Career Criminal Sentenced 30 Years for Lithia Springs Burglary

A convicted felon with a lengthy arrest record saw his criminal career come to an end this week after his latest burglary conviction landed him a 30-year sentence, according to Douglas County District Attorney David McDade.

Jerry Brandall Storrs was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Tuesday after entering a guilty plea to burglary and theft by taking. Storrs was sentenced as a repeat offender, which means the 46-year-old defendant will serve every day of his 12-year prison term. Chief Superior Court Robert J. James also banished Storrs from Douglas County and required him to pay $1463.76 in restitution. Following his release from prison, Storrs will serve the remaining 18 years on probation.

“As I’ve said before, criminals like this man earn every single day they get in prison,” said McDade in a press release. “Victims deserve to see justice carried out for them when career criminals like this break in and rob them.”

Storrs’ criminal career began in 1985 with a robbery conviction. Since that time he has accumulated five different burglary convictions, which spread across four different counties around the metro Atlanta area.

Storrs’ latest conviction stems from a residential burglary he committed on April 3, 2009. Assistant District Attorney Steve Knittel explained that the crime occurred within a three-hour span, which began when the victim left her residence at 8:20 a.m. During the three hours the victim was gone; the defendant broke into her house and stole money, food, a television and a Smith & Wesson handgun.

While processing the residence, authorities noticed a small amount of blood on the living room floor. The blood sample was collected and sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) lab for testing. Ten months passed before Douglas County Sherriff investigators were contacted by the GBI, whose search of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) matched Storrs’ DNA with the blood sample taken from the burglary.