A man facing the death penalty for allegedly killing teen cousins will get to defend himself in court beginning on Wednesday.
Jeremy Moody, 35, is accused of stabbing Delarlonva “Del” Mattox, 15, and Chrisondra Kimble, 13, to death in April 2007. Moody is also alleged to have raped Kimble.
On April 5 of that year, the teens left Mattox’s Fulton County home, where Kimble was staying during spring break, to walk to a neighborhood store, police said.
Parents led a search through the night for the two, and found the teens’ unclothed bodies the next day in a wooded area behind Bethune Elementary School in College Park, prosecutors said. Each had been stabbed multiple times in the head and chest.
Moody was arrested the next day while waiting for a bus out of town at the Greyhound station, authorities said.
In addition to rape and two counts of murder, Moody, who was 29 at the time of his arrest, was charged with felony murder – that is committing a felony that results in someone’s death – aggravated assault and armed robbery.
Investigators believe Moody initially attacked Kimble and Mattox intending to simply rob them, police said.
In the six years that he has been in the Fulton County jail, Moody has found himself frequently in the news.
In January 2010, jail officials reported that he set himself on fire. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for treatment, but his brother didn’t believe the report.
“Setting himself on fire would just not be something that he would do,” Moody’s brother, Jason Moody Jr., told Channel 2 Action News.
In June 2011, Moody was reportedly seen on a dating web site describing himself as “the man of your dreams” to prospective women callers.
And a retired jailer reportedly claimed that Moody was among inmates who was intimidating jailers.
Over the year prior to his 2007 arrest, Moody had several run-ins with police, based upon Fulton County jail records.
In June 2006, he was arrested on a false imprisonment charge and released roughly two weeks later after posting a $30,000 bond, jail records show.
A month later, according to jail records, Moody was arrested for simple battery and obstruction charges and released in two weeks without bond.
In February 2007, Moody was arrested for allegedly making harassing phone calls. He was released nearly a month before the death of the teens, according to jail records.
Jury selection has begun in Moody’s murder trial and is expected to be completed by Wednesday, when prosecutors and defense attorneys are scheduled to make their opening statements at 9:30 a.m.
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