A Henry County judge on Tuesday denied bond for two suspects charged in the death of a DeKalb County woman whose remains were discovered in Stockbridge.
Dennis Lane, the primary suspect in the death of 23-year-old Mirsha Victor, did not appear in court Tuesday after his attorneys asked for a continuance. Lane’s brother, Cleounsee Fisher, and Fisher’s girlfriend, Ronisha Preckwinkle, will remain in jail until a grand jury considers their cases.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Statements made in court by Fisher’s and Preckwinkle’s attorneys provide some insight to the defense they will mount should they go to trial. Both placed blame for Victor’s gruesome death squarely on Lane, who is also accused of necrophilia.
“What we have in this case is a horrific act committed by Mr. Lane,” Daniel Farnsworth, Preckwinkle’s attorney, told the judge. “We have his brother assisting him in coverup, and we have the state alleging that based upon her mere presence at the location, she was involved in it.”
While all three are facing murder charges in Victor’s death, only Lane, 41, is charged with necrophilia related to video footage police found on his cellphone, according to prosecutors. Lane is also charged with murder in the death of 19-year-old Conteshia McCoy, whose remains were found July 19 lying near Victor’s in a wooded area off Hudson Bridge Road.
McCoy had been missing since Feb. 13, when she left her Locust Grove home in an Uber and her family lost contact with her. Police learned of Victor’s fate the day after she was reported missing, when a DeKalb detective located her cellphone at Lane’s Hudson Bridge Terrace townhome and went looking for her.
While Lane was being detained in a patrol car, investigators noticed a bloodstained mattress in a dumpster across the street from his residence, according to a Henry County police report. Inside the townhome, they found “blood on the floor, in the bathroom, and a mattress missing,” an officer said in the report.
Though Victor’s body was not discovered until days later, Lane’s arrest warrant revealed that the woman appeared to be dead in a July 8 video investigators found on Lane’s phone. Her autopsy results are still pending, Chief Assistant District Attorney Debbie Venuto said in court Tuesday.
Authorities have not said how McCoy was killed, and her case was not discussed Tuesday. Lane was considered a person of interest in her disappearance, but Locust Grove police did not specify their relationship.
Victor’s mother, Marie Elien, told Channel 2 Action News that Lane worked with her daughter at a food processing plant, but said they were just friends.
Lane is registered as a sex offender and was convicted of predatory criminal sexual assault in Illinois, according to the GBI. The 1999 case involved the rape of a 10-year-old girl, Channel 2 reported. After serving a 20-year sentence, Lane was released on parole in May 2019, Illinois court records show.
According to police records, he lived with Fisher, his 40-year-old brother, at the two-bedroom Hudson Bridge Terrace townhome. In June 2020, Fisher shot and killed Lane’s son at the apartment, but police determined the younger Lane’s history of violence supported Fisher’s claims of self-defense.
Fisher, a U.S. Navy veteran and barber who worked in McDonough, has been convicted of DUI in Georgia and Illinois. Venuto said he also has a solicitation conviction on his record, although his criminal history was disputed by his attorney. Preckwinkle, a 40-year-old pharmacy technician and mother, has no prior arrests.
Police accused Fisher and Preckwinkle of being present in the townhome when Victor was killed. Video from the townhouse complex showed Fisher helping to dump the bloodstained mattress and Preckwinkle removing a black bag from the home and placing it in her car, according to prosecutors. Farnsworth said none of Victor’s belongings were found among Preckwinkle’s things.
Fisher’s attorney, Bradley D. Moody, said his client has not been accused of participating in the killing, and there is question as to whether he knew it was happening.
“We will be able to show throughout the course of this case his part was not voluntary,” Moody told the judge. “There have been threats.”
Lane, Fisher and Preckwinkle have been in the Henry County Jail since their arrest July 9. A Magistrate Court judge dropped Preckwinkle’s initial charges of false imprisonment and tampering with evidence, deciding to move forward on the murder charge. Fisher is facing charges of murder, concealing a death and tampering with evidence.
The case will be presented to a grand jury, which will make a final determination on charges.
