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Rodney Young Georgia Death Row

Rodney Young was sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for the murder of his ex girlfriend’s son. According to court documents Rodney Young would bound the victim to a chair before stabbing him in the neck and hitting him repeatedly with a hammer. Rodney Young would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Georgia Death Row Inmate List

Rodney Young 2021 Information

YOB: 1967
RACE: BLACK
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 6’01”
WEIGHT: 248
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLACK

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: GA DIAG CLASS PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: DEATH

Rodney Young More News

On the heels of one death penalty case, Newton County is preparing for a second this year. Rodney Renia Young, 43, is accused of bludgeoning to death his ex-fiancée’s son, 28-year-old Gary Lamar Jones, in 2008.

Attorneys for Rodney Young, Teri Thompson and Joseph Romond of the Georgia Capital Defender’s Office, were in Superior Court Judge Samuel Ozburn’s courtroom on Thursday, along with Newton County District Attorney Layla Zon. The goal was to hear motions from Young’s attorneys, who wanted to suppress several items before the case goes to trial. Ozburn was ready to set a timeline for the case to proceed to trial this year.

According to Special Agent Wesley Horn with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Rodney Young was involved with the victim’s mother for seven years. When she ended the relationship and moved from New Jersey to her son’s home on Benedict Drive in Covington, Young became enraged. At one point the victim’s mother’s home was destroyed in a fire that was ruled arson. Once she moved to Covington, Young reportedly sent her several letters, the content of which has yet to be released publicly.

On March 30, 2008, the victim returned home from church at Springfield Baptist. His mother found him when she came home from work around 11:30 p.m., bound to a chair, stabbed in the neck and bludgeoned with a hammer. Threats including “Get out of the state Atlanta mom” and “we’ll get you Atlanta mom” were scrawled in blood on the walls.

According to Horn, on April 1, 2008, a witness came forward and said he had been approached by a man while he was sitting outside of a store on the square. The man drove a car with New Jersey plates and asked for directions to Benedict Drive. The witness later identified Young from a photo lineup. Subpoenaed cell phone records also put Young’s cell phone on Washington Street just minutes after the witness said he spoke to him. They also show that he was close to the victim’s residence on the day he was killed.

The victim and his family were originally from New Jersey and shortly after his death local investigators headed to the Garden State to interview Young, with the help of investigators from the New Jersey State Police. On April 3, 2008, investigators visited Young at his job. According to Horn they noticed cuts on his knuckles, and when they asked him if he’d visited Covington lately, he initially denied it. In a later interview at the state police barracks, he admitted to being in the area but reportedly said he was here to visit a sister he’d never met and didn’t go to the victim’s home.

Young at first cooperated with investigators. Recorded interviews show that he waived his rights and chose to speak with them and he voluntarily gave a DNA (mouth swab) sample when asked. Search warrants were obtained for Young’s home and vehicle and.

Defense attorneys want to suppress the evidence, claiming that it was “over-broad, extensive, far-reaching and unreasonable,” as well as lacking in probable cause for the search warrant.

They also contend that Young’s statements should be suppressed because he was not reread his Miranda warnings at the police barracks, though law does not require that.

“In a case of this magnitude we need to have increased reliability,” said Romond, who added that with death penalty cases there was a heightened degree of scrutiny.

Ozburn elected to hold off on a ruling regarding the interviews to give him time to listen to the four hours of recordings; however, he denied the motion to suppress the warrants.

He also said that while he was ready to have this case move forward, it would be at least two months before Newton County’s census results were available to them to look at a jury box being pooled properly. At Zon’s request, he also questioned defense attorneys about the possibility of using a mental illness or mental retardation defense for Young. Ozburn gave the defense 30 days to file all non-jury related motions, including their plan to argue mental illness or retardation if they had one, a decision Romond objected to.

“This case has been pending since 2008 and the last hearing was in April 2010,” said Ozburn. “…I don’t think it’s unreasonable… He’s been under arrest for going on three years now and I think this is a reasonable deadline, I’m not springing anything on you.”

Ozburn said he wanted to try the case in the fall if the census wasn’t an issue.

Demetrius Willis Georgia Death Row

Demetrius Willis was sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for a triple murder. According to court documents Demetrius Willis would enter the home of an ex girlfriend and proceed to shoot and kill two adults and one child. Demetrius Willis would also shoot and injure two other children. Demetrius Willis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Georgia Death Row Inmate List

Demetrius Willis 2021 Information

YOB: 1977
RACE: BLACK
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 5’11”
WEIGHT: 175
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLACK

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: GA DIAG CLASS PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: DEATH

Demetrius Willis More News

The Supreme Court of Georgia has ruled unanimously to uphold the three death sentences given to Demetrius Willis for the 2004 murders of a couple and their 3-year-old son.

