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Verdict awaited in N. Fayette home invasion case

By JOHN MUNFORD

jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

A Fayette jury continued deliberations Tuesday afternoon in the criminal trial against a Stone Mountain man accused of participating in a violent home invasion in north Fayette County Jan. 26.

Sgt. Tracy Carroll of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department testified Monday that one of the victims in the home invasion, Porchando Love, identified Jessie James Mercer, 30, as one of the three men who terrorized herself and her husband Richard in their home off South Kite Lake Road in the Kenwood Road area.

Carroll said Mercer’s photo was one of six photos she showed to Mrs. Love in a photo lineup.

Richard Love testified Monday that he and his wife were startled to hear several loud banging noises the night of Jan. 26. Thinking the worst, he went under the bed to retrieve his wife’s gun, until he saw his wife escorted back into the bedroom by three men.

Knowing just one bullet was in the weapon, Love decided to give himself up. But he was attacked on the witness stand about the gun by defense attorney Mike Martin, who asked Love if he had ever been convicted of a felony, thus making it illegal for him to possess a firearm.

Love invoked his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself, Martin said Tuesday morning.

Love also testified that one of the three intruders, whom he couldn’t identify, threatened to kill him but another one of the intruders said not to.

The suspects got away with $5,000 in cash which Mr. Love said was proceeds from a car he sold as part of his business. The suspects also got away with a 42-inch plasma screen television.

The two other defendants in the case have already been sentenced. George Roberts Jr. of Decatur pled guilty in September to related charges and was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Superior Court Judge Tommy Hankinson. Rasaul Malik Rayshad of Rex was found guilty one week later of the same charges against Mercer; Rayshad was sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years, also by Judge Hankinson.