A Hancock County judge has denied bond for Tracy Wheeler, the Republican candidate for Georgia Senate District 26, leaving her in jail as of Monday after she was accused of pointing a handgun at her restaurant co-owner during a dispute over a broken air-conditioning system. Wheeler was taken into custody last Wednesday alongside her husband, Troy, and the two now face felony aggravated assault charges stemming from months of escalating confrontations at their Lake Sinclair restaurant, Amigos Cove.
According to 13WMAZ, court filings allege that on June 28, Wheeler pointed a firearm at co-owner Roderico “Mickey” Saenz Martinez and another employee during the argument over the restaurant's air conditioning. Wheeler was formally arrested on aggravated assault charges, and as reported by CBS News Atlanta, she alleges Martinez owns 70 percent of Amigos Cove while she holds the remaining 30 percent — a claim Martinez disputes, with Wheeler instead insisting the two are equal owners. Wheeler has denied the allegations in the civil complaint against her.
The arrests of Tracy and Troy Wheeler happened not at the restaurant, but inside the Hancock County Courthouse in Sparta last Wednesday, while the parties were attending a civil hearing tied to the ownership dispute. Per The Union-Recorder, Martinez was seeking a temporary restraining order against the Wheelers at that hearing when Hancock County deputies took the couple into custody.
A Fourth of July Confrontation Turns Physical
The charges also stem from a separate incident on July 4, when civil court filings cited in local reporting allege that Troy Wheeler and the couple's son, Mitchell Wheeler, physically assaulted Amigos Cove general manager Victor Ochoa while yelling at him to shut the restaurant down, amid accusations that the pair had been drinking. Both Troy and Mitchell Wheeler face aggravated assault and disorderly conduct charges tied to that confrontation, the station's report notes. Ochoa, through his attorney, has said he wants to pursue prosecution, while Tracy Wheeler alleges Ochoa was the aggressor during the July 4 incident.
Hancock County Chief Investigator Thomas Resha confirmed that despite multiple confrontations involving firearms and physical altercations at the restaurant across June and July, no physical injuries were reported in any of the incidents. Law enforcement nevertheless pursued felony charges based on video evidence and witness statements, according to the same account from The Union-Recorder. Troy and Mitchell Wheeler are currently awaiting bond, per Resha, while Tracy Wheeler remains jailed after the judge's denial.
Dueling Ownership Claims Over the Lake Sinclair Property
Amigos Cove opened in Sparta in May, operating out of a 3,217-square-foot commercial building on a one-acre lot at 3997 Lake Sinclair Drive that previously housed Elmo's Red Bar and Grill, according to commercial property records cited by Crexi. Property records show the building itself is owned by a business entity formed by Wheeler. In a civil counterclaim, Tracy Wheeler has accused Martinez of converting $50,000 in restaurant money for his own use — an allegation that remains unresolved alongside the rest of the civil claims and criminal charges.
Georgia law classifies aggravated assault as a felony under O.C.G.A. § 16-5-21, carrying a mandatory prison sentence of one to 20 years upon conviction, according to Justia Law. Georgia law elevates a simple assault charge to felony aggravated assault when a deadly weapon such as a firearm is allegedly used to threaten someone, even if no physical injury results.
A Political Career Now in Jeopardy
Wheeler secured the Republican nomination for Senate District 26 after winning her May 19 primary, putting her on the November 3 general election ballot against Democratic incumbent David Lucas Sr. The criminal charges arrive less than three months before voters head to the polls. This isn't Wheeler's first brush with a razor-thin, contentious race — in November 2024 she ran as the Republican nominee for Georgia House District 128, losing to Democratic Rep. Mack Jackson by just 48 votes in a contest decided 13,926 to 13,878, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She subsequently filed an election contest lawsuit that a judge dismissed in February 2025 for lack of evidence.
Lucas, the incumbent Wheeler is scheduled to challenge, has served in the Georgia General Assembly for more than five decades, entering the House in 1975 and the Senate in 2013, according to the Georgia Senate Press Office. Senate District 26 spans seven central Georgia counties, encompassing all of Hancock, Twiggs, Washington and Wilkinson counties along with portions of Bibb and Houston counties, an area that mixes rural communities with populated suburbs near Macon. With Wheeler now jailed without bond and her husband and son awaiting their own bond hearings, how the criminal case will affect her candidacy and ballot status ahead of the November election remains an open question.
