East Cobb Courts & Trials

Convicted Windy Hill Road restaurant killers receive life sentences

by

Windy Hill Road restaurant killers

Two men convicted earlier this month of killing a man outside a Windy Hill Road restaurant and wounding his wife in 2016 were handed life sentences on Thursday.

The sentences issued by Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris to Demarious Kevauh Greene, 23 (left), and Dylan Marquis Ledbetter, 25 (right).

On May 16, they were found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, and firearms-possession charges stemming from a robbery and shootings of a Kennesaw couple outside the Pappadeaux restaurant Oct. 7, 2016.

Ledbetter, who also was found guilty of aggravated assault on a police officer, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, as well as another consecutive life sentence with a minimum of 10 years to serve. Greene got life with the possibility of parole for murder and three consecutive life sentences for the other charges.

Anthony Welch and his wife Cynthia were leaving the restaurant after having their birthday dinner when they were robbed by two men, police said.

According to trial testimony, the men took a necklace from Cynthia Welch (later revealed to be costume jewelry valued at only $5) after shooting both victims with a .38-caliber weapon.

Anthony Welch died from his wounds and Cynthia Welch survived.

The suspects were stopped on Oct. 15 at a gas station on Delk Road for a traffic violation. Greene and Ledbetter, who are both from Broward County, Fla., had been connected to another robbery in Woodstock for which they have received life sentences.

Ledbetter also is facing murder charges in Broward for shooting a man in the head. That victim, as well as the Woodstock victim, testified in the trial for the Pappadeaux shootings.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Two men convicted in 2016 fatal shooting at Windy Hill Road restaurant

by
Windy Hill Road restaurant shooting
Anthony and Cynthia Welch were shot after celebrating her birthday at dinner at Pappadeaux. (Photo: Cobb District Attorney’s office)

A Cobb Superior Court jury has convicted two men from Florida for killing a man and shooting his wife in 2016 in the parking lot of a Windy Hill Road restaurant.

The Cobb District Attorney’s office said Demarious Kevauh Greene, now 23, and Dylan Marquis Ledbetter, now 25, were found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, and firearms-possession charges. Ledbetter was also found guilty of aggravated assault on a police officer.

Their victims are Anthony and Cynthia Welch, a Kennesaw couple leaving the Pappadeaux restaurant on Oct. 7, 2016, after celebrating her birthday. Prosecutors said they were attacked as they reached their car, and when Anthony Welch stepped in front of his wife to shield her from the men, he was shot in the heart with a .380-caliber bullet.

Cynthia Welch also was shot, in the arm and the chest, and one of the men took a necklace from her neck before they fled the scene by car, according to the DA’s office.

Anthony Welch died a short time later, and Cynthia Welch survived. They were married nearly 25 years.

During the trial, prosecutors said police linked the Welch shootings with a robbery in the parking lot at a store in Woodstock four days later. On Oct. 15, police spotted a vehicle from the Woodstock incident parked at a Red Roof motel near the Pappadeaux restaurant, and followed it as it left the parking lot.

During a traffic stop, prosecutors said the vehicle pulled into a gas station, trying to get away, and hit a Cobb Police officer, then another car. According to police, Greene and Ledbetter jumped out of the car, with Ledbetter being shot three times by a plainclothes officer.

The DA’s office said a man still in the car surrendered to police, who executed a search warrant for items in the vehicle and discovered a .380 handgun that GBI ballistics experts later matched to the bullets in the Welch shootings.

Prosecutors said other evidence corrobrated the presence of Greene and Ledbetter at the crime scenes.

In his closing arguments, Cobb assistant district attorney Jesse Evans said, “this murder was cold-blooded. Senseless. It didn’t have to happen. Cynthia and Anthony Welch did not deserve this.”

Greene and Ledbetter will be sentenced on May 30, and could be facing life in prison without parole. They’ve been convicted in the Woodstock robbery and received life sentences.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb rape suspect indicted by Cobb grand jury

by

An East Cobb man charged with raping a woman at her home in the Johnson Ferry Road area in February has been indicted.Cobb County logo, Cobb 2017 elections, East Cobb rape suspect

Kendal Guerin Chaves, 34, of Lerose Court, was indicted by a Cobb grand jury last week on one count of aggravated sodomy, one count of aggravated assault, one count of first degree burglary and one count of battery.

