Senior Judge David K. Smith has sentenced Shaquae Divine Robinson, formerly of Dalton, in Whitfield County Superior Court to 45 years in prison without parole for aggravated assault with intent to murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and use of a knife during the commission of a felony. The sentence is the maximum possible for each offense and each sentence will run consecutively, or back-to-back.
Assistant District Attorney Ian Whittle argued for the state and introduced Robinson’s 16 previous convictions, which included four violent misdemeanors and three felonies. Because of his three felonies Robinson was not eligible for parole. Attorney Josh Smith represented Robinson at the sentencing hearing and at trial.
Robinson, 29, was found guilty last year by a Whitfield County jury.
The state’s case was presented with the assistance of Detectives John Edwards and Christopher Tucker of the Dalton Police Department.
Evidence was presented Nov. 28-30. Whittle called nine witnesses and presented 31 exhibits including DNA evidence that the blood found on the knife in Robinson’s pocket matched the DNA of the victim.
The evidence established Robinson was present on the morning of July 13, 2021, at 522 Straight St. where the victim, had let him sleep for the previous couple of days.
After an argument, the evidence showed Robinson stabbed her in the neck. Officer Steven Herrera of the Dalton Police Department arrived first and rendered first aid until she could be taken to Erlanger hospital in Chattanooga in critical condition. After emergency surgery, she made a full recovery.
Video evidence showed a man in an orange shirt running from the crime scene toward Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Robinson was apprehended a short time later on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard wearing an orange shirt with a knife in his pocket. Georgia Bureau of Investigation forensic biologists determined the blood on Robinson’s knife and shirt matched the victim’s DNA. The odds of the DNA occurring in someone else in the population is 1 in 200 octillion (200 followed by 27 zeros).
At the time of these offenses Robinson was on probation for terroristic threats for threatening to kill a Dalton police officer.
