Stiff Sentence in Marietta Copper Theft

A McDonough man will spend the rest of the decade in prison after pleading guilty to charges stemming from copper thefts at a Cobb County government building undergoing renovation in 2014, the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

Willie Clarence Mays, 52 admitted to stealing copper piping out of the former juvenile court building in Marietta over Memorial Day weekend in 2014. Mays, a foreman for one of the subcontractors renovating the building, was later caught on video selling the copped copper.

Mays defended himself in court by saying his boss had authorized him to sell the pipes, a notion the trial judge disagreed with.

“You stole from Cobb County,” Cobb Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs said, according to the DA’s Office. “That, to me, has been the essence of the case.”

Mays was sentenced as a recidivist to 10 years, with seven to serve behind bars, the DA’s Office said.