Stabbing during violent home invasion gets man life in prison, GA officials say
A man accused of breaking into a couple’s Atlanta-area home and launching into a violent knife attack was ordered to spend the rest of his life in prison, Georgia prosecutors said.
Jimmy David Mills, 60, was convicted Thursday, July 31, on first-degree home invasion and aggravated assault charges in the September 2020 incident, the DeKalb County District Attorney said in an Aug. 5 news release.
One of the homeowners was stabbed multiple times, including in the face and stomach, according to prosecutors.
A jury also found Mills guilty of possession of a knife during the commission of certain felonies and criminal trespass, according to prosecutors. He was handed a life sentence plus 26 years to be served consecutively.
Attorney information for Mills was not immediately available./
On Sept. 17, 2020, officers responded to a home invasion in Brookhaven, according to the district attorney’s office. The homeowners were there with their baby at the time, prosecutors said.
Authorities reviewed security video showing Mills entering the home, prosecutors said. The wife put her baby down for a nap and was showering when she got a security alert on her phone that someone had come in through the back door.
She called out to the intruder and warned them not to come into the bathroom, according to prosecutors. Mills came in anyway and asked the woman if she was alone, prosecutors said.
The woman’s husband, who was working in his home office, heard his wife’s screams over his noise-canceling headphones and rushed to see what was wrong, authorities said. He saw Mills in the bathroom with his wife and ordered him to get out.
Mills refused, and a scuffle ensued as the husband punched and shoved the intruder in an effort to get him out of the house, prosecutors said.
The two men wound up in the kitchen, where authorities said Mills pulled out a knife he was carrying. He attacked the husband, “stabbing him in the stomach and face, and slashing his arms,” according to prosecutors.
Mills ran soon after and hopped a concrete wall up the street, prosecutors said. Authorities found a bloody trail leading to the back door of a house nearby and noted it was smeared with blood “as if Mills tried to get inside.”
The knife used in the attack was also found in the backyard, prosecutors said.
Still on the run, authorities said Mills rang the bell at another home and asked to use the restroom. The person who answered turned him away and shut the door after seeing his bloodied chest, prosecutors said.
A driver flagged down police after spotting a shirtless man walking with something in his hand and said she saw him climb the wall, the DA’s office said.
“They found Mills holding his bloody shirt and arrested him,” according to prosecutors.