Waffle House Robber Gets Life Sentence: ICYMI

MARIETTA, GA -- A serial Waffle House robber is going to the big house. Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds announced Tuesday that 23-year-old Robbin Jetial Haynes of Duluth will serve a life sentence for robbing several Waffle Houses in metro Atlanta.

A Cobb jury convicted Haynes Friday of multiple crimes, including armed robbery, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during commission of a felony. (To get notified of more local news like this, click here to sign up for the Marietta Patch. Or find your Atlanta-area town here. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Prosecutors said that Haynes and co-defendant Otis Lee Barnes entered the Waffle House in north Fulton County in the early morning hours of March 31, 2014 in the 4800 block of Alabama Road. They were armed with a gun and "large orange-handled bolt cutters" they used to rob workers and customers. They left the eatery with $400.

That same day, the duo hit two other Waffle Houses in Gwinnett County, prosecutors said.

“Mr. Haynes committed three armed robberies in about 24 hours. The first occurred in Gwinnett County, the second one in Cobb County, and the last one in Gwinnett County,” Assistant District Attorney Lauryn Perry, who prosecuted the case, said in a news release. “He showed a lack of compassion for his victims and a streak of violence that the State believes is reflected in his sentence.”

Haynes, who was already sentenced to life in prison in the Gwinnett robberies, was sentenced to the same in Cobb, plus a mandatory five years on the firearms charge. The sentences will run concurrently, Cobb DA's Office said.

Barnes, 25, pleaded guilty to the charges in both Gwinnett and Cobb and got 20 years, with 10 years to serve in prison. Haynes was represented by Atlanta attorney Angela Brown in the Cobb case.

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