Estranged wife's family: Husband planned Sandy Springs murder-suicide

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By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Irene Mickens arrived at the Sandy Springs apartment Tuesday night to tend to her daughter, who, according to her soon-to-be ex-husband, was seriously ill.

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Vino Wong, vwong@ajc.com Police towed away a black BMW from the scene of the killing.

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facebook.com Irene Mickens

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facebook.com Jamal Mickens

Photos: Police investigate double killing

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The five-year-old was not sick, it turns out. Jamal Mickens had taken the girl, along with the couple's 7-year-old son, to his sister's home in McDonough earlier that day before returning home to meet his wife.

Sometime between 6 p.m. Tuesday and 9 a.m. Wednesday, the recent Emory University graduate shot his estranged spouse in the head before turning the gun on himself, Sandy Springs police spokesman Steve Rose said.

"He lured her there," said Donna Penn, a friend of Mickens' who was on the phone with her minutes before she arrived at the Hammond Drive apartment were the couple lived, though not together.

Their bodies were found by police called to scene by Irene Mickens' father, concerned for his daughter's safety. Officers found a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun next to 40-year-old Jamal Mickens' dead body.

"This is what I feared," Irene Mickens' sister, Katherine Stone-Crosby, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I think he felt at wit's end."

Jamal Mickens was due in court Thursday, said his wife's attorney, Regina Edwards, on a contempt charge. "He stopped paying the bills," she said, adding that Mickens had let his children's health insurance expire.

Irene Mickens, 40, had filed for divorce from her husband last November -- the second time she had done so in three years. She was determined to see it through, say friends and family.

"She was proud of herself," Penn said. "She was getting her life back."

Jamal Mickens, who graduated in 2010 with a master's in business administration from Emory, was a controlling spouse, even dictating who she could invite to their wedding, say those who knew him.

"She had to sneak around just to call me," said former roommate Marie Barton-Tate. Mickens was godmother to her son."He kept her from friends, family."

"When she told me she was divorcing him I thought she would finally be free," Barton-Tate told the AJC.

Court records confirm the couple's tempestuous relationship. Irene Mickens was granted a temporary restraining order against her husband in March 2009 after filing a family violence complaint. It was dismissed a month later.

That same month, April 2009, she filed for divorce but changed her mind soon after.

"She only went back for the kids," Stone-Crosby said. Jamal Mickens entered an anger management class, she said.

Penn said her friend "honored her marriage and family. She wanted to make it work."

The couple met in Minnesota, where a young Jamal Mickens was a budding entrepreneur and mentor to troubled youth, said Monica Sturgis, Irene Mickens' roommate at the time.

"He gave the perception of being a giving person," she said. "She loved his spirit."

Irene Mickens was all about giving back to her community, choosing to take teaching jobs in inner-city schools, Sturgis said. "She told me, ‘I want to go where the children of color are in need.' "

Last fall, Irene Mickens finally concluded her marriage couldn't be repaired. She moved to Charlotte with her sister where she began plotting a new beginning, sending out resumes for a teaching job and training for a triathlon.

"She wanted a healthy lifestyle for herself and her kids," Stirgus said Mickens told her in one of their last conversations. "She knew that wasn't going to happen with Jamal."

Staff writers Fran Jeffries and Aaron Edwards contributed to this article.