Nathaniel and Latasha Smith plead guilty: Georgia couple confess to beating chicken restaurant owner and daughter after being served cold fried chicken.
Georgia couple, Nathaniel and Latasha Smith have pled guilty to beating a restaurant owner and her daughter after complaining of having being sold cold fried chicken.
Appearing in court on Friday, Nathaniel Eric Smith, 45 and Latasha Denise Smith, 28, pled guilty to charges of aggravated assault and cruelty to children, according to The Florida Times-Union.
Surveillance captured Latasha beating Jeanette Norris, the owner of the Qwik Chick, in Baxley, June 22 after the couple claimed their food was cold and they didn’t have enough fries.
When Norris’s 15-year-old daughter got out of a car to help her mother, Nathaniel was caught on tape punching her in the face, sending the teen girl flying backwards.
Norris suffered a broken nose and her daughter was treated for a concussion.
Norris told police she had refunded the couple’s money after Latasha complained about their food order.
That though didn’t appease the couple, with an agitated Latasha beating on the store’s windows.
The owner said she went outside to tell them that she had called police when Latasha began hitting and slapping Norris.
Surveillance video then shows Nathaniel punching Norris’s 15-year-old daughter after she came over to help.
The girl was sent flying backwards before the couple fled.
Nathaniel and Latasha Smith plead guilty: A case of reverse racism and discrimination?
Norris and her daughter were both left with black eyes. The mother suffered a broken nose and the girl had a concussion.
Chief James Godfrey of the Baxley Police Department said he hadn’t seen anything like this in his 41 years on the force.
‘That’s just pure brutality,’ he told WTOC.
The fleeing coupe were eventually outed after cops publicly released surveillance video with police able to identify the suspects.
At the time many had wondered to what degree the beating was simply an issue of agitation of having being served cold chicken and more to do with reverse racism and discrimination towards the white owners in the southern state.
Nathaniel and Latasha Smith turned themselves July 5. Superior Court Judge Robert Guy accepted the Smiths’ guilty pleas and will sentence them at a later date.
