FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 9, 2023
On February 3, 2023, a Coweta County jury found Marcus Allen Daniels guilty of two counts of Armed Robbery for the October 2, 2016 armed robbery of the Waffle House located on Highway 154 in Sharpsburg near Exit 51. Coweta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Travis Sakrison sentenced Daniels to a total of 30 years to serve 25 years in prison.
Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney Robert Mooradian prosecuted and tried the case. Coweta County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Troy Foles was the lead investigator at the time of the offense.
The investigation revealed the following: On October 2, 2016, at approximately 11:15 pm, three unidentified individuals travelled to the Waffle House located near Exit 51 in Sharpsburg. While the getaway driver remained in the vehicle, two masked individuals entered the restaurant, which was occupied at the time by one waitress and the cook. One of the masked individuals brandished a firearm, threatening the waitress, “Put the money in the bag, bitch, or you’re going to die.” As the other individual collected money from the register in a bag, the cook let out a nervous laugh, which caused the armed suspect put the gun to the cook’s back, before stealing the cook’s wallet and cell phone. As the robber’s fled out the store, the gunman slipped and fell. The robbers then fled back to Union City. Sgt. Troy Foles responded to the scene, and as part of his investigation, was able to locate the victim’s stolen cell phone discarded on the side of Interstate 85 Northbound not far from Exit 51. Inv. Troy Foles submitted the cell phone to the GBI Crime Lab for testing, to include latent fingerprint examination.
After a tip led to identifying Daniels as one of the suspects, the tipster stated that Daniels described slipping as he ran out of the Waffle House and targeting the cook who laughed at him. This tip indicated Daniels was the gunman in the robbery. When Daniels was arrested, he was found in possession of a cellphone which contained the following text exchange from October 1, 2016 (the evening before the armed robbery).
Daniels: I need some fetti wap bad
Bshot Brimin: Me 2 what Yu tryna do
Daniels: Anything I got a waffle house off sharpsburg exit dumb sweet jus gotta steel a tag
Bshot Brimin: Ball me at (redacted) wen Yu ready
(The individual referred to as Bshot Brimin was identified at trial, and is currently serving a life sentence for Murder out of Fulton County. The third suspect in the armed robbery has never been identified.)
At trial a GBI fingerprint expert testified that Daniels’ fingerprints were found on the cook’s stolen cell phone which was found on the interstate after the crime. FBI Special Agent Jay Berni explained how Tmobile records showed that the phone in Defendant’s possession travelled from Union City down to Coweta County and back towards Union City during the precise time frame of the Waffle House Armed Robbery. Between the text message conversation and these phone records, this evidence showed Daniels and his accomplices specifically targeted our community and this Waffle House for this crime.
Although this case took a long time, including through the pandemic, to be presented to a Coweta County Jury, justice was ultimately served with this conviction and sentence of 25 years in prison without parole. Mr. Daniels chose to come to Coweta County and target law-abiding, hardworking members of our community, and I hope other criminals like him learn a lesson from this case.
JOHN HERBERT CRANFORD, JR.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
COWETA JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
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