Smyrna teen charged in dismemberment case had photo of body, detective says

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details.

Kingston Bradley, the teenager charged with murder after a woman was found dismembered last month in Smyrna, had a photo on his phone showing the decapitated victim in his bedroom, a detective testified during a Friday court hearing.

That evidence from the 18-year-old’s phone was only part of what Chief Magistrate Judge Brendan Murphy considered when he denied Bradley bond. During the Cobb County hearing, prosecutors and an investigator laid out a timeline for what they say happened Sept. 23, the day Shanteria Mosley’s remains were discovered, and the detailed steps they allege Bradley took to cover up her death.

“For someone who is this young to murder someone, shoot them in the side of the head, and then dismember their body, and take the time to order all these cleaning supplies on DoorDash, and clean his house, and separate her body parts and put them in various locations, that is someone who can never be trusted out on bond,” state prosecutor Stephanie Green told the judge.

Mosley, 25, was fatally shot and then dismembered at the Park Valley Apartments off Cobb Drive, where Bradley lived with his father, officials said. Police were first tipped off about the incident when Mosley’s family reported her missing.

Bradley’s attorney, Paul Camarillo, declined to speak to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after Friday’s hearing but told the judge his client should be granted bond, saying he had not been previously convicted of any violent felonies.

Judge Murphy said his job was not to punish Bradley, who is presumed innocent, but to carefully evaluate “what the court has heard and seen today.”

“Mr. Bradley is not a candidate for bond at this time,” Murphy said at the end of the nearly hourlong hearing.

Bradley has been at the Cobb jail since Sept. 24 on charges of murder and concealing the death of another. Police confirmed Friday afternoon the case remains active.

Prosecution details what it says happened day of Mosley’s death

Friday’s testimony provided new details about what the prosecution says occurred in the hours just before and after Mosley’s death.

Sept. 23 appeared to be the first time she and Bradley were in contact, Smyrna Detective Nathaniel Wachowiak testified. He told the court Bradley found Mosley’s phone number through an online escort ad.

The two first spoke on the phone around 9 a.m. and Flock cameras showed Mosley’s rented Honda arriving at the apartment complex around 9:45 a.m., Wachowiak said.

About 15 minutes later, he said Cash App records showed Mosley’s account sent Bradley $120, but he added investigators believe Bradley sent the money to himself using her account.

By 11:20 a.m., Wachowiak testified, a DoorDash order was placed under Bradley’s name for trash bags and bleach. That order was fulfilled about an hour later.

By then, Wachowiak said he believed Mosley was already dead from a gunshot wound to the right side of her head.

Hours later, her dismembered torso was located in a bin at the complex and other body parts, including her head, arms and legs, were eventually found inside trash bags in the trunk of her rental car parked at Bradley’s apartment, according to the detective.

Police respond to the scene

It was around 7 p.m. Sept. 23 when officers first responded to the apartment in response to a call about a missing person. Police spokesperson Lt. Meredith Holt previously said the woman’s family told police her phone and vehicle were at the complex.

In a report obtained by the AJC, a responding officer wrote that a Honda Civic, the vehicle Mosley was last known to have driven, was on site.

The officer, according to the report, tried to make contact with residents in two apartments near where the phone was pinging. The residents allowed the officer to briefly check their homes, but officials said neither Mosley, nor her phone, were located. After about 30 minutes of searching, police left.

After having “exhausted” options at the scene, the Smyrna officer advised Mosley’s family to file a missing person’s report with Atlanta police since that’s where she was last seen, the report said.

But shortly after Smyrna police left, they were again called to the address at around 8:15 p.m. after a witness reported seeing a body, according to Holt and an arrest warrant.

Evidence uncovered

Mosley had stab wounds on various parts of her body, Wachowiak testified. He said investigators collected multiple pairs of scissors and shears and a small pocketknife as possible weapons.

A search of Bradley’s phone revealed more evidence, the detective said, including the bedroom picture, taken at 4:47 p.m., depicting Mosely’s remains.

During a search of Bradley’s apartment, Wachowiak said officials also located empty cleaning bottles, a mop and bucket, a power saw and a “bloody handsaw.” He described several areas of blood in the apartment, which he said smelled heavily of bleach.

In the bed of Bradley’s father’s pickup truck, the detective testified that officials found trash bags with several bloody items, pieces clothing, blankets, a comforter, puppy pads, empty cleaning bottles and two condoms.

The DNA testing of evidence — including items collected from the investigation, blood and urine, a firearm and other possible weapons, and fingerprints — has not been finalized by the GBI crime lab, the detective said.

When Camarillo cross-examined Wachowiak, he appeared to try to highlight gaps in the investigation, including those yet-incomplete forensic results and witness testimony, confirmed by the detective, that Mosley carried a firearm in her purse. Wachowiak also acknowledged unnamed witnesses told police they had “never” seen Bradley with a firearm or known him to be around firearms.

Bradley’s father, whom Wachowiak identified in court as Kenneth Bradley, was interviewed by police after his son was taken into custody. Kenneth Bradley is not charged in the incident.

According to the detective, the father said he worked most of the day and got home around 6:45 p.m., when he saw his son on the couch. The father told police he changed clothes and quickly left again. Wachowiak said Kenneth Bradley was using a second, work-issued vehicle that day instead of the pickup truck in which evidence was found.

Soon after leaving, Kenneth Bradley called his son and asked if he was high, at which point Wachowiak said the son told his father that police were at the apartment. When his father asked what he had done, Kingston Bradley said “it was self-defense” and made a comment about something being “under the dresser,” according to the detective’s testimony.

Wachowiak said officials found an unloaded 9 mm handgun that had been reported stolen out of Atlanta under the dresser. The detective said no shell casings were found inside the apartment.

Kenneth Bradley has not provided detectives with more information since his initial interview with police, according to Wachowiak.

During Friday’s hearing, Mosley’s mother, Jessica McCrary, sat in the front row behind state prosecutors and adjacent to Bradley and his attorney. She read an emotional statement before the judge denied bond.

Through mumbles and tears, McCrary said her daughter was “someone I loved dearly.” She added that Mosley had a 4-year-old child.

When she finished her statement, she buried her head into her hands, told the court “I’m sorry” and cried as she briefly left the courtroom.