Marietta man to serve 5-year sentence for punching cop

Because of his criminal past, a Marietta man will serve the maximum prison term for punching a police officer.

Gary Dewayne Mullis, 65, was sentenced Thursday to serve five years after being convicted earlier this month of punching a Marietta officer, according to a news release from the Cobb County district attorney’s office.

Five prior felony convictions factored into Mullis’s sentence, according to the release. Judge Marsha Lake, who was sitting as a Superior Court judge, sentenced Mullis as a recidivist.

“Cobb County is not going to tolerate your behavior,” Lake told Mullis, according to the release.

Mullis was arrested Oct. 1, 2012, after an altercation with police at a RaceTrac gas station on South Marietta Parkway. Police approached Mullis to speak with him about trespassing, but he began to disobey verbal commands. At some point Mullis began to fight with an officer and eventually punched the officer in the face.

Mullis, who also pulled off the officer’s radio and an ammunition magazine, was acquitted of attempting to remove the officer’s weapon, according to the release.

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Michelle E Shaw

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