A judge on Wednesday ordered the prosecution and attorneys for Ricky Dubose, who confessed to killing two corrections officers last year in Putnam County, to come up with alternative sites for the defendant’s murder trial.

The state agreed to the change of venue out of “an abundance of caution.” The new venue must be outside of the Atlanta and Macon media markets and feature similar demographics to Putnam County. Suggestions for the alternate trial site must be submitted to the judge by August 13.

Ricky Dubose said he and fellow inmate Donnie Rowe, who are both facing the death penalty if convicted, shooting Sgts. Christopher Monica and Curtis Billue with their own guns in order to escape from a prison transport bus.

They led authorities on a three-day manhunt that ended in a rural residential neighborhood off Interstate 24.

Dubose and Rowe pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, each.

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Austin Walters died from an overdose in 2021 after taking a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, his father said. A new law named after Austin and aimed at preventing deaths from fentanyl has resulted in its first convictions in Georgia, prosecutors said. (Family photo)

Credit: Family photo