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Convicted armed robber sentenced to 5 life terms

ATLANTA — A judge sentenced a man to spend the rest of his life in prison for five robberies he committed in one night in downtown Atlanta.

Dennis Stallings, 23, was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences, plus 25 years in prison following his conviction by jury trial.

The string of robberies began at about 3 a.m. on Feb. 14, and lasted nearly two hours. Stallings and as many as three other unidentified men targeted unsuspecting pedestrians on Avon Avenue and Metropolitan Parkway in southwest Atlanta and pedestrians in the 10th Street and 12th Street areas in Midtown.

The crew drove around in a red sedan in search of victims. Once they spotted a target, the men would rush from the vehicle and ambush the victim at gunpoint.

The gunmen committed a total of five separate robberies and made off with a variety of personal belongings from wallets and purses to electronics.

A tracking device on one victim’s phone led police straight to the defendant. He was sitting in the getaway vehicle in a store parking lot in southwest Atlanta.

Police recovered several stolen items from the vehicle and discovered ID and bank cards from each of the robbery victims in the defendant’s pockets.

Stallings was arrested on the spot.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kelly Amanda Lee levied a maximum life sentence for each of the armed robbery counts against Stallings and a maximum 25 years on the other counts against him.

Stallings has several prior felony convictions, including one for burglary and aggravated battery.  During that arrest, Stallings fought with police and broke the police officer’s arm. Because he was a convicted felon, Stallings is ineligible for parole.