A trio found guilty of a brazen armed robbery in Stone Mountain and a pair of siblings sentenced for a spate of violent crimes in Brookhaven have the DeKalb County community reeling from the severe outcomes of these criminal acts. As per a jury decision reported by Fox5 Atlanta, twin brothers Darnell and Donnell Reed teamed with Christin Scales to lure a victim with the promise of sex, only to assault and rob him at gunpoint. Meanwhile, Edrick Agee and Avonte Treon Fortson were handed life sentences for their part in armed robberies that terrorized apartment complexes along Buford Highway.
In the Stone Mountain case, officials stated that Scales used online contact to lure the victim to an apartment complex on Oct. 6, 2021, a ploy that quickly escalated into a life-threatening situation. When the victim attempted to exit the scenario, he was met by the twins, both armed and ready to violently ensure their ill-gotten gains. The unfortunate sequence of events led to a struggle, shots fired, and the victim wounded, reported Fox5 Atlanta. The Reeds received sentences reflecting the seriousness of their actions, with Darnell set to spend 20 years behind bars and Donnell's sentencing date looming.
Meanwhile, Agee and Fortson's reign of terror through Brookhaven, which lasted from late 2019 through early 2020, came to an end after a string of robberies that included shooting a man and his girlfriend. Their criminal enterprise unraveled after vigilant police work linked them and co-defendant Elizabeth Edmonds, who acted as their getaway driver, back to the scene of the crimes. Edmonds, who cooperated with police and implicated both Agee, and Fortson, struck a plea deal and received an eight-year probation sentence, as DeKalb County officials detailed.
The consequences of these serious crimes underscore the justice system's zero-tolerance approach to violent offenders in the area. While for Edmonds, a different fate awaited her due to her cooperation – not life behind bars but probation. These cases, laden with violence and betrayal, close chapters on fear that gripped parts of DeKalb County for a time, now giving way to a community healing from the crimes inflicted upon them.
