On Tuesday in Richmond County Superior Court, Senior Judge Bernard J. Mulherin Sr. sentenced Mr. Coleman, 31, to the maximum - two consecutive life sentences plus 65 years.

It wasn't the prosecutors' request that led Judge Mulherin to impose such a sentence, nor the fact that Mr. Coleman maintained his innocence and stood trial instead of pleading guilty, the judge said. The sentence fit the facts of crimes Mr. Coleman committed, Judge Mulherin said.

In a two-month trial that ended with guilty verdicts against the six defendants on all counts Nov. 30, witnesses tied Mr. Coleman to forgery, tax fraud, thefts and the slayings of three men.

The last victim was Sam's Club Manager David Holt, 45, who was found burned in the trunk of his own car on Father's Day 1998.

"It's unimaginable to most people that someone could plan such a crime," Assistant District Attorney Patricia Johnson said of the Sam's Club robbery and the gruesome death of the father of two.

Mr. Holt's slaying had remained unsolved despite billboards and fliers and a reward for information that grew to $400,000. In January, a suspect in a Columbia County robbery and double homicide, David J. Easterling, told investigators he knew who killed Mr. Holt - Mr. Coleman and Ronald Coleman Jr.

Defense attorney Michael D. Mann (left) talks to defendant Carlston W. Coleman before he is taken away. He had just received the maximum sentence of two consecutive life terms plus 65 years in a RICO trial. ANDREW DAVIS TUCKER/STAFF

The Colemans, who are not related, were convicted Nov. 30 of kidnapping, burglary, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle and a weapon charge in the Holt case. Mr. Easterling, who pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the Holt case and to murder in the deaths of Fred and Yong-Suk Walker, is serving two consecutive life sentences.

Ronald Coleman, 29, is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 27.

Eleven months before Mr. Holt died, firefighters in Warren County discovered the bodies of Ryan J. Singh, 21, and Manuel B. Arroyo, 19, in the trunk of a burned car June 24, 1997. Both had been shot in the head before their bodies were burned beyond recognition.

During the long Richmond County trial, evidence of the double homicide was presented to the jury to consider as evidence that the two Mr. Colemans and four others - Jarman L. Harold, 24; Charles D. Winters, 28; Kendric Dudley, 30; and Ronnie B. Overton Jr., 22 - violated the state's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law.

By its guilty verdicts, the jurors showed that they believe the six men participated in a criminal enterprise. Among the underlying crimes was that they conspired to kill Mr. Arroyo and Mr. Singh and severely beat them in Augusta before taking them to Warren County in a stolen car and killing them.

Mr. Harold, Mr. Winters, Mr. Dudley and Mr. Overton were sentenced Friday to the maximum possible for the RICO convictions: 20 years in prison.

District Attorney Dennis Sanders, whose circuit includes Warren County, said Tuesday that he was waiting to see how the Richmond County RICO case turned out before deciding whether any of the suspects would be tried on murder charges in Warren County. Considering Carlston Coleman's maximum sentence, "I don't know if we could add to that," Mr. Sanders said.

Mr. Coleman has 30 days to appeal his convictions and sentence.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or shodson@augustachronicle.com.