Haywood pleads guilty to aggravated assault

Dabid Dewayne Haywood, age 27, of Warner Robins, Georgia, was sentenced Wednesday, March 16, 2022, in the Houston County Superior Court by Judge G.E. (Bo) Adams to fifteen years to serve in the Department of Corrections, with a further five years to be served thereafter on probation. Haywood pleaded guilty to one county of Aggravated Assault moments before his trial was scheduled to begin with opening statements. A jury trial had been picked and empaneled to try the case on March 14, 2022.

In the early morning hours of May 23, 2021, officers with the Warner Robins Police Department were dispatched to a residence located at 408 Vermont Avenue in reference to a shooting that had just occurred there. Their investigation revealed that just prior to their arrival, a verbal and physical altercation had occurred within the residence between Haywood and the home’s occupants. While leaving the residence, Haywood drew a handgun in the parking area near the front door and fired multiple shots back into the home, with several projectiles going through a closed window and lodging themselves into interior walls. One of the home’s occupants lawfully returned fire on Haywood, causing him to flee the scene in an automobile driven by a codefendant. Crime scene investigators were able to recover 19 spent shell casings believed to have been fired from Haywood’s gun in the parking area.

The case was investigated by Detective Gary Chambers of the Warner Robins Police Department. Haywood was prosecuted by Deputy Chief Attorney Greg Winters and Chief Assistant District Attorney Eric Z. Edwards of the Houston County District Attorney’s Office.

COMMENTS FROM DEPUTY CHIEF ADA WINTERS: “Today’s sentence sends a strong message that the people of Houston County will not tolerate their residential streets being turned into war zones. The defendant in this case needlessly escalated a confrontation to the point of prolonged gunfire, and we are thankful that Judge Adams’ sentence will remove a violent, dangerous offender from this community for many years.”

COMMENTS FROM ACTING DA KENDALL: “The District Attorney’s Office is committed to the mission of reducing senseless gun violence in Houston County. We’d like to thank Detective Gary Chambers, first responding Officer Kimberly Grubbs, and Crime Scene Investigator Antonio Vallio of the Warner Robins Police Department for their timely and thorough response and investigation that led to taking this defendant off our city streets.”

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