Repeat Offender Gets Life in Cobb Waffle House robbery

Patch Staff Report

According to Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds, an Austell man will spend the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of an armed robbery at a Waffle House in Mableton.

A Cobb County jury convicted Charles Bernard Anderson, 39, in the Oct. 28, 2012, armed robbery of the Waffle House at 7350 Six Flags Drive.

Evidence at trial showed that Anderson pointed a handgun at the cashier during the noontime robbery while one accomplice watched the door and another waited in a getaway vehicle.

“Mr. Anderson is a violent and dangerous man. When given the opportunity to accept responsibility for his actions by taking a plea, he refused. He will now spend the rest of his life in prison, where he will no longer be a threat to society,” said Assistant District Attorney Courtney Mays, who prosecuted the case, in a news release.

Jurors deliberated just over an hour on Thursday afternoon before returning the guilty verdict – which is Anderson’s fourth felony conviction. He has prior convictions for armed robbery, burglary, and drugs and firearms offenses.

State Court Judge Henry Thompson, sitting as a Superior Court judge, then sentenced Anderson as a recidivist to the required life in prison without parole.

“People like you have always been with us,” Judge Thompson told Anderson. “People who would rather steal than work. … It’s because of people like you that we have laws … and prisons. That’s where the law says you have to go now. The sentence is life without the possibility of parole.”

Anderson has been in custody at Cobb Jail since Oct. 29, 2012.

One codefendant in the case, Kenneth Andre Eason, was convicted of armed robbery last fall and sentenced to life in prison. The third codefendant, Shantel Monique Washington, is awaiting trial.