In today’s opinion, “we vacate Willis’s convictions and sentences for three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, but we affirm all of Willis’s remaining convictions and sentences, including his death sentences for the murders,” Justice Robert Benham writes for the Court.

In the early hours of June 28, 2004, five members of a family who lived on Westwood Avenue in Fulton County were shot. Three were killed, including a 3-year-old and his parents, and two more children were injured. Thirty-year-old Jerry D. Williams was shot at close distance three times in the back of his head as he lay on a couch in the living room. Each shot was fatal. Twenty-six-year-old Talisa Hankins was shot twice in the back of the head and once in the back of her shoulder. It appeared as though she had been trying to escape through a window of a bedroom at the time of her death. Four young children were in another bedroom. Three-year-old Jerry D. Williams, III, whose nickname was “Man-Man,” was fatally shot in the left side of his forehead. Five-year-old C.H. was shot in her upper back, and 10-year-old Q.H. was shot in her thigh. The fourth child, 6-year-old J.H., hid under the bed during the shooting and was the only one who escaped injury. C.H., J.H., and “Man-Man” were the children of Williams and Hankins. The oldest child, Q.H., was Hankins’ daughter by a previous relationship with Willis.

According to the evidence at trial, on June 25, 2004, Demetrius Willis, 27, whose nickname was “Sweet Pea,” rode to Atlanta with two friends from his home in Clarksdale, Mississippi. While there, Willis attended a barbecue on Sunday, June 27, at the home of Williams and Hankins. Later he went out drinking with friends, returning to his friend Ray Hollins’ home at about 5:00 a.m. Willis asked Hollins to ride with him back to the home of Williams and Hankins so he could see his daughter before he returned to Mississippi. With Willis driving, the two went back to the home on Westwood Avenue. Hollins remained in the car while Willis went inside. Hollins later said he could hear Hankins speaking to Willis, and she said, “Sweet Pea, what’s wrong with you?” Multiple gunshots followed. C.H. later testified that she saw Willis shoot Hankins and that she then ran into the bedroom where the other children were. Willis went into that bedroom and started shooting. Jerry III was standing when Willis shot him in the head. C.H. was on her bed when he shot her in her back/shoulder. Like J.H., Q.H. tried to hide under one of the beds, but was still shot in the thigh. According to Q.H., her father was wearing a yellow-looking jersey and jeans. Q.H. said she did not see anyone other than Willis doing the shooting.

Outside, after hearing the gunshots, Hollins initially got out of the car and ran up the street, but then he turned around, headed back, and saw Demetrius Willis leaving the home carrying a pistol. Hollins noticed that Willis had specks of blood on his face and shirt. Hollins asked Demetrius Willis what had happened, and Willis replied he had killed everyone in the house. He never said why.

The next day, Willis and his friends rode back to Mississippi in the black Impala car they had used throughout the trip. On the way, Willis stopped and threw the shirt he had been wearing into a trash can and the pistol into a body of water. Once back in Mississippi, Willis turned himself in.

After he was returned to Georgia, Willis was indicted on three counts of malice murder, nine counts of felony murder, six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and one count each of burglary, first degree child cruelty, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. In September 2004, the State announced it would seek the death penalty. Following a 2008 trial, the jury convicted Willis of all counts except the aggravated assault of J.H. and the counts involving burglary. Willis was sentenced to death for each of his convictions for malice murder, plus additional years for his other crimes.

https://www.pickensprogress.com/2015/news/recent-stories-index/5345-death-sentence-upheld-for-man-who-killed-three-year-old-and-parents

Joseph Williams Georgia Death Row

Joseph Williams was sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for a prison murder. According to court documents Joseph Williams would murder a fellow inmate for he believed the inmate told guards about his planned escape. Joseph Williams would be convicted and sentenced to death.

Georgia Death Row Inmate List

Joseph Williams 2021 Information

YOB: 1973
RACE: BLACK
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 5’09”
WEIGHT: 210
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLACK

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: GA DIAG CLASS PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: DEATH

