The News: A Montezuma man was sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years on Friday after he pleaded guilty to murder and a string of charges relating to a January 2018 Macon crime spree.
Quentin James Sanders, 42, won’t be eligible for parole for at least 50 years.
Sanders pleaded guilty to malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault in the Jan. 8, fatal shooting of 49-year-old Ida Mae Ford.
He also pleaded guilty to armed robbery and kidnapping in the Jan. 10 robbery of a man in a Tattnall Square Park restroom.
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In a third incident, Sanders pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated assault stemming from him firing shots at four college students at Mercer Village on Jan. 10.
He also pleaded guilty to hijacking a motor vehicle and armed robbery in connection with a Jan. 12 carjacking on Coleman Hill near downtown Macon.
The Story: According to prosecutors, Bibb County deputies were dispatched on Jan. 8, to the intersection of Madden Avenue and Winship Street where they found Ford had been fatally shot.
Two days later, prosecutors say a man slipped underneath a bathroom stall at Tattnall Square Park at about noon and demanded money at gunpoint from a 19-year-old man. The victim told authorities that the gunman used his shoelaces, belt and string from his hooded shirt to tie him up while he was robbed.
That same day, surveillance video captured images of a man firing gunshots at four Mercer University students as they walked home through Mercer Village.
Then on Jan. 12, prosecutors say a gunman approached a woman at Coleman Hill just before 6 p.m. and demanded money. He grabbed her keys and cell phone before driving off in her minivan. The van was recovered more than a week later in Macon County where Sanders was arrested.
While in custody in Macon County, Sanders confessed to killing Ford, the Tattnall Square Park restroom robbery, the Mercer Village shooting and the carjacking.
Speaking after the hearing, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney David Cooke said, “Calling a person a one-man crime wave is an overused phrase, but it fits Mr. Sanders to a T. Speaking not just as the DA but as a father of a Mercer student and citizen of this community, I am grateful that we have taken Mr. Sanders off our streets for the rest of his life. My prayers remain with the family of Ms. Ford, and all of the victims that suffered at Mr. Sanders’ hands.”
Charges against Sanders in the Southwestern Judicial Circuit still are pending.
