A Hattiesburg man has been sentenced to 30 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections for his role in multiple armed robberies in the Hub City, as well as assault and weapons charges.
On January 16, Lin Carter – who serves as district attorney for Forrest and Perry counties – announced that Forrest County Circuit Court Judge Bob Helfrich sentenced Adrian Dontez Barnes to 30 years for armed robbery, 20 years for aggravated assault and 10 years for possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
Because those sentences run concurrent to each other, Barnes will serve 30 years in prison rather than the full 60 years.
Between October 19, 2022 and November 17, 2022, armed robberies were reported at the Family Dollar at 1301 Edwards Street in Hattiesburg and the Shell gas station at 2306 Hardy Street in Hattiesburg. Investigators with the Hattiesburg Police Department were able to obtain surveillance footage from those two incidents that showed a subject – who was later revealed as Barnes – wearing a clown mask and armed with a handgun.
Barnes robbed the two establishments and drove away in a motor vehicle, which exposed the license plate number of the vehicle, which investigators traced back to Barnes. In addition, surveillance footage from a local Walmart showed Barnes purchasing the clown mask shortly before the robberies.
After Barnes was established as a suspect in the crimes, police conducted a traffic stop on him, at which point police found the handgun that was used in the robberies. He was immediately arrested and charged with the crimes, and was convicted of the aforementioned three charges on January 14.
Barnes had previously been convicted for armed robbery in 2014 in Forrest County Circuit Court and was later released from the Mississippi Department of Corrections. At the time of his January 14 conviction, he was on probation for that crime.
“Mr. Barnes is a violent offender who was out on probation when he committed these (recent) crimes,” Carter said in a statement. “He is headed where he belongs, behind bars.
“I am glad we were able to achieve swift justice in this case.”
Barnes was remanded into the custody of the Forrest County Sheriff’s Office, where he is awaiting transport to the Mississippi Department of Corrections to serve his sentence.
“I want to thank the Hattiesburg Police Department for their outstanding work in quickly solving this case,” Carter said.
Barnes’ case was prosecuted by assistant district attorney Clay Cranford.
