The Coffee County District Attorney’s Office earned a second victory this week after jurors returned guilty verdicts in a 2014 case involving a man who was already serving a parole sentence at the time for kidnapping and aggravated assault.
A Coffee County jury on Thursday returned guilty verdicts against Hubert Coates on four counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of marijuana, less than one ounce.
The trial, which began Thursday morning, showed that in May of 2014, officers with the Douglas-Coffee Drug Unit executed a search warrant at Coates’ residence and uncovered four firearms and four bags of marijuana (weighing less than one ounce in total). At the time, Coates was on parole for a 1990 case involving kidnapping and aggravated assault charges.
Judge Kelly Brooks, who presided over the case, sentenced Coates to maximum consecutive terms, totaling 20 years, the first 13 of which he was sentenced to serve in prison. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Eric Logan.
Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney George Barnhill thanked Sheriff Doyle Wooten, Chief Gary Casteloes, Investigator Michael Vickers, officers with the Douglas-Coffee Drug Unit, and all other officers who assisted in the investigation and prosecution of the case.
Hubert Coates
Photo courtesy, Ga. Dept. of Corrections