A Dunwoody man has been given a 15-year sentence, with seven years to serve in prison, after pleading guilty this week to aggravated stalking and other charges stemming from an incident last May at a home in Indian Hills.
The Cobb District Attorney’s Office Friday said that Cobb Superior Court Judge Jason Marbut handed down the sentence to Anthony Merriwether, 66, after a negotiated plea on a number of felony counts.
Those included discharge of a gun near highway or street, reckless conduct, criminal damage to property in the first and second degrees, possession of cocaine, possession of firearm during commission of a felony, terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit theft by extortion, and possession of firearm by a convicted felon.
Merriwether was to have gone on trial this week, according to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s Office records.
Prosecutors said Merriwether was an ex-boyfriend of the victim’s deceased sister, and they had been in a dispute over the latter’s estate.
In a news release Friday, the DA’s office said that Cobb Police were called to the scene of a home on May 6, 2022, by a woman who reported an armed man in her front yard.
Prosecutors said that a window and interior walls of the home had been shattered by bullets, and that a man was shown on a Ring video camera driving to the home, stepping out of the car and making verbal threats for money.
According to an arrest warrant, the camera footage showed Merriwether pulling up in the driveway in a Porsche and he was in possession of two guns at the home on Indian Hills Parkway.
The victim was home at the time of the incident, the warrant said.
Merriwether had been given a portion of his former girlfriend’s estate, according to prosecutors, who said he believed he was entitled to the entire estate.
According to the release, Merriwether was arrested at a traffic stop on Johnson Ferry Road near Columns Drive shortly after the incident and was was found with two firearms and cocaine in his vehicle.
After his release, however, according to the DA’s office, Merriwether continued to contact the victim, despite a “no-contact” provision of his bond.
Another warrant taken out on Nov. 14 states that Merriwether used his deceased girlfriend’s e-mail address between Oct. 24 and Oct. 26 to send several messages “which contained threats of death, violence and intimidating statements” toward the same victim.
On Nov. 17, Merriwether was arrested on the aggravated stalking charge for violating bond conditions, and he has been detained ever since at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
He was denied bond in December after a probable cause hearing, according to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s office records.
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