He was charged by Cobb Police on Feb. 10, two days after a woman living on Colony Drive, off Little Willeo Road, said a man knocked on a window in the morning and attacked her after she answered the door.

According to the indictment, Chaves gained unlawful entry into the home, committed anal rape against the victim, choked her and caused bruises to her neck, face and arms.

Chaves was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond, according to jail records.

He also was charged with DUI, a misdemeanor, at the same time. Chaves pleaded guilty in late January to a cocaine possession charge and had been sentenced to three years’ probation, according to court records.

The court records further show that his probation was revoked due to the DUI charge, and on March 26, Chaves was resentenced to serve two years.

According to Cobb jail records, Chaves was released to the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections on April 11.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb shooting suspect remains in jail; wife files for divorce

by

Larry Joel Epstein, charged in the March 6 shootings of two electrical contractors working at his East Cobb home, remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond after a probable cause hearing on Tuesday.East Cobb shooting suspect, Larry Epstein

Epstein, 69, was arrested after a heavy police presence stemming from the shootings on Wellington Lane, off Johnson Ferry Road.

One of the contractors, Jake Horne, 21, of Kennesaw, died after being shot in the head.

The other worker, Gordon Montcalm, 37, of Buchanan, Ga., was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital after being shot five times and is facing a long recovery, according to family members.

Epstein was charged with one count of felony murder, two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of aggravated battery. He has been held at the jail without bond since his arrest, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.

Cobb Police have not indicated a motive for the shootings.

According to Cobb Magistrate Court records, Epstein’s court-appointed attorneys did not pursue a bond request.

Kim Isaza, public information officer for the Cobb District Attorney’s Office, said the next step is to present the case to a grand jury, ideally within a 90-day period.

The quiet neighborhood street in the Kensington subdivision was blocked off by police, including SWAT units and the Cobb Police mobile command unit, after a resident called 911 to report an active shooter.

Other neighbors were asked to stay inside after the shootings, which took place around 2:30 p.m., and as the contractors were wrapping up their work day at Epstein’s home. Police said Epstein was peacefully taken into custody shortly after 3 p.m.

East Cobb News does not publish photographs of crime suspects before their cases have gone through the legal system, and then only if they are convicted or plead guilty and are sentenced.

On Monday, Bonnie Irlyn Epstein, Epstein’s wife since 1971, filed for divorce in Cobb Superior Court, saying the marriage “is irretrievably broken.”

Court documents indicate that Bonnie Epstein separated from her husband on March 7, the day after the shootings, and that her divorce complaint was to be served to him at the jail.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Man who kidnapped woman at Roswell Road workplace gets prison sentence

by

A Cartersville man who was convicted of abducting a woman from her workplace on Roswell Road in Marietta last year was given a 20-year prison sentence by a Cobb judge on Thursday.Roswell Road kidnapping

Antoine Latroy Williams, 40, must serve at least 18 years behind bars, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s office, with the remainder on probation.

The sentence was handed down by Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster after Williams was convicted of kidnapping, sexual battery, and three counts of simple battery on Wednesday.

According to prosecutors, Williams met the woman, who is in her early 20s, on Feb. 25, 2018 and offered her a job. The following day he went to her place of business on Roswell Road in the city of Marietta five times and waited for her in the parking lot.

She drove away and he followed her, and a short time later she pulled over to the side of the road, according to prosecutors, who said Williams then forced the woman into his car.

The DA’s office said Williams drove her around Cobb County in his car before traveling to Cartersville and threatened to hurt her if she tried to escape. He also put his hand on her thigh, grabbed her hair, and slapped her hand, prosecutors said.

They also said Willliams threatened to hurt her if she tried to escape, and he groped her on the thigh, pulled her hair and struck her hand.

After Williams stopped at a QuickTrip in Cartersville, prosecutors said the woman managed to escape.

At the trial, prosecutors alleged that Williams has a history of violence toward women. A woman testified that he sexually assaulted her in Los Angeles in 2011.

“Every shiny object you dangled in front of this girl: a Mercedes, cash, a phone and a job was just to lure her into your control. I don’t see these as tokens of your affection, you were grooming her, pure and simple,” Schuster said at the sentencing. “I see you as nothing more than a predator.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Lyft driver sentenced to 35 years for raping female passenger in Cobb

by
Jerome Booze, Lyft driver sentenced Cobb rape
Jerome Antonio Booze

A Cobb Superior Court Judge sentenced a Lyft driver to 35 years in prison Tuesday for raping a female passenger near her apartment in Cobb County in late 2016.

