Christopher Brown

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — A 27-year-old Milledgeville man pleaded guilty to 14 criminal charges in Baldwin County Superior Court on Friday and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Christopher Jesse Brown appeared before Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge E. Trenton Brown III and learned his fate.

Brown, who had been brought back to Milledgeville from the Jenkins Correctional Center in Millen for the court hearing, pleaded guilty to the following charges: hijacking a motor vehicle, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, theft by taking, two counts of burglary in the first degree, two counts of cruelty to children in the third degree, possession of tools for the commission of a crime, two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and terroristic threats and acts.

The multi-count indictment was returned against Brown last July by a Baldwin County grand jury.

Judge Brown, no relation to Christopher Brown, also sentenced the defendant to 20 years probation, fined him $10,000 on the hijacking of a vehicle charge, and banished him from the eight-county Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit for the entire 30 years of his sentence. He was also ordered to reimburse each of the victims for the items that were stolen from them.

The guilty plea was a negotiated arrangement between Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Leonard D. Myers and Assistant Public Defender Frank Hicks.

By agreeing to the plea negotiation, Brown averted the possibility of being convicted by a jury and possibly spending a double-life sentence behind prison bars.

Myers, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the state, said Brown had been offered an earlier negotiated plea, and that it offered him a 25-year sentence.

“I increased it to 30 in exchange for him pleading guilty to all 14 charges,” Myers said.

Brown’s incarceration at Jenkins Correctional Center in Millen stems from his having violated probation on a Sept. 10, 2008 conviction for felony aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer, Myers said.

The conviction was a result of crimes Brown committed against a deputy with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, the assistant district attorney said.

“Initially, he received a 15 [year sentence], serve five [years],” Myers said.

Brown was a fugitive before he was captured by detectives and officers with the Milledgeville Police Department and members of the U.S. Marshal’s Service Southeastern Regional Fugitive Task Force, at a Lakeshore Circle residence. Troopers with the Georgia State Patrol Milledgeville post, as well as deputies with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office and a K-9 officer with the Georgia Department of Corrections all assisted in the search for Brown.

He managed to elude local, state and federal authorities for 19 days following several residential break-ins and other assorted crimes.

Brown reportedly broke into several homes in the Lakeshore Circle area in an attempt to avoid being caught by authorities.