Macon man pleads guilty to robbing downtown bar patron at gunpoint

Willie Mitchell Jr. had been out of prison nearly eight months when he robbed a bar patron at gunpoint in a downtown Macon alley Feb. 24.

Mitchell had been sentenced to 20 years in 2005, 10 of them in prison for shooting a man in the face.

But on that night this February, he again had a gun pointed at a man’s head.

Mitchell, 32, pleaded guilty Monday to armed robbery and was sentenced to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Bibb County District Attorney’s Office.

A judge also revoked Mitchell’s probation. He was still on probation in relation to the 2005 sentencing at the time of the robbery this winter, said Chief Assistant District Attorney Nancy Scott Malcor.

With his probation revoked, Mitchell will serve the remaining nine years on the 2005 sentence in prison while he serves the armed robbery sentence.

A 26-year-old man was leaving Grant’s Lounge and heading to The Hummingbird Stage and Taproom Feb. 24 when he encountered two men in the Third Street Lane alley at Cherry Street, Malcor said.

One of the men -- later identified as Mitchell -- pointed a gun at the bar patron’s head and told him to “come out of his pockets,” Malcor said.

After finding that the bar patron didn’t have any money, the men took his phone, she said.

The bar patron ran to The Hummingbird and reported the robbery to police, who soon spotted two men running who fit the description of the assailants, Malcor said.

Only one of the men was captured -- Mitchell, who had the stolen phone. A gun was found nearby, she said.

In the 2005 sentencing, Mitchell pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter in the death of 18-year-old Brian Billingslea, according to Bibb County Superior Court records.

A witness told authorities he took Mitchell to Billingslea’s house on Mutual Avenue July 7, 2004, Malcor said.

While there, Mitchell asked to see his uncle and Billingslea refused to wake him. The men argued and Mitchell retrieved a gun from the car he’d arrived in and shot Billingslea in the face, she said.

Mitchell pulled the trigger several times, but due to a gun malfunction, only one shot was fired, Malcor said.

Billingslea died two days later at a local hospital.

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398 or find her on Twitter@awomackmacon.

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Macon man pleads guilty to robbing downtown bar patron at gunpoint ."