The Cobb District Attorney’s office said Jerome Antonio Booze, 40, of Decatur, was convicted by a Cobb Superior Court jury on Monday. Kim Isaza, a spokeswoman for the DA’s office, said the sentence was handed down by Judge Ann Harris.

Booze was charged in January 2917 after driving a female college student from a night of drinking at a bar in Atlanta to her Vinings apartment on Dec. 10, 2016. According to testimony at the trial, the woman’s friends called for a Lyft around 4 a.m. because she had become intoxicated and they didn’t want her driving home. They had been celebrating a friend’s 21st birthday.

According to prosecutors, the woman said she had flashbacks the next morning of having sex with someone, but said she had no memory of the Lyft ride or of getting home. She told her parents she had been raped and went to Grady Memorial Hospital for medical treatment before filing charges with Atlanta Police, who transferred the case to Cobb Police.

The attack occurred in the back seat of Booze’s car near her apartment building, according to prosecutors. Booze was indicted in February 2017.

Prosecutors said Booze initially told Cobb Police that he denied he had sex with the woman, then later said he did have sex with her but said she initiated it and that he didn’t know she was intoxicated.

During the trial, Booze testified that the woman held down his arm and climbed on him and reiterated that he didn’t know she was drunk.

That didn’t convince the jury, which convicted him on the sole charge of felony rape, Isaza said. Harris told Booze before sentencing that trial evidence showed the woman was incapable of giving consent.

“This predator exploited a position of trust and targeted a vulnerable, intoxicated female. This verdict demonstrates that those who prey on women who do not have the capacity to consent will be held accountable,” said Courtney Veal, Cobb assistant district attorney.

After his release from prison, Booze will serve the rest of his life on probation as a registered sex offender, Isaza said. 

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Child psychologist gets 20 years in prison for molesting Cobb girl

by

An Atlanta child psychologist who worked out of an office in East Cobb has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to molestation and exploitation charges, including posting a photo online of a girl he victimized in Cobb County in 2017.Jonathan Gersh, Cobb child molestation

The Cobb District Attorney’s Office on Friday said that Jonathan Gersh, 38, pleaded guilty to six counts of child molestation and four counts of sexual exploitation of children.

Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster ordered Gersh to serve 20 years in prison and 20 more on probation, according to the Cobb DA’s office.

Prosecutors said the acts took place at the victim’s home at an unincorporated Marietta address. She was eight years old at the time.

Gersh was associated with Intown Psychological Associates, which had several offices in metro Atlanta, including one at 1744 Roswell Road in East Cobb.

A woman psychologist who had been dating Gersh told the court she had been “manipulated” into a relationship with him so he could have access to her daughter, and she called him a “selfish, perverted, manipulative sociopath,” according to the DA’s office.

Gersh was arrested Feb. 14, 2018, after Cobb authorities were alerted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which had gotten a tip from Australian law enforcement of an IP address which contained graphic images of child pornography, according to prosecutors.

The DA’s office said Cobb Police got a search warrant on Gersh’s mobile phone, and found more photos of what was termed “child erotica,” including images of children in bathing suits in public places.

“He is an opportunist. He is a child molester. And, he’s an exploiter of children in the worst way,” Cobb Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring said.

“These pictures are not baseball cards to be traded. This is pure and simple sex trafficking,” Schuster said in court.

Gersh, who has been in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center since his arrest, will be given sex offender status following his release from prison, the Cobb DA’s office said.

“Aside from this conduct, he’s led an exemplary life,” Gersh’s attorney, Richard Grossman, told the court.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

Former Kell teacher sentenced for sexual assault of student

by

A former Kell High School teacher who pleaded guilty last week to sexually assaulting a student on campus will serve five years in prison.Spencer Herron

That’s the sentence that was handed down to Spencer Herron by Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy, who also gave the former video production instructor 15 years on probation.

Court records show that Herron, 49, who was arrested on June 1, 2018, pleaded guilty last Friday to five counts of sexual assault on a student on the Kell campus.

They involved multiple sexual encounters with a female student that started in 2016, and continued through the 2017-18 school year, according to his indictment in August.

According to his sentencing document, Herron was given sex offender status by Flournoy. As a first-time offender, Herron could have his criminal record cleared if he meets the terms of his probation.

