Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Picture this: 3 robbers capture selves in a flash
Maybe the caption under these photographs should read: "Smile, you're going to prison."
Three armed robbers playfully took snapshots of themselves while driving a stolen SUV. But after fooling around, they unwittingly left the disposable camera in the vehicle, giving police the ammunition they needed to bring the trio to justice.
On Friday, Michael Lee Merritt spent his 19th birthday in court recei
ing a 15-year prison sentence along with his friend, Wendell Mackey, who is 20.
In one of the photos, Merritt made an obscene hand gesture and smiled smugly while wearing the victim's black l
eath
er jacket.
Prosecutors are pushing for a life sentence for the third robber, Darnell Robinson, 22, a c
areer criminal. Superior Court Judge Alice D. Bonner is expected to decide his punishment Monday.
A Fulton jury convicted the three in a flash last week, taking less than two hours to find all three guilty of six crimes each.
All three were convicted of armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and burglary.
"They basically convicted themselves," Fulton prosecutor Chris Toles said.
The trio ambushed barber Eric Haney, 35, outside his apartment Dec. 17, 2001.
One pointed an assault rifle and forced Haney inside his
apartment and down on the floor.
Haney said the Lord's Prayer while two of the robbers snatched up his DVDs, PlayStation 2 and clothes.
"He was praying for his life," Toles
said. "
;They were threatening to kill him."
The third robber went to start their getaway car