Man sentenced to 7 years in prison in 2013 shooting

While on bond and awaiting trial last April, Frank Fletcher Jr. was shot in the head as he sat on the porch of a house on Macon’s Walker Avenue.

Monday, Fletcher, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault stemming from a 2013 shooting that injured seven people.

“He’s lucky to be standing before you today,” Sandra Matson, a Bibb County prosecutor told the judge. “If he doesn’t learn from being shot in the head and going back to prison ... I don’t know what’s going to stop this.”

The Feb. 24, 2013, shooting at an alleged Crips gang hangout in the 2800 block of Mercer University Drive occurred about three months after Fletcher was released from prison.

Bibb County Superior Court records show Fletcher was sentenced to prison in 2002 on an armed robbery charge.

Matson said Fletcher and his brother were at the “shot house” or “party house” when an argument began. A woman intervened, and a fight ensued.

When the bullets started flying, eight people were injured, according to an indictment in the case that also charges Fletcher’s brother, 28-year-old Adrian Fletcher. His case is still pending in Bibb County Superior Court.

In issuing the sentence, Judge Howard Simms told Frank Fletcher, “This kind of stuff is going to get you dead.”

Fletcher, who also pleaded guilty to violating his probation, must serve seven years in prison followed by eight years on probation.

Matson described the shooting as “friendly fire” among alleged members of the Crips gang.

Floyd Buford, Frank Fletcher’s lawyer, said it was dark and chaotic inside the house when shots rang out.

The judge asked Buford if Fletcher knew who shot him more than a year after the incident.

Buford replied, “We have our theories,” but said Fletcher doesn’t know for sure.

This story was originally published February 9, 2015 at 3:58 PM with the headline "Man sentenced to 7 years in prison in 2013 shooting ."