Man pleads guilty to assault of woman on Wellston Trail in Warner Robins

A 38-year-old Warner Robins man pleaded guilty Wednesday to assaulting a woman on Wellston Trail in Warner Robins last fall.

Robert William Lathrop was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Houston County Superior Court. He was sentenced immediately after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in the Sept. 13 incident last year on the popular walking trail that stretches from Corder Road to Fountain Park off Kimberly Road.

Judge George Nunn included a request for a mental health evaluation and treatment as part of Lathrop’s sentence.

The other indicted charge against Lathrop of attempted rape was dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

The woman was walking along a wooded area of the trail with her 2-year-old child shortly after 5 p.m. that Sunday when Lathrop tried to engage her in conversation and attacked her.

They wrestled to the ground. She fought him off, scratching his arm, and he fled. She suffered minor injuries.

Two boys, ages 10 and 15, were riding their bicycles in Fountain Park and heard the woman’s screams for help. The boys started pedaling toward her. They saw a man, who was later identified as Lathrop, running from the area, Assistant District Attorney Clif Woody said.

Lathrop also approached another woman in a similar manner about an hour before the attack, Woody said.

In court, a victim’s advocate read a statement from the woman who was assaulted.

“The violent encounter I experienced at the hands of Robert Lathrop has forever changed my life … The long lasting mental and emotional scars are as real today as they were the day of the incident.”

She asked in the statement for Lathrop to be enrolled in an “extensive mental health program.”

Lathrop was handcuffed and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. He often hung his head as he stood before the judge.

“Since he was arrested, he always told me that he made a very terrible mistake and once his mind came clear, he ran because he knew he did something wrong,” Carolyn Moses, an assistant public defender, told the judge.

Lathrop thinks that “perhaps going to (prison) for an extended period of time” would benefit him, Moses said. The mental health care and medication provided by the state Department of Corrections to inmates may benefit him, she said.

Lathrop “tends to have these type of behavior outbreaks,” she said.

“To me, it’s like he’s almost in a trance, because he says he doesn’t know why he does it,” she told the judge.

After Warner Robins police released to the media a description of the suspect, later identified as Lathrop, his brother-in-law recognized him and called police. Lathrop turned himself in.

When questioned, Lathrop told police he was “the perpetrator” and a registered sexual offender. He also said he was “scared because he scared a girl,” Woody said.

Lathrop had a 1996 conviction for public indecency, which had been reduced from an original charge of child molestation, Woody said. Lathrop also had a 2006 conviction for failure to register as a sex offender from the 1996 conviction.

Lathrop was on parole for a 2006 conviction for child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes when he was charged with the assault on Wellston Trail, Woody said.

Based on parole guidelines and Lathrop’s criminal history, he is expected to serve a “substantial” amount of his 20-year sentence, Woody said.

This story was originally published May 25, 2016 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Man pleads guilty to assault of woman on Wellston Trail in Warner Robins."