Joseph Williams More News

The evidence adduced in Williams’s sentencing trial showed that on July 24, 2001, Williams was a jail inmate at the Chatham County Detention Center. See OCGA § 17-10-30(b)(9) (“murder was committed by a person in, or who has escaped from, the lawful custody of a peace officer or place of lawful confinement”). Seven other inmates, including Michael Deal, were being held in the same unit as Williams. Joseph Williams and four of the other inmates, Leon McKinney, Pierre Byrd, Michael Wilson, and John McMillan, discovered a loose window and used an improvised chisel to chip away at the wall around it. Deal inquired what the men were doing but left when he was told “to mind his own business.” Joseph Williams and other inmates began to suspect that Deal had informed, or was going to inform, the jail authorities about the escape plan. McKinney suggested stabbing Deal with the improvised chisel, but Williams objected that there would be too much blood and that their plan would be frustrated. The group then carried out an alternative plan to strangle Deal and make the killing appear to be a suicide. McKinney engaged Deal in a discussion about their relative body sizes and then, facing Deal, lifted him in a “bear hug.” Williams then began strangling Deal from behind with an Ace bandage. Deal fell to the floor but did not immediately lose consciousness. The evidence is unclear whether it was Wilson or Byrd, but one of those two men then assisted Williams by taking one end of the Ace bandage and completing the strangulation in a “tug-of-war.” Byrd invited Anthony King, an inmate who had been friendly with Deal, into Byrd’s cell to distract King as Deal’s body was moved. Williams then dragged Deal’s body to Deal’s cell, flushed the Ace bandage down the toilet, cleaned up blood and hair on the floor with a rag, flushed the rag, tied a bed sheet around Deal’s neck, and finally, with the assistance of McKinney and McMillan, lifted Deal’s body and tied the bed sheet to a grate in the ceiling to make the death appear to be a suicide. After the murder, Williams and Byrd favored also killing King and Dewey Anderson, but McKinney and McMillan objected. Byrd, later troubled by dreams about the victim, contacted his attorney, passed a note about the murder to a jail guard, and then directed authorities to the improvised chisel, the loosened window, and a letter about the murder written to him by Williams. Williams confessed in an audiotaped interview conducted by a GBI agent.

In support of the OCGA § 17-10-30(b)(1) aggravating circumstance, the State presented three certified convictions of Williams, one for the armed robbery of Harry Jaymes, one for the murder of Iris Hall, and one for the murder of Taureen Graham. The State also presented testimony regarding those three crimes. Harry Jaymes testified that Williams delivered some stereo equipment, that he gave Williams a cash gratuity from a bag of money, and that Williams returned with an accomplice two days later on May 27, 1999, hit Jaymes in the head repeatedly with a handgun, and threatened to kill Jaymes if he did not reveal where the bag of money was. Jaymes escaped, threw a brick through his car’s window to set off the alarm, and had a neighbor call police. A GBI agent testified that Williams confessed during an audiotaped statement, which was played for the jury, to the murders of Taureen Graham and Iris Hall. Williams explained in the statement that he had been hired to murder Taureen Graham’s older brother but that, on July 31, 1999, he murdered the wrong person. Janet Cooper testified that, during a drug deal on July 11, 1999, Williams held Cooper and Iris Hall at gunpoint, placed Cooper in a bathroom, and searched Hall’s house. As Cooper escaped from the bathroom window, she heard the shots that killed Hall. At Williams’s trial for Hall’s murder, Williams “made slashing gestures and gunshot gestures” toward Cooper. Williams later, in March 2004, gave a letter to Cooper in which he stated, “I’ve killed many men before that incident, even killed a couple afterwards.” The letter continued as follows:

August will be an even five years of incarceration for me. In those five years, I’ve killed two men, slit an officer’s throat with a razor, stabbed two inmates, and whipped my first lawyer’s ass. I am who I am, Janet. Those walls can’t stop me.

The evidence also showed that Williams had committed several other criminal acts. A criminal defense attorney testified that Williams struck him repeatedly during a jailhouse interview on September 28, 2001. A prison guard testified that Williams slashed his face and throat with a razor blade embedded in a newspaper on December 17, 2001. Testimony from two prison officers to whom Williams confessed and testimony from the surviving victim showed that Williams murdered one prison inmate and repeatedly stabbed another with an improvised weapon on January 26, 2003. In his audiotaped confession about the 2003 prison attack, Williams stated that he had also planned to kill a third inmate that day but the man’s cell door had been locked.

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-supreme-court/1273779.html

Frederick Whatley Georgia Death Row

Frederick Whatley was sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for a robbery murder. According to court documents Frederick Whatley entered a bait shop and forced an employee to the ground at gunpoint and demanded money from the other employee. After receiving the cash Frederick Whatley would shoot the employee who gave him the money and attempted to shoot the other employee. Frederick Whatley would flee the store and the injured employee would fire at him striking him in the leg. The employee would die from his injuries and Frederick Whately was arrested later that day. Frederick Whatley was convicted and sentenced to death.