After his release from prison, he is not allowed to have any contact with minors, take up a residence with minors or contact with the victim. He also must abide by other restrictions while on probation.

Herron was a teacher at Kell for 16 years and was the school’s teacher of the year in 2016. In what turned out to be his final year as a teacher, Herron was a member of the Cobb County School District’s Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb man convicted on drug charges gets long prison sentence

by

An East Cobb man initially suspected of human trafficking in a 2016 search of a home on Little Willeo Road has been sentenced on multiple drug convictions, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.East Cobb man convicted

Solomon Santana Noellin, 42, was convicted on Thursday by a Cobb Superior Court jury of possession of methamphetamines with intent to distribute, possession of methadone with intent to distribute, and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, as well as possession of cocaine and Alprazolam, according to DA spokeswoman Kim Isaza.

She said Noellin was given a 30-year sentence by Superior Court Judge Joyette Holmes, with eight years to serve and the rest on probation.

According to Cobb prosecutors, law enforcement executed a search warrant at a rented home on Little Willeo Road in East Cobb on Aug. 9, 2016, based on allegations that sex trafficking activities were taking place there.

When they entered the home, police found cocaine, methamphetamines and other controlled substances and executed a second search warrant, Isaza said.

She said that agents from the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Organized Crime Unit confiscated 61 grams of a mixture containing methamphetamines; three grams of cocaine; 49 methadone pills; more than 350 grams of marijuana; and one bar of Alprazolam at the Little Willeo Road home.

Isaza said two women who were at the scene during the first search warrant denied they were there for trafficking purposes.

According to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records, Noellin’s home address is listed as being on Canton Road.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Windy Hill Road motel sued in sex trafficking case by Cobb DA’s office

by
The Masters Inn, Windy Hill Road motel sued
Source: OpenStreetMap

Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds said Friday his office has filed a lawsuit to force a Windy Hill Road motel to address sex trafficking and drug activity on its premises or be subject to forfeiting its property.

A release by the DA’s office said the “public nuisance” measure was being applied to The Masters Inn, 2682 Windy Hill Road, located near the Windy Hill Hospital, the junction of Interstate 75 and SunTrust Park.

UPDATED, Wed., Jan. 9, 11:55 a.m.: The AJC is reporting the motel has closed temporarily for renovations, and that the owner has reached an agreement with the DA’s office to address the crime issues.

ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES:

Authorities say the motel has been a haven for drug and sex trafficking and was the scene of a deadly shooting in 2015. In late 2017 Cobb Police arrested a man there on felony drug charges and discovered he had been holding a female against her well and using her for sex trafficking, according to the release.

The DA’s office said it was approached earlier last year by a lawyers’ group, Civil Lawyers Against World Sex Slavery, and along with Cobb Police compiled data on hotels in the county with high levels of arrests, especially for drugs, prostitution and trafficking.

RELATED STORY

According to the lawsuit, filed in Cobb Superior Court, The Masters Inn was known to police as “notorious hotbed of criminal activity that has been the subject of countless investigations.”

The release said The Masters Inn ownership must take the following steps:

  • contact and cooperate with police about suspected criminal activity;
  • require valid photo identification of all guests;
  • maintain complete guest rosters and a list of those previously arrested there;
  • require staff training to recognize and prevent human trafficking;
  • hire a licensed and armed security guard;
  • install outdoor lighting, video surveillance and fencing;
  • ban loitering.

According to the release, the first of several compliance hearings will be held before Cobb Superior Court Judge Kimberly Childs on March 14.

The DA’s office said the suit is believed to be one of the first in Georgia aimed at curbing sex trafficking activity.

The announcement of the lawsuit comes at the end of a week of public events in the state about sex trafficking. Georgia is regarded as one of the busiest states in the nation for sex trafficking, and January is National Sex Trafficking Awareness Month.

Earlier this week, dozens of school buses formed a caravan to reflect the estimated 3,600 children authorities say are used for sex trafficking in Georgia.

Among those taking part were Attorney General Chris Carr and Governor-elect Brian Kemp. The faith-based group Street Grace also has been leading the charge.

The upcoming session of the Georgia General Assembly is expected to include sex trafficking legislation, and efforts are underway to crack down on sex trafficking ahead of the Super Bowl, which takes place in Atlanta in early February.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Top East Cobb stories for 2018: Johnson Ferry Road accidents claim two teenagers; 2014 murder conviction

by
Johnson Ferry Road accidents
An 18-year-old motorcyclist died in March after crashing into a landscaping truck on Johnson Ferry Road. (ECN file).

