Murder convictions overturned in wealthy Georgia man’s death

“In the face of this less-than-overwhelming, circumstantial evidence, the introduction of evidence that Wilson committed an armed robbery that involved holding victims at gunpoint and threatening them to keep quiet slightly over a year before Harris was robbed and murdered was undoubtedly prejudicial,” the court wrote.

A spokesperson for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said prosecutors are reviewing the court’s opinion and will decide the next steps in the case accordingly.

Wilson’s attorney, Rachel Kaufman, said it would be a waste of the state’s resources to retry him. She said the murder case is “not particularly strong” and she will try to get Wilson released from prison.

“This makes me very happy,” Kaufman said Tuesday of the ruling. “Too often the prosecution is allowed to bring in random bad information about someone.”

At the time of his murder trial, Wilson had not yet been tried in relation to the 2011 armed robbery, case records show. The armed robbery trial happened in August 2016, when Wilson was acquitted of all but one charge of threatening a witness.

Prosecutors separately took a co-defendant in the murder case to trial. The co-defendant, Edgar Hubbard, was acquitted of all but an arson charge.

In relation to Harris’ death, Wilson and Hubbard had each been charged with malice murder, felony murder based on kidnapping, kidnapping with bodily injury, first-degree arson and theft by receiving stolen property. Wilson was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His bid for a new trial was denied by the trial judge in July 2023.

The state Supreme Court scrapped the theft charge Tuesday, saying there is not enough evidence for Wilson to be retried on that charge.

Harris was asphyxiated before his body — bound with wiring, plastic and fabric — was burned inside his car, case records show. Harris’ home in Newton County had been ransacked and certain items, including two luxury watches worth $140,000, were missing.

“The state’s theory of the case was that Wilson met Harris at Onyx gentleman’s club in Atlanta and targeted Harris as a robbery victim because of Harris’s apparent wealth, which Harris generated by selling drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and heroin,” the appellate court said. “At trial, Wilson argued that he was not involved with any of the crimes against Harris.”

The court said while the 2011 armed robbery and Harris’ death the following year share some common features, there are also significant differences between the crimes, including the level of violence.

Much of the murder case against Wilson is based on cellphone records, the court noted. It denied Wilson’s attempt to suppress that evidence.

In a partial dissent, Chief Justice Nels Peterson said there was enough evidence to convict Wilson of murder without mentioning the 2011 armed robbery.

“The cellphone location data from Wilson’s, Hubbard’s and Harris’s phones showed that Wilson and Hubbard were with Harris mere hours before his ransacked house was discovered and then near the location where Harris’s body and burned-out car were found,” Peterson wrote. “Wilson’s and Hubbard’s phones were also in almost constant communication in the hours leading up to and following the crime.”