Repeat Smash-and-Grab Offender Convicted Again

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Douglas County prosecutors used video, cell phone triangulation and DNA evidence to convict a man accused of burglarizing two local businesses last year.

A jury found Tremayne Nations guilty of smash and grab robbery and commercial robbery in crimes reported Jan. 20, 2014 at the Ace Hardward on Lee Road, and Able Tool Rental on Fairburn Road, according to a Facebook post by the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office.

Nations will be sentenced on June 29.

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The DA’s Office said both burglaries were caught on surveillance video, which showed a man matching Nations’ description smashing through the glass and stealing numerous power tools from the businesses. The video showed the suspect drive away in a dark-colored minivan. Less than a week later, a similar crime was caught on camera at an Oakwood, Ga., hardware store by a suspect matching Nations’ description.

The DA’s Office said an abandoned green Dodge Caravan stolen from a Pep Boys store in Austell was used in all three burglaries.

“Inside the Caravan was a cigarette butt with the Defendant’s DNA on it lying next to an ID tag from a stolen Chain Saw out of one of the Douglas County burglaries,” the Facebook post stated. “In all of the commercial burglaries, the same bolt cutters were used to cut through fencing on the property.”

Cell phone records also showed phone calls were made from the areas near the burglaries -- including a fourth burglary at a Gwinnett County hardware store -- during the same week of the crimes.

“This cell phone was showed to have been calling the Defendant’s sister at the time of one of the burglaries,” the district attorney’s office said.

The conviction was Nations’ third felony conviction. He had been imprisoned for a previous commercial burglary and had been out of prison for less than a month before the most recent string of crimes.

The conviction was “A satisfying one which recognizes this community has no tolerance for career criminals like Tremayne Nations who want to steal and rob hard working businesses like Ace Hardware and Able Tool Rental,” said Assistant District Attorney Samantha Newman, who prosecuted the case.

Photo: Tremayne Nations; Douglas County DA’s Office Facebook