On the night of April 12, 1982, 38-year-old Paulette Riggs was working as a cashier at a Mini Food Store in Macon, Georgia. Her life was tragically cut short during an armed robbery, an event that also left another man seriously injured. The female victim's ordeal began when Terry Michael Mincey entered the store and, brandishing a pistol, ordered her to empty the cash register into a bag.
The situation escalated when a Bibb County firefighter, Russell Peterman, pulled up to the gas
pumps outside. Mincey escorted Riggs out of the store at gunpoint and then confronted Peterman. When Peterman did not immediately comply with Mincey's demands, Mincey shot him in the chest and then again in the head at point-blank range. Miraculously, Peterman survived the attack, though he was blinded in one eye. As Mincey headed back to his getaway car, Riggs attempted to flee. Mincey then shot her, and as she lay wounded near a dumpster, he walked over and shot her in the head. The total amount stolen during the robbery was a mere $141.19.
Terry Michael Mincey and his two accomplices, identified as Jones and Jenkins, were later apprehended. The Bibb County Grand Jury indicted all three for the murder of Paulette Riggs, the aggravated battery of Russell Peterman, and the armed robbery of the convenience store. Jones and Jenkins both pled guilty; Jones received a life sentence for murder and a ten-year sentence for armed robbery, while Jenkins was sentenced to life for armed robbery.
Terry Michael Mincey was found guilty by a jury on August 23, 1982. Three days later, on August 26, 1982, he was sentenced to death for the murder of Paulette Riggs. He also received a life sentence for the armed robbery and a consecutive twenty-year sentence for the aggravated battery. After spending over 19 years on death row, Terry Michael Mincey was executed on October 25, 2001. His execution was notable as he was the first person in Georgia to be executed by lethal injection after the state's Supreme Court ruled the electric chair to be cruel and unusual punishment.
