Warner Robins man gets 15-year sentence after identity fraud and failure to register as sex offender

Prosecutors say the case involved stolen credit cards and a failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — A 38-year-old Warner Robins man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to identity fraud, entering an automobile and failing to register as a sex offender.

According to a Houston County District Attorney’s Office news release, Joshua Warren King entered his guilty pleas Monday in Houston County Superior Court, just before jury selection was scheduled to begin. He was sentenced immediately after the plea hearing.

According to the district attorney’s office, the case stems from a December 26, 2023, incident on South Armed Forces Boulevard in Warner Robins. Warner Robins police responded to a report of an entering auto after a woman found her vehicle had been broken into while she was at work. Her purse containing cash and credit cards had been stolen.

Investigators later learned a suspect tried to use the victim’s credit card at a nearby convenience store, the district attorney’s office said. Surveillance video led to the identification of King as the suspect, according to the release.

The district attorney’s office said King was also required to register annually as a sex offender due to a 2009 statutory rape conviction. Prosecutors say he failed to report to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office before his November 2023 birthday, as required by law. The sheriff’s office and the Department of Community Supervision began investigating after King failed to appear for registration and stopped reporting to probation, according to the release.

King was ultimately arrested on in January 2024, while prosecutors say he was committing additional identity fraud and theft offenses. Prosecutors said a Houston County jury convicted him of those separate crimes in October 2025.

“This defendant’s conduct was not isolated or accidental—it was part of a clear pattern of criminal behavior that escalated over time,” District Attorney Eric Edwards said. He added that the sex offender registration requirement exists to protect public safety and that incarceration was necessary in this case.

Edwards confirmed King is the same defendant who was sentenced in October 2025 after a jury convicted him on multiple theft and identity fraud charges. Prosecutors said King still had additional felony cases and probation violations pending and chose to resolve them through guilty pleas rather than proceed to trial.