By Joe Johnson
An Athens man who had been charged with shooting two people in separate incidents last year was sentenced to prison this week.
Tishauwn Taquan Mahaffey, 30, had been charged by Athens-Clarke County police with aggravated assault for both incidents, one a Sept. 5 shoot-out with another man at Rolling Ridge Apartments, and the other involving a June 23 altercation between Mahaffey and another man at Berlin Street Apartments in which a bystander, a 28-year-old woman, was seriously injured when struck by a bullet.
However, the Western Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office opted not to prosecute Mahaffey for the two aggravated assault charges. Instead, a prosecutor on Wednesday filed an accusation in Clarke County Superior Court that charged him only with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
According to Mahaffey’s attorney, David Crowe, his client “had a really good self-defense case” in both shootings.
Although he should not have been in possession of a weapon, Crowe said Mahaffey “was lucky” that he was armed because otherwise he might have been killed.
When arrested for the Rolling Ridge shooting, police also charged Mahaffey with drug offenses.
Also on Wednesday, the DA’s office filed a separate accusation charging Mahaffey with possession with intent to distribute marijuana and possession with intent to distribute OxyContin.
As part of a plea bargain, Judge Lawton Stephens sentenced Mahaffey to six years in prison and four years on probation for both cases, according to the sentencing documents.
The judge gave him credit for time served in confinement since his arrest in September.
Police said that Mahaffey was a known member of the NBA (Never Broke Again) street gang, and the plea agreement he signed stipulates that he cannot have any contact with other gang members.
“It was a fair result,” Crowe said of the outcome of Mahaffey’s cases.
The man who police said was shot in the arm and foot by Mahaffey at Rolling Ridge - 22 year-old Quatavious Malik Borders - continued to be held at the Clarke County Jail on charges of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and also felony probation violations.
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