Quanta Barnes appears in court Thursday, June 13, 2024.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A 20-year-old man accused of stealing McDonald’s customers’ credit card information has been sentenced in Kent County’s 17th Circuit Court.
Quanta Barnes, of Kentwood, received multiple sentences Thursday, which will run concurrently.
For carrying a concealed weapon, Barnes was sentenced to one year and 11 months to five years in prison, with credit for about a year served. For conducting a criminal enterprise and using a computer to commit a crime, he was sentenced to three years to 20 years for each, with credit for about a year served. Finally, for the illegal use of a financial transaction device, he was sentenced to one year and five months to four years, with credit for about nine months served.
Before the judge gave the sentences, Barnes addressed the court, asking for forgiveness.
“I would like to start off by apologizing to my victims and my community. During my stay here, I had a lot of time to reflect on my actions and to have mental clarity,” he said. “Your honor, I am currently working on my GED and, more importantly, I am working on myself. I am grateful for the time, because I was clearly off track. I have made a bad decision, and the results have landed me incarcerated.”
In 2023, multiple people — including Barnes, then 19 — were charged, accused of using their status as workers at multiple Grand Rapids-area McDonald’s to copy customers’ credit cards. They racked up more than $50,000 worth of fraudulent purchases, court documents say.
Larceny charges were also filed against Barnes that year. He was accused of robbing a West Michigan man of $60,000 while the man’s wife was dying in a hospital.
Attorney Kristyna Nunzio, who is representing Barnes, described him on Thursday as “a very intelligent young man” who “just fell into a group of friends that was not good for him.”
“He is ashamed of what he’s done. He knows it’s wrong. He sincerely apologizes to the victims in the case,” Nunzio said. “He knows what it’s like to work hard for money, and he knows that he robbed people of that.”
She emphasized that Barnes wants to turn his life around.
“I’m very hopeful that this court and no other court will ever see him again, because he has taken this to heart and he knows that he has hurt so many people during this,” Nunzio said.
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