Two 18-year-olds from East Cobb were tragically killed in Johnson Ferry Road accidents in 2018.

Alexander Seidnitzer, who worked at Zeal Kitchen & Bar and was planning to attend culinary school, was heading southbound on Johnson Ferry near Bishop Lake Road on the morning of March 26 when he slammed into a landscaping truck that was pulling out of a subdivision.

After being rushed to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, Seidnitzer was pronounced dead. No charges were filed in the accident.

Friends, family and work colleagues held a celebration of life event in his memory at Zeal.

On the July 4 weekend, a recent graduate of Pope High School was traveling in a vehicle further up on Johnson Ferry when she rolled down a window and began yelling and screaming before falling out and hitting the road.

Alyssa Prindle, who was planning to attend Georgia Southern University, never left intensive care at Kennestone and died of her injuries on July 25.

The driver of the SUV, 17-year-old Abigail Cook, also of East Cobb, was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide, DUI and other charges. In November, she was indicted by a Cobb grand jury.

Other major public safety stories for 2018 in East Cobb include the August conviction of a man for the murder of Jerry Moore, who was found stabbed to death in his home off Holly Springs Road in January 2014.

Johnathan Allen Wheeler worked at a Woodstock bakery that Moore financed and that was run by Ross Byrne, who was Moore’s roommate. Byrne was charged with homicide two weeks after Wheeler was sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

Former Pope volunteer wrestling coach Ron Gorman received long sentences for sexually abusing young athletes, both in East Cobb and in Pennsylvania, where he coached previously.

A former Kell High School teacher of the year is facing charges of sexually assaulting a student from 2016 and 2018.

Robert New, a former officer at Cobb Police Precinct 4 in East Cobb, was arrested for aggravated assault of a woman, solicitation of a minor girl, possession of computer pornography and other charges. He resigned shortly after that in June.

Crime

Traffic

Courts and trials

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Canadian man who tried to lure Cobb teenage girl into sex gets 16 years

by

A Canadian man who had flown to Atlanta to have sex with a Cobb teenage girl last year has been sentenced by a federal judge.Cobb teenage girl, Kell High School teacher indicted

Yves Joseph Legault, 54, from Toronto, will serve 16 years in prison for a variety of sexual exploitation charges that include his attempt to meet a 13-year-old Cobb County girl last year. He also will be on supervised release for life and will be deported to Canada upon his release from prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta.

Legault pleaded guilty in September to several charges, including coercing and enticing the production of child sexual exploitation images over the Internet. Federal prosecutors said he preyed on victims in Georgia and Mississippi at the same time.

He was arrested last August at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after getting off a plane for what federal prosecutors was a trip to have sex with the Marietta girl, whom he met via Omegle, an anonymous online text and video chat tool.

During Legault’s trial, prosecutors said Legault and the girl moved their chats to Google Hangouts, where he asked her to perform sex acts for him on a live video stream. Later, he arranged to travel to Georgia to meet her for in-person sex acts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the girl’s mother alerted the FBI after her daughter received a package from Canada, and after intercepting messages between Legault and the girl.

While Legault was facing charges in Georgia, prosecutors also said he had engaged in similar behavior with an eight-year-old girl in Pascagoula, Miss. He was charged there with one count of coercing and enticing the production of child pornography, and also pleaded guilty to that charge in federal court in Atlanta.

“Predators like Legault are always lurking on line, and a threat to our children. Hopefully his sentencing will serve as a warning to all parents to monitor what their children are doing on the internet and on their cell phones,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said in a statement.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said both the Georgia and Mississippi cases are part of the U.S. Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood initiative to protect children from online exploitation and abuse.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Marietta man found guilty of second-degree murder for ignoring daughter’s medical emergency

by

A man whom prosecutors alleged ignored his infant daughter’s serious medical emergency at their Delk Road-area apartment last year was found guilty of second-degree murder on Tuesday.Sidrick Melancon

The Cobb District Attorney’s office said Sidrick Raymone Melancon Sr., 32, was convicted by a Cobb Superior Court jury of all the charges against him, including murder in the second degree, cruelty to children in the second degree, and two counts of influencing a witness.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 21, and could get up to 50 years in prison.