Georgia Death Row Inmate List

Frederick Whatley 2021 Information

YOB: 1968
RACE: BLACK
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 5’09”
WEIGHT: 180
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLACK

MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: GA DIAG CLASS PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: DEATH

Frederick Whatley More News

The evidence showed that Whatley entered Roy’s Bait Shop in Griffin at about 8:45 p.m. on January 26, 1995. Whatley brandished a .32 caliber silver revolver and forced employee Tommy Bunn to lie face-down on the floor behind the counter. Whatley pressed the gun against Bunn’s head and instructed the owner of the store, Ed Allen, to hand over the money in the cash register. Allen put money in a paper sack and placed the sack on the counter. Whatley moved to the front of the counter, retrieved the paper sack, and fired two shots. One shot struck Allen in the chest and pierced his left lung. Expert testimony established that this shot was fired from a distance of 18 inches. The second shot was fired at Bunn’s head (Bunn was still lying prone behind the counter), but the bullet deflected off the counter top and missed. Whatley then exited the store.

Outside the store, Whatley encountered Ray Coursey, who was getting out of his car near the store’s doorway. Whatley held his gun to Coursey’s head, forced him back into the driver’s seat of the car, and told him, “take me ․ where I want to go.” Whatley got in the back seat. Although mortally wounded, Allen obtained a hidden .44 caliber handgun, rushed to the front of the store, and fired several shots at Whatley, who returned fire. After the exchange of gunfire, Allen collapsed and died from internal bleeding caused by the previously-inflicted gunshot wound. Whatley exited Coursey’s car, dropped the paper sack after it tore open, and fled on foot. Coursey observed that Whatley was limping.

Coursey and Bunn told the officers who arrived on the scene that the assailant had used a silver revolver. One of the officers had taken a report the previous day from Franklin White, who said that his silver revolver was missing and he suspected that his cousin, Whatley, had taken it. The officers went to the house where Whatley was staying with a relative, and found him during a consent search. Whatley had a bullet wound in his leg that was still bleeding. Franklin White’s .32 caliber silver revolver, determined by a firearms expert to be the murder weapon, was found under Whatley’s mattress. The police also found a bloody pair of thermal underwear with a bullet hole in the leg, a bloody towel, and bloody boxer shorts in a trash can behind the house. Fibers on a .44 caliber bullet removed from Coursey’s car were consistent with fibers from the thermal underwear, and DNA taken from blood on the fibers matched Whatley. A palm print on the paper sack dropped next to Coursey’s car also matched Whatley. In the penalty phase, the state introduced evidence that Whatley was an escapee from a Washington D.C. halfway house, where he had been serving time for robbery.

The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find proof beyond a reasonable doubt of Whatley’s guilt of malice murder, aggravated assault (two counts), armed robbery, motor vehicle hijacking, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). The evidence was also sufficient to authorize the jury to find the statutory aggravating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt. Id.; OCGA § 17-10-35(c)(2).

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-supreme-court/1292286.html

Leon Tollette Georgia Death Row

Leon Tollette was sentenced to death by the State of Georgia for the robbery and murder of a Brinks guard. According to court documents Leon Tollette came upon the Brinks guard from behind and shot him in the head. Leon Tollette would be arrested at the scene and would be later convicted and sentenced to death.

Georgia Death Row Inmate List

Leon Tollette 2021 Information

YOB: 1968
RACE: BLACK
GENDER: MALE
HEIGHT: 5’04”
WEIGHT: 200
EYE COLOR: BROWN
HAIR COLOR: BLACK
MAJOR OFFENSE: MURDER
MOST RECENT INSTITUTION: GA DIAG CLASS PRISON
MAX POSSIBLE RELEASE DATE: DEATH

Leon Tollette More News

The trial evidence established that Xavier Wommack had been planning a crime in Columbus, Georgia, and he invited Leon Tollette to travel from Los Angeles, California, to join him. When Tollette arrived in Columbus, he and Wommack, along with a third man, Jakeith Robinson, finalized plans for the armed robbery of an armored truck. On December 21, 1995, the group followed a Brink’s armored truck to the SouthTrust bank. Leon Tollette sat waiting with a newspaper near the bank, Wommack stood guard across the street, and Robinson sat ready as the getaway driver. As victim John Hamilton returned from the bank to the Brink’s truck with a money bag, Tollette approached Hamilton from behind and then fired at close range into his head, back, and legs, killing him. Carl Crane, the driver of the Brink’s truck, and Cornell Christianson, the driver of a nearby Lummus Fargo truck, chased Tollette and fired shots at him as he fled with the money bag; Tollette returned fire at his pursuers. Wommack fired shots from across the street to aid in Tollette’s escape; however, Wommack and Robinson ultimately drove away without Tollette. Robert Oliver, a police technician, responded to the radio call of a detective at the scene. When confronted by Oliver, Tollette attempted to fire at him and at a cadet who accompanied him, but all of the bullets in Tollette’s revolver were already spent. Leon Tollette threw down his revolver and surrendered.

Viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, we find that the evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to authorize a rational trier of fact to find beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of the statutory aggravating circumstances in this case. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979); OCGA § 17-10-35(c)(2).

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-supreme-court/1296502.html