A bank manager told a Fayette County jury today that an armed gunman threatened to kill her if she didn’t put money in his black garbage bag during the May 1 armed robbery of the United Community Bank in Peachtree City.

Although Jennifer Winkles didn’t recognize the gunman whose face was disguised, the actions of a good samaritan outside the bank led to Calvin Obie Boynton, 45, of Senoia, being arrested minutes later. Boynton’s criminal trial began this afternoon.

The samaritan was home health nurse Octavia Hardnett, who testified that she became suspicious when a red Kia Sophia pulled into the bank area as if it was about to go through the drive-thru area the wrong way.

Instead of pumping gas at the adjacent Shell station as she planned, Hardnett kept her car running and watched the scenario unfold.

“He ran in the bank really quickly,” Hardnett said of the vehicle’s passenger. In less than three minutes the passenger, dressed in a camouflage jacket, exited the bank cradling a black bag and carrying a gun, she said.

“That’s when I said, ‘He done robbed the bank,’” Hardnett said.

As the getaway car left the scene, Hardnett began to follow them from a distance, calling 911 to direct police to the suspects’ location. The car exited the bank on Wisdom Road and went briefly into the Wisdom Woods Apartments where she lost sight of them until the car emerged about three minutes later.

Defense attorney Kim Cornwell quizzed Hardnett about her testimony that she saw the gunman’s face as he exited the bank. Cornwell pointed out that Hardnett had not mentioned that detail in her written statement to police.

Hardnett agreed she had not put it in her statement, but she insisted that when the getaway car left Wisdom Woods it had the same driver and passenger as it went in.

Hardnett also said she saw the driver’s face as the car exited the apartments.
Hardnett, who had watched the apartment exit from the Peachtree City Elementary School parking lot, then followed them onto Riley Parkway, Flat Creek Trail and then west on Ga. Highway 54, keeping 911 operators notified of the getaway car’s location.

Once the getaway car reached the bridge on Ga. Highway 54 West, police surrounded it and arrested Boynton and his nephew, Scott Neal Boynton.

Peachtree City police Lt. Mark Brown testified that a search of the vehicle revealed about $7,000 in cash in a black trash bag, a sawed-off shotgun and a camouflage jacket. Brown identified Calvin Boynton as the man who was in the passenger seat of the getaway car when the Boyntons were arrested.

During her testimony Hardnett said she went by the scene where the Boyntons were arrested and confirmed for police that their car was the one she had followed from the bank following the robbery.