A man with four prior felony convictions was sentenced to life without parole for robbing a Marietta pawn shop at gunpoint, the Cobb County District Attorney said Thursday.
Ronald Eaton Jr., 28, of Marietta, was convicted in the Sept. 18, 2012, robbery of Cobb Pawn Shop on Cobb Parkway South, DA Vic Reynolds’ office said. Eaton was found guilty of armed robbery, kidnapping and possession of a firearm during commission of a crime.
Eaton entered the shop armed with a handgun and demanded money from the owner, according to investigators. He then forced the owner into a back room of the shop and duct-taped him to a chair. At the time of the robbery, Eaton and an accomplice were carrying purses, the AJC previously reported.
“Ronald Eaton made a choice to live his 28 years of life as a criminal,” Joyette Holmes, assistant district attorney, said in an emailed statement. “As a four-time convicted felon from Baltimore, Maryland, he chose to make victims of innocent people by robbing and assaulting them as a means to meet his selfish ends. The life without parole sentence handed down by the court forecloses Ronald Eaton’s opportunity to harm anyone else.”
Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert E. Flournoy III sentenced Eaton as a recidivist to life in prison without parole, plus five years on the firearms charge, Reynolds said. It’s unclear though whether Eaton will serve his sentence in Georgia because he is accused of killing a man in another state.
In a separate case, Eaton has been charged with murder in Maryland, according to police. In November 2012, Eaton allegedly shot and killed 26-year-old Warren Boone in Baltimore.
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