Man sentenced to 45 years for 2019 Newnan bar shooting

RAW: Fatboys Bar & Grill shooting

This surveillance video released by the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office shows a shooting at Fatboys Bar & Grill during the early morning hours of Aug. 17, 2019.

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. - A man who opened fire outside a crowded Newnan bar in 2019, seriously injuring a bystander, has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple felony charges.

SEE ALSO: Deputies credit armed employee with stopping potential mass shooting at bar

Kevintez Derelle Mathewis entered a guilty plea on May 19 in Coweta County Superior Court to aggravated assault, aggravated battery, first-degree criminal damage to property, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Judge W. Travis Sakrison sentenced him to 45 years, with 30 to be served in prison.

The backstory:

The plea deal came on the day his jury trial was set to begin. Prosecutors say Mathewis, then a patron at Fatboys Bar & Grill, had been removed from the establishment for unruly behavior during the late hours of Aug. 16, 2019.

"Security video from both inside and outside of Fatboys captured the entire incident," the Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

After being ejected, Mathewis repeatedly attempted to re-enter the bar and became physically confrontational with security. Another patron, Benjamin McCoy, who was standing outside near his car, overheard Mathewis threaten to "shoot the place up."

Mathewis appeared to walk away, prompting many patrons to re-enter the bar. But instead of leaving, he broke into a parked vehicle in the rear lot, retrieved a handgun, and fired a shot into the air. McCoy, who remained outside, retrieved a .22 rifle from his vehicle and waited.

Seconds later, Mathewis was seen running toward the front entrance of the bar with the handgun. McCoy confronted him and told him to stop. In response, Mathewis fired two shots through McCoy’s windshield, hitting him. He then walked around the vehicle and fired several more rounds into McCoy before taking his rifle and fleeing into nearby woods along Highway 16.

McCoy survived the attack and was airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

Law enforcement officers, including a K-9 unit from the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office, located both firearms and Mathewis’s shoes during a search. Shortly afterward, Mathewis called 911 from a nearby cabin operated by Newnan Utilities and turned himself in. When taken into custody by Newnan police, he reportedly told officers, "I knew what I did was wrong."

Prosecutors credited McCoy’s actions with potentially preventing a mass shooting inside the packed bar.