Georgia couple sentenced to prison for two-week metro Atlanta crime spree
ATLANTA - A Georgia couple has been sentenced to multiple years in federal prison for a two-week crime spree involving a bank robbery and carjacking in metro Atlanta.
Authorities say 30-year-old Quantavious Cedron Arnold and 31-year-old Ericka Brewster put innocent civilians at risk through multiple crimes in Atlanta and DeKalb County.
According to information provided in court, on Nov. 12, 2019, Arnold and two other people carjacked a victim at gunpoint outside a southwest Atlanta convenience store.
Two days later, officials say Arnold drove himself and his girlfriend Brewster in the stolen car to a bank in DeKalb County. At the bank, officials say Arnold threatened to kill people unless the bank teller gave the couple thousands of dollars in cash. After getting the money, the couple fled in the car, which they later abandoned.
Atlanta officers found Arnold a week later in a wooded area down the block from where the carjacking happened. When he was arrested, officers found the gun used in the bank robbery, crack cocaine, and a digital scale on his person.
FBI agents arrested Brewster a short time later.
"Both Arnold and Brewster have extensive violent criminal histories, and once again put innocent civilians at risk during the span of their two-week crime spree," said Keri Farley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. "The sentence demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to work with our local law enforcement partners to convict these repeat offenders at the federal level, where they face stiffer penalties and no opportunity for parole."
Officials say both Arnold and Brewster are convicted felons with extensive criminal histories ranging from burglary, violent crimes, and theft. Both were on probation during the bank robbery - with Arnold's probation sentenced less than four months before his arrest.
In 2020, Brewster pled guilty to one count of armed robbery. Arnold was convicted by a jury in January 2022 of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He had already pled guilty to carjacking, armed bank robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and two counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence
Arnold was sentenced to 25 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay over $8,000 in restitution. Brewster was sensed to four and a half years of imprisonment followed by five years of supervised released and must pay the same amount in restitution.