Cynthia Poole was stocking shelves with shampoo, soap and deodorant at Family Dollar on Houston Avenue on April 12 when a masked gunman entered the store.
She squatted down and heard cans drop.
Then she heard her manager say, “Stay calm. I will give you the money,” Poole testified Tuesday in Bibb County Superior Court.
Soon after, she saw her manager, 38-year-old Gary Bennett Cole Jr., walk up the aisle toward the cash registers and safe and heard a gunshot. After Cole collapsed, the gunman turned the pistol toward Poole and demanded that she open the safe, she said.
Because only managers knew the safe’s combination, she wasn’t able to give the gunman any money and he left, Poole testified.
Cole, an assistant manager at the store, died behind the counter, said Greg Winters, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney.
Testimony began Tuesday in the trial for 20-year-old Antonio Browner of Macon, the man accused of fatally shooting Cole.
Browner is charged with murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and two counts of aggravated assault in connection with the botched robbery and Cole’s death.
He additionally is charged with criminal attempt to hijack a motor vehicle, armed robbery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime stemming from a separate April 12 incident on Forsyth Road.
Browner’s attorney, Bobby Bearden, contends that Browner was coerced at gunpoint into participating in the incidents at both the Family Dollar store on Houston Avenue and on Forsyth Road by 25-year-old Quartez Dorez Carter of Macon.
“He never intended to shoot this person,” Bearden said during his opening statement to the jury.
He said Carter gave Browner the gun used at the Family Dollar, and it was an older pistol with a “hair trigger.”
Carter and Browner’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Ron’esha Mikwameia Smith of Barnesville, are charged in both crimes. Cases against them still are pending.
Browner was taken into custody in a traffic stop near Griffin after police used surveillance footage from the Family Dollar store and the Bibb County Courthouse to help identify him as the alleged shooter.
A Macon police officer testified Tuesday that he noticed a man wearing red pajama pants with the cartoon character Stewie from the TV show “Family Guy” while he waited for an elevator inside the Bibb County Courthouse on the morning of the shooting.
“It was strange to me to see somebody coming to court in pajama pants with cartoon characters and a white shirt,” he said.
The officer said he saw footage from the fatal shooting the following morning in news reports and recognized the gunman’s clothing.
Bearden requested Tuesday that the court agree that Smith be allowed to testify about the alleged coercion in exchange for a promise that the prosecution wouldn’t use her testimony against her at her trial. The judge denied Bearden’s request.
Smith later took the witness stand and invoked her right not to testify to prevent incriminating herself.
Police have said that Browner, who also has a Barnesville address, confessed to killing Cole and linked Carter and Smith to the shooting.
Carter was the lookout while Smith, Browner’s girlfriend, drove the getaway car, Macon police have said.
Police have said Carter confessed that he served as lookout.
Evidence from the Forsyth Road carjacking attempt was found in Smith’s vehicle when she was arrested, police said. Browner and Smith have confessed to participating in the robbery, according to police.
The case is scheduled to continue Wednesday.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.
