The 16-year-old from Dacula arrested in the stabbing death of a 77-year-old grandmother in her Gwinnett County home in September has been indicted by a grand jury.
The indictment contends that James Hiram Akil Watkins forced his way into Margaret Sheffield’s Harbins Station home Sept. 10 and stabbed her with a knife, beat her and shot her with a pellet gun, District Attorney Danny Porter confirmed.
Her bloodied body was found by her son-in-law the next morning.
Watkins was charged with felony murder, aggravated assault and burglary.
Sheffield was grandmother to a dozen children and great-grandmother to six more. She was a homemaker and a cancer survivor.
According to her obituary, Sheffield was born in Petersburg, Va. Her grandson Bradley Stamaris wrote on Facebook that Sheffield — known as Maw Maw — “could barely see and was very hard of hearing.
“But she was wonderful, thoughtful, and caring,” he wrote. “You would never know the pain she was going through because she would never let you see it. She was strong, she was our rock.”
—Staff writer Steve Visser contributed to this article.
About the Author
