Judge orders Macon gas mart to pay fines and reduce hours. But can it stay open?

A Bibb County Superior Court judge ordered M&M Grocery, a convenience store on Montpelier Avenue accused of enabling community violence, to pay $5,000 in fines and reduce its hours but let the store remain open after a hearing last month, court documents show.

The judicial order, issued June 28 by Judge David Mincey, said that “all evidence suggests that M&M Grocery is located in a high crime area,” and says the store must operate only from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Mincey had issued an order in October forcing the store to close earlier. Law enforcement learned the store was open after the curfew of 11 p.m. sometime in February of this year, according to court documents.

They filed for M&M to be closed again June 13, and at the June 22 hearing Mincey ordered the store to close at 8 p.m. each night until his judicial order was complete.

The store was ordered to pay fines because management violated the initial order by staying open past 11 p.m. and allowing customers to loiter, including one specific instance of a person later identified as a felon staying on the property for more than 12 hours, Mincey’s order read.

The order comes after a public hearing that featured direct and cross-examination of a county witness who was an expert on the store and its link to crime.

The hearing

The county, represented at the hearing by former Bibb DA David Cooke, filed a motion to close the gas station store June 13 after learning the store had violated a previous order stipulating its hours of operation and that crime in the store’s area had increased.

M&M representative Brian Jarrard argued at the hearing that the store was not responsible for policing people or monitoring areas around the store, citing the fact that the sheriff’s office did not respond to many crimes. He also argued the fact that while crime went down during the period when the store was closed, this could have been because of the weather.

The county showed evidence of multiple incidents with gunshots and violence including surveillance camera footage, 911 calls and ShotSpotter reports. Multiple crimes were not reported to 911, and the ones that were reported were called in by customers of the store.

“Based on the years of how they’ve operated… for over 10 years, this store has been where you went if you wanted to sell dope or buy dope, or participate in gang activity,” Cooke said near the end of the June 22 hearing. “It doesn’t matter what season it is, it’s open season on whoever sets foot on that property.”

Past incidents at the store include multiple shootings, including a man shot in the head in 2017. Nearly 900 emergency calls have been made from the convenience store since 2016, according to the county.

Mincey’s order concluded that the store owners had been in “willful contempt” of the October order, referencing the county’s evidence that the owners failed to call 911 on multiple occasions to report crime.

The order concluded with Mincey reminding the store owners of their future court dates and their obligations to call 911 regarding crime at the store.