Suspect jailed, released 3 weeks before deadly robbery

VILLA RICA, Ga. — One of the suspects in a deadly Villa Rica jewelry store robbery was jailed just weeks before the incident, but the Fulton County District Attorney's Office dropped the charges.

Now, the District Attorney's office is looking into why it declined to prosecute.

Mitch Mobley, 50, was gunned down as he tried to protect employees and his son at Mobley Jewelry on Wednesday. Raphael Rucker, 23, is one of four people charged in the killing.

Just weeks before, Rucker was behind bars on felony gun and drug charges. On June 5, Atlanta police narcotics investigators went to his home on Drummond Street during a drug investigation. Police said people in the home blocked the door, and it took officers more than 70 hits with an entry ram to get in. They said Rucker and seven others were inside with hundreds of dollars in cash, three guns and almost a pound of marijuana.

"The prosecutor didn't have enough evidence to accuse him for what he did," said one of Rucker's friends, who asked not to be named. 

A representative with the District Attorney's office said in an email that officials are still investigating the situation.

"We are still in the process of researching the status of this case  … (We) will follow up with additional information as it becomes available," the representative said.

Rucker's friends wish he was still in jail for the gun and drug charges, instead of facing robbery and murder charges.

"We would have hoped the charges here would have stuck rather than what he got into," said one of Rucker's friends.

One of Mobley's customers, Alesia Pointer, wants to know why Rucker wasn't prosecuted but also said that it won't change any of the events.

"There's just so much meanness and hatred in the world today, and it took a man from his family, from his wife, from his children," Pointer told Channel 2's Amy Napier Viteri.

Rucker, along with two other suspects, Gregory Clifton and a 16-year-old, are being held at the Carroll County Jail. Police are still on the lookout for the fourth person involved.

WSBTV