He was charged after dropping off his daughter to an urgent care location on Aug. 5, 2017 after she was unresponsive and purplish, then leaving the scene with another person to run errands and go to a liquor store, according to prosecutors.

They said at the trial that Melancon delivered the girl’s body “like a sack of potatoes” and that doctors found Laura Higgenbotham, who was 10 months old, suffering from massive bleeding on her brain. She also had bleeding in the eye, some neck trauma and leg fractures, according to testimony presented at the trial.

The child was rushed to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, then airlifted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta before doctors declared her brain dead and removed her from life support, according to prosecutors.

The girl’s mother, Sadai Higgenbotham, 27, texted Melancon the morning of Aug. 5 from her Collingwood Drive apartment that she was unable to wake the child, the Cobb DA’s office said. Sadai Higgenbotham is awaiting trial and also is facing murder and other charges in connection with her daughter’s death.

Melancon was arrested on Aug. 8 and has remained in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center without bond since then.

Also living at the apartment was Melancon’s long-time girlfriend and three children he fathered with her. The woman had threatened to call the Department of Family and Children’s Services for what prosecutors said was Sadai Higgenbotham’s treatment of her daughter.

At his trial, Melancon testified he did not know Laura Higgenbotham was his child at the time of her death. Prosecutors said that investigators reviewed text messages between Melancon and Sadai Higgenbotham and his girlfriend, and alleged that he had asked both of them to lie to police.

According to one of the messages presented at the trial, Melancon said: “I didn’t do anything to that baby, but I didn’t do anything for that baby. So . . . that’s on me.”

Said Cobb assistant district attorney Drew Healy, who tried the case: “This man saw, heard, and was told about everything happening to this defenseless child. Despite all of these warnings, the defendant ignored them, and shut down the opportunities for this child’s life to be saved.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

Former East Cobb wrestling coach pleads guilty to child molestation

by

Ron Gorman, who served as a volunteer coach with the Pope wrestling teams, pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court on Tuesday to two counts of child molestation.Ron Gorman, former East Cobb wrestling coach

Gorman, 53, was given a 25-year sentence by Judge Gregory Poole, with 20 to serve without parole, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.

Gorman was to have gone on trial after being charged with abusing a 14-year-old boy in Cobb County in 2010, according to prosecutors, who said the victim disclosed the abuse last year to authorities in Monroe County, Pa.

That’s where Gorman had been sentenced to 20-40 years in February for sexually assaulting boys there, including the boy prosecutors said was also victimized in Cobb.

According to the Cobb DA’s office, Gorman was extradited to Cobb to face the charges here and will be returned to Pennsylvania, where he will serve his sentences concurrently.

“This is a prime example of how child predators can work their way into positions of trust and authority, and then turn that trust into a weapon against children,” said Chuck Boring, Cobb deputy chief assistant district attorney and head of the Cobb DA’s special victims unit.

Gorman moved to Cobb in 2009 and was a volunteer with Pope Junior Wrestling, which feeds into the highly successful Pope High School program, where he also was a parent volunteer. He also was a coach at Life College in Marietta.

Gorman was arrested at his East Cobb home in March 2017 and eventually was charged by Pennsylvania authorities with a total of 513 counts, including child rape and statutory sexual assault.

His accusers in Pennsylvania claimed Gorman subjected them to frequent and continuous assaults, sometimes on a weekly basis, for several years, including in Georgia.

News reports last March and earlier this year quoted a Cobb woman who became concerned about Gorman in 2011. That’s when she saw a crude, sexually themed Facebook message sent by him to her son, then 12, and a member of the Pope junior wrestling program.

She said she was told by then-Pope principal Rick Beaulieu not to go to law enforcement. Gorman was suspended from any involvement with Pope wrestling for a year, but it was six years later that he was charged.

Boring said in court Tuesday that there are no other charges that Gorman is facing in Cobb. In Pennsylvania, prosecutors heard allegations that Gorman abused minors dating back to the 1980s, but the statue of limitations had run out.

“Hopefully this conclusion gives his victims some sort of closure and justice, whether they have reported his abuse or not,” Boring said.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb teen indicted for death of girl who fell from moving car

by
East Cobb teen indicted
Alyssa Prindle never left ICU after falling out of a moving car on Johnson Ferry Road July 5.

An East Cobb teen charged with the death of another teen who fell out of a moving car over the July 4 holiday has been indicted by a Cobb grand jury.

