A Senoia man has been convicted for the armed robbery of the United Community Bank off Wisdom Road in Peachtree City May 1
Calvin Obie Boynton, 45, of Senoia, was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison by Superior Court Judge Paschal A. English Jr.

During testimony Monday, bank manager Jennifer Winkles explained how she first reacted to the sight of the masked, armed man in her bank demanding money.

“I initially froze because I thought it was a joke,” Winkles said.

Boynton’s getaway car was followed from the scene by an alert good samaritan, ultimately leading to the arrest of Boynton and the getaway driver.

Winkles testified that the gunman didn’t point the sawed off shotgun at anyone, but he threatened to kill her if she did not put money in his bag. Winkles told the jury that she put about $7,000 in the bag before the gunman exited the bank.

The gunman wore a black ski mask so Winkles couldn’t identify him in court. Prosecutors established Boynton’s identity via the samaritan who followed the getaway car and positively identified the car police stopped as the one which she had followed from the bank.

Police Lt. Mark Brown identified Boynton as the man pulled from the getaway car’s passenger seat. The car was driven by Scott Neal Boynton, 22, Calvin Boynton’s nephew, who has already entered a guilty plea relating to the case.

The samaritan who followed the getaway car was home health nurse Octavia Hardnett. She testified Monday that she was about to pump gas at the Shell station next to the bank when the robbery occurred.

Hardnett 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, 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.

“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, followed the getaway car from the apartments onto Riley Parkway, Flat Creek Trail and then west on Ga. Highway 54, keeping 911 operators notified of the getaway car’s location.

The getaway car was stopped by police at the bridge on Ga. Highway 54 West.
Brown identified Calvin Boynton as the man who was in the passenger seat of the getaway car when the Boyntons were arrested.

Underneath that seat were about $7,000 in cash in a black trash bag, a sawed-off shotgun and a camouflage jacket, Brown said.