Marietta armed robber gets 35 years
Jan. 7—A Marietta man who held a loaded pistol to employees' heads during a string of armed robberies at retail stores in 2016 has been sentenced to 35 years in prison, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Tyvonne Wiley, 25, was convicted by a jury last year of conspiracy to commit robbery, five counts of robbery, and five counts of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence. He was sentenced Wednesday.
Wiley did not act alone, according to prosecutors.
Oklahoma's Tevin Mitchell, 27, accompanied Wiley during some of the robberies, and was sentenced in 2020 to 11 years in prison. Another Marietta man, 28-year-old Torey Starling, served as the getaway driver and was sentenced last year to six years in prison.
"Innocent store clerks and customers were terrorized and lives were endangered by Wiley, Mitchell, and Starling during these armed robberies," U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine, of the Northern District of Georgia, said in a statement announcing Wiley's sentencing.
In September and October 2016, Wiley and his accomplices robbed stores in Oklahoma and Texas before turning their sights to Georgia. In metro Atlanta, they robbed five stores, at least one of which was in Cobb County.
Wiley — and, sometimes, Mitchell — "charged into retail stores with a loaded gun, ordered everyone to lie flat on the ground, and forced the store clerks to empty the registers into a bag while holding a gun to their heads. During the robberies, Wiley would point a gun at employees and "threaten to shoot and kill multiple people."
The trio were found in October 2016 at Starling's house in Marietta, where investigators found two guns, two masks used during multiple robberies and some of the stolen cash.
Several law enforcement agencies investigated the robberies: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Cobb County Police Department; the Marietta Police Department; the Atlanta Police Department; the Sandy Springs Police Department; and the Dallas, Texas Police Department.
Wiley's sentence includes five years of supervised release and an order that he pay $13,330.29 in restitution to the businesses he robbed. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Leigh M. May.