Abigail Cook, 17, is facing charges of vehicular homicide, having a false identification and underage possession of alcohol.

The indictments were handed Nov. 1, according to online documents filed with the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.

Cook, whose home address is listed as Wood Thrush Way, was charged shortly after Alyssa Prindle, 18, a recent graduate of Pope High School, was seriously injured in the incident and taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital.

Cobb Police said Prindle was a backseat passenger in an SUV driven by Cook that was heading north on Johnson Ferry Road near Sewell Mill Road around 2 a.m. on July 5.

According to police, Prindle rolled down a window of a silver 2001 Hyundai Santa Fe and began hanging out of the vehicle while it was in motion, yelling and screaming before she fell out.

Prindle, who was to have been a freshman at Georgia Southern University this fall, was in intensive care at Kennestone until she died on July 27.

The charges against Cook, who bonded out of jail shortly after her arrest, were upgraded to include vehicular homicide. She was indicted by the grand jury for violating her class D drivers license hour restrictions.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Nearly two dozen Cobb criminal street gang defendants get long sentences

by

The Cobb District Attorney’s Office said Friday that 23 people have been sentenced to long prison terms for a range of gang-related criminal offenses in the county in 2015 and 2016.Cobb criminal street gang defendants

In a release, DA’s office spokeswoman Kim Isaza said that members of Get Money Squared, Wildlyfe and 2200, three criminal street gangs with roots in Cobb, pleaded guilty to drive-by shootings, drug offenses, thefts, car break-ins, assault, street-gang terrorism, criminal trespass, disrupting a public school and firearms violations.

One of the crimes tied to the defendants included a car break-in on Manning Road in the East Cobb area in January 2016.

Another case tied to the crime spree, according to prosecutors, was a drug sale at Windy Hill Road and Circle 75 Parkway in May 2016.

Isaza said Cobb Superior Court Judge Reuben Green handed down sentences ranging from 10 years to 20 years.

She said many of them were given first-offender status, which means that if they complete their custody and probation periods without further incidents, their records will be sealed.

Isaza said the defendants are between 20-27 years old and come from Cobb, Woodstock, Lawrenceville, Atlanta, and Dothan, Ala. The last of the defendants was sentenced last month, she added, and all of them pleaded guilty to racketeering.

Investigating the case were the Cobb Police Anti-Gang Enforcement Unit, Smyrna Police, Marietta Police and Cobb County School District Police.

“Members and associates of these gangs admitted that they sold drugs, broke into dozens of cars to commit thefts and committed acts of violence against people outside the gangs, all to increase their status within the criminal organization and further the gangs’ violent reputations,” said Cobb Senior Assistant District Attorney Jaret Usher, who prosecuted the case, in a statement.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Woman pleads guilty but mentally ill in Cobb crime spree that included death of pedestrian

by

A woman who went on a crime spree that included the death of a pedestrian near Bells Ferry Road two years ago has been sentenced to prison.Kristie Renee Nesby, Cobb crime spree

The Cobb District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that Kristie Renee Nesby, 45, of Fresno, Texas, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison, with 20 to serve and the rest on parole.

She pleaded guilty but mentally ill last week to several felony charges, including killing Luci Turner, 71, who was struck by a car driven by Nesby.

Prosecutors said that incident came at the end what the DA’s office called a “bizarre” string of crimes by Nesby in May 2016.

Nesby, who was to go on trial next week, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to 10 charges, including homicide by vehicle, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, hit and run, aggravated assault, and possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony.

Around 5 a.m. on May 11, 2016, they said Nesby robbed the owner of a Smyrna cleaning business, then hit another vehicle while speeding on Interstate 575. Prosecutors said Nesby fled the scene, drove the wrong way on an exit ramp and hit another car.

Shortly after 6 a.m., the DA’s office said Nesby was driving on Cobb Parkway near Bells Ferry Road when her car left the road and went on a sidewalk, hitting Turner, who was walking to her job at a nearby Burger King.

Turner, who had been a teacher and a volunteer at MUST Ministries, died of her injuries at WellStar Kennestone Hospital.

After that incident, prosecutors said Nesby hijacked a car driven by a female motorist on Bells Ferry Road and fled toward Interstate 75. She then hijacked a second car and robbed a woman of her cell phone, according to the DA’s office.

