Macon men plead guilty to string of dollar store, Waffle House armed robberies
Two young men accused in a string of gang-related armed robberies at five Macon dollar stores three years ago pleaded guilty Monday in Bibb County Superior Court.
The stickups included an October 2018 holdup at a Waffle House on Chambers Road, which netted the young bandits about $300 and a cellphone.
Other heists, which prosecutors said were tied to membership in the Gangster Disciples and Mafia gangs, involved stickups at three area Family Dollar stores and two Dollar Generals between Sept. 23 and Nov. 17 of 2018.
In court on Monday, 18-year-old Deshannon Callaway pleaded guilty to his role in the Waffle House holdup and to violating the state’s street gang act. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and five more on probation.
Soon after the Waffle House robbery, the cops tracked Callaway, who was 15 at the time, to a nearby Days Inn motel, where prosecutor John Regan said Callaway was found in a room with cash “spread all over the bed.”
While sentencing Callaway, a dismayed Judge Howard Z. Simms spoke of the spoils of Callaway’s diner heist: “Three-hundred dollars and a cellphone. Son, there isn’t any way that $300 is a fair trade for seven years of your life. You ought to be worrying about passing your driver’s test and who you’re gonna take to the prom. ... But you’re going to prison.”
Referring to Callaway’s gang participation, the judge described the group’s endeavors as “maximally stupid.”
“The more of this I see — and I see a lot of it — the more it breaks my heart,” Simms said. “You’re a 15-year-old kid and you may have thought you were all grown up, but you weren’t. You’re a 15-year-old kid.”
Another participant in the stickup spree, Tiquan Jamir Spivey, 23, pleaded guilty on Monday to racketeering and gang charges. He must serve 15 years behind bars and then serve five years on probation.
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 3:39 PM.