Crime & Safety

Fayetteville Couple Get 20 Years for Robbing Local Dollar Store

A couple from Fayetteville were sentenced to 20 years in prison for robbing the Dollar Store in Lithia Springs in 2007.

A Fayetteville husband and wife will be serving a 20-year sentence after robbing numerous businesses at gun point around the metro Atlanta area, including a local business in 2007, according to Douglas County District Attorney David McDade.

Preston Marcelus Calhoun, 42, and his wife, Roslynn Ford-Calhoun, 42, were sentenced Monday by Chief Superior Court Judge Robert J. James after entering a guilty plea to one count each of Armed Robbery. Calhoun will serve 20 years in prison while his counterpart, Ford-Calhoun, will spend 15 of the 20 years in confinement. Both are required to pay restitution in the amount of $4,459.52.

The charges stem from an armed robbery that took place at a Dollar General in Lithia Springs on September 10, 2007. Assistant District Attorney Anna Vaughan described in court that an assistant store manager called 911 moments after she had been robbed at gun point. The employee described being confronted in the break room by Calhoun, who then forced her into an office where the store’s safe was located. Once inside the office, the victim was ordered at gun point to empty the safe. While Calhoun was ordering the victim to empty the safe in a back-room office, his wife was acting as a look-out in the front of the store.

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A witness described the couple’s getaway vehicle as a white suburban, and the video surveillance of the incident matched two suspects that had been tied to a dozen robberies around the metro Atlanta area.

The identities of the two suspects remained unknown until December 2007, when a high-speed chase in Henry County ended in the capture of the Calhouns. The Henry County Sheriff’s Department caught the couple fleeing from an attempted armed robbery of a Cato’s clothing store in a black Cadillac. It was only a matter of time before Douglas County investigators tied the husband and wife back to the armed robbery in Lithia Springs.

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“The detective in this case took a photo lineup from Henry County to the victim in our case,” said Vaughan. “She was able to positively identify the defendant, Preston Calhoun, as the one who robbed her.”

Investigators were also able to establish that the couple owned a 2002 white Chevrolet Suburban, matching the description given by witnesses to the Lithia Springs armed robbery.

A Henry County jury convicted the Calhouns of two separate armed robberies in 2009. Both defendants are still awaiting pending charges in other jurisdictions. 

 


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