This repeat criminal had been to prison five times. A sixth trip hung in the balance

Roland L. Ray was in trouble again, and now his fate was in the hands of a jury.

At age 59, Ray had been in and out of state prison five times since he was 19. His past crimes, which include selling cocaine, stealing, armed robbery and a stabbing, have never made a splash in the local news.

Even so, Ray is known to the police in parts of Middle Georgia, including Houston County where records show he has been locked up 17 times since 1990.

His latest brush with the law came on an April night in Macon two years ago.

A woman he knew was talking to another man, a parolee in his early 50s who himself had been in and out of prison seven times. Ray confronted the man who had been talking to his lady friend, and Ray was later arrested, charged with punching the guy with a pistol and firing shots as the man sped away in a car.

Prosecutors would contend that Ray, in phone calls from jail, tried to persuade others who had seen what happened that night to keep their mouths shut. So Ray was charged not only with aggravated assault for the alleged punching and shooting but also with trying to influence witnesses.

On Wednesday toward the end of his two-day trial in Bibb County Superior Court, some of Ray’s jailhouse calls, which had been recorded, were played for jurors. Soon after that, the state rested its case. Ray chose not to take the stand. His lawyer didn’t call any witnesses, and before long jurors filed out to deliberate.

Seated at the defense table, Ray, who faced more than 60 years in prison if convicted of all charges, turned in his chair. He had on dark trousers and a green plaid shirt that he had half tucked in that morning.

In a unusual and feeble effort to gauge his chance of beating the rap, Ray then tried to make small talk with the young prosecutor who had just urged the jury to send Ray away.

What do you think, Ray asked, apparently hoping to get a read on what the verdict might be and whether a sixth trip to prison for him was in the offing, “Am I gonna sleep good tonight?”

“I don’t know, sir,” the prosecutor replied.

‘It’s really sad’

The predicament Ray found himself in as a repeat offender is not uncommon. About a third of the Georgia convicts set free each year find themselves in trouble again within a few years.

Reducing the number of recidivists — released inmates who are accused of new felonies within three years of exiting prison — has become a focal point of reform in Georgia.

The recidivism rate here has hovered at or near 30 percent for much of the past quarter-century, according to a report earlier this year by the Georgia Council on Criminal Justice Reform. Levels peaked at about 40 percent around 1990.

In 2015, as part of a $60 million-plus effort, Georgia began more closely tracking and monitoring former inmates as they returned to society. The effort includes a push for more accountability courts for drug and DUI offenders and others, better assessments of probationers and their risk of re-offending, enhancing substance abuse programs and improving access to jobs for ex-cons.

Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese said he wishes he knew how to curtail recidivism. He said for some repeat offenders, breaking the law just “becomes a way of life. They don’t know anything else. … It’s really sad.”

Deese recalled one time when a grandfather, a father and a son were all locked up in his jail together. On occasion, the sheriff said, he tells regulars, “We’re gonna put a mailbox out front because you stay here more than I do.”

He added, “They just laugh and always say, ‘This is my last time in here.’”

‘Same old crowd’

In February’s report on the justice reform program, officials noted that while results won’t be known until later this year, “early indications show that numbers are trending in the right direction.”

On a recent afternoon, though, there didn’t seem to be much of an impact being made at the Bibb County jail. While the jail is not part of the state prison system, most of its inmates that day were regulars.

Eighty-four percent of the 880 men and women incarcerated had been locked up there before. That percentage, according to the sheriff who oversees the lockup, doesn’t fluctuate much.

“It’s the same old crowd,” Sheriff David Davis said of the alleged burglars, gangsters, thieves, robbers and drug peddlers housed there. “It’s almost like a career. Folks decide that’s what line of work they want to get into.”

Ray is no stranger to Davis’ jail either. Ray, who has been held at the Bibb jail since his arrest in spring of 2016, has been an inmate there 18 other times since 1991.

He has been in state prisons for about 13 years all told since 1977.

Wednesday afternoon, as jurors deliberated in his latest case, Ray stood to go away for much longer than that.

After about an hour, there was a verdict.

Ray, who is 6 feet tall and weighs about 280 pounds, stood up. Reading glasses dangled from his shirt pocket. He clasped his hands behind his back. The judge broke the news.

Ray was guilty, convicted of aggravated assault, influencing witnesses and other charges. He looked toward the ceiling and shook his head. When he sat down, he sighed, hung his head, shook it and kept on shaking it.

Before he was led back to jail, he gave a farewell wave to his twin sister who had been sitting in the gallery behind him.

Ray will not be sentenced for a couple of weeks. He will probably be well into his 70s, if not older, before he gets out of prison again.

This story was originally published June 15, 2018 at 4:48 PM with the headline "This repeat criminal had been to prison five times. A sixth trip hung in the balance."