck, the warrant stated. The investigator said Kidd then cornered and held a knife to the manager, who ran out while his back was momentarily turned.
Kidd fled the scene and was later spotted walking on nearby Lorene Drive. According to the warrant, Kidd dropped the knife when he saw police but refused their commands to stop. He was eventually taken into custody after running into the parking lot of the Efficiency Lodge motel and has been jailed ever since.
After a short deliberation, a jury on Thursday convicted Kidd on four counts of aggravated assault, one count of false imprisonment, one count of possession of a knife during commission of a felony and one count of second-degree criminal damage to property.
While both of his sentences are eligible for parole, Childs said she was doing her part “to make sure there are no other victims in Cobb County from this defendant,” according to a release from the district attorney.
