Georgia News Roundup

Death penalty sought in murder

ATLANTA (TNS) — Calling the deaths of a mother and son “outrageously … vile,” Gwinnett’s top prosecutor said Monday he will seek the death penalty against a Norcross man accused of torturing them last August.

Rickey Taylor, 28, was indicted on 19 charges, including murder, armed robbery and false imprisonment in connection with the deaths of 61-year-old Nicola Sramek and her 29-year-old son, James Sramek, according to the office of Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter.

Nicola and James Sramek were found Aug. 7, 2016, in an apartment on Chelsea Park Lane with blunt-force trauma and stab wounds after a family member could not reach them and called police, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Porter described the deaths as “horrible” and said “it involved torture, depravity of mind or an aggravated battery.”

Man sentenced in attack on elderly woman

ATLANTA (TNS) — A Henry County man pleaded guilty Monday to stabbing and beating a 73-year-old woman inside a McDonough senior assisted living center last year, officials said.

Gregory Stillwell Jr., 37, was sentenced to 40 years with 20 years to serve in state prison, Assistant District Attorney Megan Matteucci said in a news release.

Stillwell forced his way into the Grier Manor Senior Living Center in McDonough on April 27, 2016, and attacked Icilda Walters.

Walters told the judge Monday that Stillwell knocked on her door and asked to use her phone before the attack.

“He then forced his way inside and grabbed a knife from the victim’s kitchen,” Matteucci said in the release. “After the attack, the victim crawled to the door and cried out for help.”

Fourth teen dies from wreck injuries

ATLANTA (TNS) — A Stephens County High School varsity football player died Friday, one week after a car wreck that killed three other teenage passengers.

Kainan Green, 17, of Toccoa, was hospitalized in critical condition after the June 30 crash.

Stephens County is about 96 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Teammate Eli Alexander was killed in the crash along with 16-year-old Kennedy Wright and 18-year-old Tristen Helton, according to a newspaper report.

Family and friends created a Facebook page dedicated to Green.

Driver faces DUI, homicide charges

ATLANTA (TNS) — A 21-year-old is facing homicide by vehicle and driving under the influence charges in connection to a crash that killed a 15-year-old high school athlete last week, officials said.

Brayden Lewis Clark of Loganville allegedly ran a stop sign about 9:30 p.m. July 4 and struck an Acura at the intersection of Lumpkin Campground and Industrial Park roads in Dawson County, according to a police report obtained Monday by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Dawson County is about 75 miles northeast of Atlanta.

Clark was driving a 2011 Dodge Ram truck, officials said.

Xavier Sanchez, 16, was driving the Acura with passengers Eliza Farrell, 15, Rachel Rajczak, 15, and Kevin Arias, 16, The AJC previously reported.

Farrell, a member of the Lambert High School junior varsity soccer team in Forsyth County, was pronounced dead on the scene after paramedics extricated her from the Acura, the report states. The other three teens sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Clark was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, where blood test results for drugs and alcohol are pending.

He was listed in stable condition.

In addition to the homicide by vehicle and DUI charges, Clark faces reckless driving, failure to stop at a stop sign and other traffic citations.

Parents file suit in wrestling mat death

MACON (TNS) — The parents of a Valdosta teenager found dead in a rolled-up wrestling mat have filed a lawsuit in Bibb County Superior Court alleging that their son’s death wasn’t accidental, as authorities ruled.

Instead, Kenneth and Jacquelyn Johnson contend that authorities participated in a cover-up, committing violations of the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, according to the suit filed Friday.

The suit names 45 defendants, among them: several GBI employees, including a medical examiner and an investigator who live in Bibb County; the Lowndes County school district and its superintendent; the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and several employees, including a former sheriff; the city of Valdosta, its city manager and a former police chief; and several then-Lowndes County High School students.

Security cameras reportedly showed Kendrick Lamar Johnson as he entered the gym at Lowndes County High in 2013, but they did not record how he died. Students found his body the next day. A sheriff’s office investigation concluded that Johnson went into the rolled-up mat head-first to retrieve a pair of shoes found beneath his body.

A GBI autopsy determined that the 17-year-old died after becoming stuck upside down and was unable to breathe.

The Department of Justice issued a statement in June 2016 saying federal investigators didn’t find sufficient evidence to support criminal charges.

About a month ago, a judge dismissed a federal lawsuit that the Johnsons had filed, saying they had missed deadlines in filing court paperwork. The Johnsons were ordered to pay attorneys fees to those they accused of wrongdoing after dismissing a separate prior lawsuit.