Man convicted in beating, drowning of Cobb County prostitute
A New York man was convicted Friday of the New Year’s Day 2013 murder of a Cobb County prostitute.
Cobb County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kimberly Isaza said it took jurors less than three hours to convict 35-year-old Ricardo Laron Harris on charges including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery and concealing a death. Harris is accused of killing Yvonne Denise James, 19, inside a room at a Marietta Howard Johnson Inn on Delk Road.
“Mr. Harris was a client of Ms. James’ and was inside her room for about 90 minutes before he dialed 911 to report that someone had been killed,” Isaza said in a news release. “An autopsy found Ms. James died of blunt-force trauma and had been drowned.”
Harris, a former resident of Rochester, N.Y., will be sentenced at a later date, officials said. He is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison plus 30 years.
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