UPDATE: Arnold gets 20 years in prison; getaway driver found not guilty of burglary

The scream was more blood-curdling than one could imagine.

Jessica Sullivan, 18, was already on edge after an unknown black man banged on her front door Feb. 5 for a minute or two. Seconds before, she had seen him peer into the windows of her family’s home on Redwine Road.

Home alone, she called 911.

In court Monday, Sullivan testified that she screamed after two men kicked the door open between the garage and the kitchen. She dashed to a bedroom where she hid in a closet.

Sullivan’s reaction was replayed for the jury Monday as part of a 10-minute recording of Sullivan’s call to 911.

Rashad Terrez Arnold, 22, of Pecan Drive, Griffin, and Tray Antonio Harris, 23, of N. 9th Street, Griffin, who were arrested minutes after the burglary, were on trial this week for burglarizing the Sullivan home.

Neither of the men attacked Sullivan nor contacted her, and she told the jury she couldn’t see either of the men’s faces. But sheriff’s deputies stopped a car on Redwine Road minutes after the burglary that matched the description of the car Sullivan had seen in her driveway, officials testified.

One of the suspects was also tied to the crime scene via a boot mark left on the door between the garage and the house. Sheriff’s Detective Aaron Fenimore said he had deputies collect both suspects’ shoes, and it was clear to his naked eye that the shoe mark on the door matched the boots that Arnold was wearing when he was arrested.

Fenimore said the boot and the mark on the door were not submitted to a crime lab for analysis.

Deputy Renee McCollum testified that she stopped the silver-colored car on Redwine because it matched the description of the burglary getaway vehicle. The driver, later identified as Arnold, ran from the car into the nearby woods, McCollum said. The passenger, Harris, remained behind and followed her instructions until he could be handcuffed, she said.

The testimony came Monday during the burglary trial of Arnold and Harris.

Another sheriff’s deputy, Phil McElwaney, testified that he and partner Keith Whiteside minutes later spotted Arnold, shirtless, standing in a driveway in the nearby Newhaven subdivision, where he was taken into custody without incident.

McElwaney testified that another deputy found a white T-shirt disposed of in the woods while searching for Arnold. Sullivan had told a 911 operator that one of the suspects was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans with a hat, though the hat was apparently never found.

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