Ross Byrne

Ex-business partner of murdered East Cobb man gets 20 years

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Ross Byrne, Ex-business partner sentenced murder East Cobb man
Ross Byrne

A former bakery owner charged with plotting the murder of his former roommate and business partner in East Cobb more than eight years ago was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison.

Ross Byrne, 58, pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court on April 8 to charges of violating the RICO Act, conspiracy to commit concealing a death, conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension of a suspect, and criminal solicitation to commit murder, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.

The Cobb DA said in a release Tuesday that the sentence was handed down by Judge Mary Staley Clark.

Byrne was arrested in 2018 for his role in the death of Jerry Moore, who was found stabbed to death 32 times in his home off Holly Springs Road in January 2014.

They were partners in The Best Dang Bakery Around in Woodstock and both lived together for a time at Moore’s East Cobb home.

Byrne was charged two weeks after Johnathan Wheeler, an employee at the bakery, was convicted of killing Moore and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.

Byrne’s indictment alleged that he plotted the killing after Moore wanted out of the business partnership because the bakery was financially struggling.

Jerry Moore
Jerry Moore

According to Byrne’s indictment and testimony presented in court, Byrne—who had since moved elsewhere—helped clean blood from Wheeler’s clothes after the murder and kept items stolen from Moore’s home.

Prosecutors said after the murder, Byrne became the sole owner of the bakery, which opened on Highway 92 in Woodstock in 2008.

Byrne had denied knowing anything about the murder, but prosecutors claimed in court that after Wheeler’s trial, Byrne asked an inmate to kill Wheeler, fearful he would testify against him.

The DA’s office said that in entering his guilty plea, Byrne admitted his roles in both plotting Moore’s murder and in wanting Wheeler killed.

“Despite having introduced Jerry Moore to his killer, this defendant showed absolutely no remorse for Johnathan Wheeler’s vicious killing,” said Cobb Senior Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green said in the statement, who prosecuted the Wheeler and Byrne cases.

Wheeler is serving his sentences at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

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Former business partner of murdered East Cobb man indicted

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A Woodstock man has been indicted for the 2014 murder of an East Cobb man who was his former business partner and roommate.

Jerry Moore, murdered East Cobb man
Jerry Moore

Ross Allyson Byrne, 56, was arrested Aug. 30, 2018 for the killing of Jerry Moore, who lived in a neighborhood off Holly Springs Road.

That was just a few days after Johnathan Wheeler of Stockbridge was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole for the murder of Moore.

Byrne was indicted by a Cobb Superior Court grand jury on Oct. 3 on eight felony counts, including malice murder, felony murder, conspiracy to commit a felony and violation of rackeetering laws.

Another count alleges that in March of this year, Byrne asked an individual identified as “J.G.” to have Wheeler killed in exchange for money.

The indictment states that Byrne conspired with Wheeler to commit the murder of Moore, who was found stabbed to death multiple times with a knife in his home at 2808 Gracewood Drive on Jan. 25, 2014.

Byrne had been the owner of Best Dang Bakery Around in Woodstock, and Moore had been an investor, according to testimony presented at Wheeler’s trial.

Byrne lived at Moore’s Gracewood Drive home for seven years, according to the indictment, and each man had a 50 percent ownership stake in the bakery, of around $35,000 each.

By Jan. 2014, Moore wanted out of the business partnership, concerned about Byrne’s spending habits, according to the indictment, which stated that Byrne had moved of the East Cobb home by then.

The indictment alleges that Byrne and Wheeler, a former bakery employee who had served 10 years in prison in Ohio for armed robbery and other offenses, conspired to steal from Moore. The plot, according to the indictment, was to have Wheeler come to Moore’s home and commit assault, burglary and theft.

After Moore was found dead, the indictment states, the plot involved “tampering with evidence and false statements.”

Johnathan Allen Wheeler, East Cobb murder
Johnathan Wheeler

The indictment alleges that Byrne let Wheeler come to his home and shower after the killing, and that Byrne offered Wheeler a clean change of clothes.

According to the indictment, Wheeler confessed to the murder to his cousin, Cynthia Wheeler. She testified at Wheeler’s trial last year that they went back to Moore’s home to stage a crime scene and steal items.

The indictment said Byrne later stole Moore’s partnership interest, helped Cynthia and Johnathan Wheeler pay bills and paid for a trip Byrne and Wheeler took to the Florida Keys and for vehicles for Wheeler.

Byrne was interviewed by police two days after the murder and denied any role, according to the indictment. Wheeler was charged with homicide on Aug. 16, 2014.

