MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — A known Milledgeville gang member has been sentenced to prison after he pleaded guilty last Friday to drug, gun and street gang violence charges in Baldwin County Superior Court.

Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Alison T. Burleson sentenced Craig Cortez Barnes, a member of the 1831 Piru gang in Milledgeville, to 35 years — the first 10 of which are to be served in state prison.

Barnes faced a maximum sentence of 325 years if convicted on each of the charges, according to Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Leonard D. Myers, who prosecuted the latest case.

Barnes pleaded guilty to 18 of the 20 charges filed against him by a Baldwin County grand jury last year.

Judge Burleson also attached strict probation conditions on him, “which are very, very difficult to comply with,” Myers said.

Barnes’ sentencing last week happened in the courtroom located at the Baldwin County Law Enforcement Center. Defense attorney Keri Thompson represented Barnes, as she did in a 2008 case that resulted in her client’s conviction.

“He pled guilty to 10 counts of the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, as well as three counts of Violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, marijuana with intent to distribute, and MDMA or ecstasy with intent to distribute,” Myers said. “He also pled guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, theft by receiving because the gun was stolen, two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, one for each gun.”

In 2008, Barnes was arrested and charged with 19 counts of aggravated assault relating to a crime that happened at The Milledgeville Manor Apartments. Several other charges also were filed against him at the time, including weapons violations and several counts of the Georgia Street Gang and Terrorism Prevention Act, according to records.

Myers said Barnes fired a gun into a crowd of people at the local apartment complex and that was the reason so many counts of the same offense were filed against him.

The assistant district attorney said Barnes received one count of aggravated assault for each of the victims who acknowledged to authorities that they were there at the time.

“He entered a guilty plea to some of those charges and received a 20-year sentence, serve seven,” Myers said.

That case was closed out in 2010.

The assistant district attorney explained that when Barnes committed his latest crimes, and based on what happened during the negotiated plea between the district attorney’s office and Barnes’ attorney, he had 12 years remaining.

Prior to Barnes pleading guilty last Friday, he already had been sentenced to a term of 10 years in prison following a probation revocation hearing.

“The new case was a violation of his probation,” Myers said. “That one was a revocation for aggravated assault, which will actually keep [him] in jail longer than these dope charges would have.”

Prior to Barnes’ latest sentencing, officers and detectives with the Milledgeville Police Department, as well as deputies and detectives with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office had been searching for him as a suspect in a number of drive-by shootings.

Myers credited the investigative work of Milledgeville Police Detectives Kim Khan and Scott Goodwin with bringing the case to an end. Acting on information they received back in November 2015, they went to the Fairfield Inn on North Columbia Street where they raided a room and arrested Barnes, as well as three guards that were working at a local prison, but who have since been terminated because of pending drug charges.

“One of them (former prison guards) is under federal prosecution,” Myers said.