Prosecutors said that while driving to Atlanta Nesby called 911 and said she would take a hostage and kill the hostage and herself if police didn’t chase her with blue lights and stop her.

She crashed into several vehicles in Atlanta and tried to hijack another car before being arrested there, according to prosecutors, who said police found her in possession of two handguns.

Prosecutors said Nesby contended that among other things, a fast food employee put something in a soft drink she had ordered that caused her to hallucinate and commit the crimes.

The Cobb DA’s office enlisted the help of mental health experts who evaluated Nesby, and that prosecutors and Nesby’s attorney asked the court to find her mentally ill.

Cobb Superior Court Judge Stephen Schuster accepted Nesby’s plea before issuing the sentence, the Cobb DA’s office said.

Nesby, who has been in the Cobb County jail since her arrest, will receive credit for time served, according to the Cobb DA’s office, which said she also will receive mental health treatment in prison.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Man convicted of raping 4-year-old girl in Delk Road apartment sentenced to 2 life terms

by

A man found guilty last week of raping a 4-year-old girl at his Delk Road apartment was given two life sentences plus 120 years.Frederick Wade Sherwood, Delk Road apartment rape

Frederick Wade Sherwood, 48, was convicted Friday by a Cobb Superior Court jury of all charges, including rape, aggravated sodomy and child molestation, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.

The sentence was handed down by Cobb Superior Court Judge Grant Brantley.

Prosecutors said the attacks occurred between 2014 and 2015 in Sherwood’s Delk Road apartment (according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office, his home address is listed as 2650 Delk Road, the Stratford Ridge Apartments).

Prosecutors said the girl was four years old when the assaults began, and she disclosed the abuse to family members in early 2016.

During the trial, according to the DA’s office, she clutched a stuffed animal on the witness stand, saying she initially told no one about the abuse because she feared Sherwood would be mad at her.

A male witness testified during the trial to having been sexually abused by Sherwood years before in another city.

“Any time a small child has to face their abuser in court is particularly difficult,” Cobb assistant district attorney Katie Gropper, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement.

“We are always hopeful that the judicial process is an empowering step towards healing. While we can’t undo the harm the Defendant caused to this child, the jury’s verdict will help bring a sense of justice and closure and ensure that Mr. Sherwood can never harm another child in our community.”

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Former Cobb Medical Examiner sentenced in county drug case

by

A few weeks after he was sentenced to federal prison for exchanging opioid prescriptions for sexual favors, the former Cobb Medical Examiner has been sentenced on drug-related charges in Cobb County.Former Cobb medical examiner sentenced

Joe Burton, 73, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday by Cobb Chief Magistrate Court Judge Joyette Holmes. In July, he pleaded guilty to several counts of racketeering, fraud in obtaining controlled substances, and violations of Georgia’s controlled substances act.

“No one is above the law,” Cobb assistant district attorney Jason Saliba said in a statement. “We prosecute anyone who distributes narcotics in Cobb County.”

Burton was given an eight-year federal prison sentence on Aug. 29. According to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office, Burton will serve his sentences concurrently.

The Cobb medical examiner from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, Burton pleaded guilty in federal court in May to being part of a conspiracy to illegally distribute opioid painkillers in exchange for sexual favors.

He was one of several people indicted in February by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta. According to his federal indictment, Burton issued more than 1,100 opioid prescriptions over a two-year period beginning in July 2015, amounting to more than 108,000 individual doses, including over 66,000 oxycodone pills.

Federal prosecutors said Burton prescribed opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone without conducting a medical examination of patients or even meeting with them at all.

The street value of the oxycodone pills alone, prosecutors estimated, was more than $2 million.

Three female co-defendants in the federal case had sex with Burton in exchange for receiving the drugs for themselves and for others, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Kell High School teacher indicted on five counts of student sexual assault

by

A Kell High School teacher arrested earlier this summer for allegedly assaulting a student at the school has been indicted.

According to Cobb District Attorney’s office information, Spencer Wayne Herron, 48, was indicted in the past week on five counts of sexual assault of a student. Kell High School teacher indicted

Herron, who had been a video teacher at Kell for 16 years, was named the school’s teacher of the year two years ago.

Arrest warrants indicate Herron has been accused of having sex multiple times with a student on campus from early 2016 through the 2017-18 school year.

Herron was taken to the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on June 1, and remains there on a $50,000 bond, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.

Related stories

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!