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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Members of the conversion crew take a break as the main scoreboard is lowered to the floor to be worked on as the arena gets ready for the next concert at State Farm Arena, Thursday, October 2, 2025, in Atlanta. The crew was working on creating a stage for the Friday, Oct. 3 Maxwell concert. (Jason Getz/AJC)

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com