An Alabama man who used a Winchester rifle to shoot and kill a driver who crashed into his stolen minivan will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Demetrius Heade, 31, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for shooting Michael Harvey after the 2016 wreck, the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Police said Harvey walked up to the van after the collision to make sure everyone was OK. Heade then fired the lever-action rifle through the driver’s-side window and into the 39-year-old’s chest.
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Harvey, a father of nine, had just left a bowling alley with some of his children, police said at the time. Officers arrived to find him lying in the northbound lane of Button Gwinnett Drive.
The Honda minivan Heade was driving was stolen by he and his girlfriend from Alabama several days earlier during a carjacking. The van’s owner, Levister Brinnon, was also shot and killed, authorities said. Police said after shooting Brinnon, Heade and his girlfriend, Tilisha Lakelia Tate, took the man’s van and credit cards and fled to Georgia.
The wrecked minivan was abandoned after Harvey’s shooting and Gwinnett police discovered the rifle in a nearby ditch.
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Detectives were able to track down Heade and Tate and connect them to both shootings. It was revealed in court that Tate later admitted what happened the night of the fatal shooting.
“She said the victim ran across the street like he was trying to check on them,” Gwinnett County police Cpl. John Cleland said at a hearing for Heade, “and as soon as he got (to) the driver’s-side door, (Heade) leaned back and fired the gunshot.”
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During Heade’s trial, prosecutors presented evidence showing he shot Tate about a month before the murders. The couple also robbed another person at gunpoint the day Harvey was killed, authorities said.
Heade was convicted of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the conviction. Tate was extradited to Alabama to face charges there.
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