Police: Second suspect in deadly wine bar robbery already in jail
ATLANTA - Police named the second man they believe was involved in the deadly northwest Atlanta wine bar robbery. Officer said he had turned himself last month in on another, chillingly similar crime in DeKalb County.
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Carlous Bailey, 20, of Lithonia, was charged with murder and armed robbery. Police said he was already booked into the DeKalb County Jail on unrelated charges and remained there as of Friday afternoon without bond.
His charges come less than a month after the arrest of Samuel Ott, 21, who was charged with felony murder, assault, kidnapping, and false imprisonment in connection to the same crime, according to police.
Police have been on the hunt for the men since investigators said they stormed into the Barcelona Wine Bar during the early morning of Nov. 19, as employees were closing for the night. Surveillance video showed the men running into the patio area entrance, pulling a man who dived to the ground as they approached inside with them. The men, dressed in black hoodies, were seen on the video near the dishwashing station binding the hands of employees with electrical tape.
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Investigators then said the men force the manager, 29-year-old Chelsea Beller, into the upstairs office, where they forced her to open the safe before they mercilessly shot her. Beller was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, but later died.
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Police said the men then fled the scene, but not before one of the men, later identified as Samuel Ott, cut himself on a razor fence. Investigators said they then carjacked a Lyft driver at a nearby Yeah! Burger. From there, police said the men got nervous a few blocks away after a Georgia Tech officer made a U-turn to perform a traffic stop. The men drove down a side street from the main road, parked the car and discarded a sweatshirt, masks, and latex gloves. Investigators said they were later able to pull DNA evidence connecting Ott to the violent crime.
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Meanwhile, investigators with the Atlanta Police Department have not yet released how they were able to connect Bailey to Beller’s murder. Bailey has been in the DeKalb County Jail since Dec. 11 when he turned himself in for an outstanding warrant on an eerily similar crime, but in this case, no one was seriously injured.
RELATED: Five people held up, tied up at Decatur restaurant
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Just before midnight on May 25, as employees at the Pinewood were closing up for the night, an employee was approached at the backdoor by a man wearing a black mask and hooded sweatshirt. Decatur Police said that man pointed a gun at the woman's head, forced her to back inside, put her on her knees and at gunpoint asked her where the money was kept and who was left in the restaurant. He was joined by a second armed man, similarly dressed. Investigators said the woman was then dragged into the break room where she was bound with zip ties, according to the police report.
Meanwhile, the second man, according to police, scouted the restaurant, rounding up the remaining five employees, and binding them as well. The two men then proceeded to rob the employees of bags, phones, and cash. The employees were able to free themselves after the men fled the scene.
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Investigators were later able to determine that one of the suspects was a former employee, identified as Carlous Bailey. Police quickly released his mug shot from a previous burglary arrest in 2015 to put pressure on Bailey to turn himself in to authorities. He eventually did in mid-December, but not before Atlanta Police said he and Ott teamed up with at least one other man on the Barcelona robbery.
Now, police are hoping to raise the pressure on the third man seen in the surveillance video robbing the wine bar. The reward, which has been steadily growing, was once again injected with $2,000 more, raising it to up to $40,000 for the capture of that man.
Anyone with information on the crime is asked to call Atlanta Crime Stoppers at 404-577-TIPS (8477).