In 2016, Cynthia Wheeler was sentenced for concealing a death, burglary and tampering with evidence, and agreed to testify against her cousin.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Johnathan Wheeler is incarcerated at the Smith State Prison in south Georgia.

 

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Ex-business partner of East Cobb man murdered in 2014 charged with homicide

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The former roommate and business partner of an East Cobb man murdered in 2014 has been arrested and charged with plotting the killing, and then conspiring to conceal it.Cobb sheriff

Ross Allyson Byrne, 55, of Woodstock, was booked on murder and other felony charges on Thursday afternoon, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office.

He was arrested at The Best Dang Bakery Around on Highway 92 in Woodstock and is being held without bond at the Cobb Adult Detention Center, according to jail information.

Byrne is charged with three counts of felony murder, one count of malice murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and racketeering, Cobb Sheriff’s Office records show.

According to an indictment issued by a Cobb grand jury on Thursday, Byrne is accused of orchestrating the murder of Jerry Moore, who was found stabbed 32 times at his home of Holly Springs Road on Jan. 25, 2014.

Byrne’s arrest comes nearly two weeks after Johnathan Allen Wheeler was convicted of the murder in Cobb Superior Court and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.

Wheeler worked at the bakery, which was operated by Byrne, and where Moore had been an equal partner, according to Cobb prosecutors. They said the business had been struggling and Moore wanted to end the partnership.

According to the indictment, the “primary purpose” for murdering Moore “was to steal an interest in the business of Best Dang Bakery (or bakery) as well as other property and things of value,” forming the basis of the racketeering charge.

The indictment further states that Byrne and Moore, who opened the bakery in 2008, each held a $35,000 investment; Byrne oversaw day-to-day operations while Moore handled finances.

According to the indictment, the partnership agreement stated that in the case of the death of one of the partners, “the interest of the deceased member shall be transferred to the other surviving Member or Members.”

Jerry Moore was 46 when he was found stabbed to death at his East Cobb home in Jan. 2014. (Photo: Cobb District Attorney’s Office)

By late 2013, the indictment states, the partnership was troubled. There were disputes about how to run the business, and Moore was concerned about Byrne’s spending habits.

The indictment states that by January 2014, Moore was planning to end his business partnership with Byrne and concludes that “it is unlikely” Byrne would have been able to buy out Moore’s share of the bakery.

Moore had gone as far as to draft the terms of dissolving the partnership, according to the indictment.

By then, Wheeler was no longer working at the bakery but still had a “close relationship with Byrne, whom he considered a mentor, the indictment states.

By the first of the year in 2014, according to the indictment, Byrne moved out of the home he shared with Moore on Gracewood Drive, off Holly Springs Road and north of Post Oak Tritt Road.

The indictment alleges that Byrne plotted to have Wheeler—who was released from jail in 2010 after serving 10 years in Cobb and Cherokee for robbery and assault—commit aggravated assault, burglary and theft.

Prosecutors allege that Wheeler and Byrne were in contact before, during and after the murder. Afterward, prosecutors say, Wheeler went to Byrne’s new residence in Woodstock, where he showered and was offered a change of clothes.

Wheeler returned to Moore’s home and with his cousin, Cynthia Wheeler, cleaned up the premises and stole household items, according to prosecutors. She pleaded guilty in 2016 to those charges.

The indictment states that Byrne stole Moore’s partnership interest and as of his arrest still was the owner of the bakery.

Byrne also helped Johnathan Wheeler and Cynthia Wheeler pay bills and purchased a truck for the former that was returned, according to the indictment.

Johnathan Allen Wheeler, East Cobb murder
Johnathan Allen Wheeler

The indictment states that Byrne had been interviewed by the police shortly after the murder but denied any involvement and said nothing about Wheeler, who was arrested on Aug. 16, 2014

Byrne and Wheeler continued to stay in touch over the next four years, according to the indictment, both over the phone and in writing, and prosecutors say they have recordings of conversations between the two. The indictment also states that written correspondence from Wheeler was found in Byrne’s possession when authorities obtained a search warrant earlier this week.

The indictment didn’t detail the subject matter of that correspondence, nor did it describe the recorded conversations.

In arguments to the jury at Wheeler’s trial, Cobb assistant district attorney Jesse Evans called the murder “a relentless, sustained, malicious attack by a cold-blooded killer. . . The defendant [Wheeler] pursued, out of greed and out of malice. No human being should ever have this inflicted on them.”

 

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