Man who strangled friend because she didn’t have crack gets life
A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 2014 murder of a friend who he stabbed and strangled because she didn't have any crack.
Prosecutors said 47-year-old Demetrius Flournoy stabbed 49-year-old Janice Renee Hutchison in her Atlanta apartment, choked her with an electrical cord and poured bleach on her body in an attempt to conceal the murder.
Flournoy, who investigators said was addicted to crack, went to the woman’s Bedford Pine apartment along Boulevard on Aug. 3, 2014, in an effort to get high, according to a news release from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office announcing his conviction.
Prosecutors say he became angry with Hutchison after finding out she did not have crack and flew into a rage, killing the woman and then stealing her television and DVD player, which he intended to sell for cash.
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Hutchison’s body was discovered three days later after her daughter asked authorities to perform a welfare check.
Detectives caught a break in the case later that month when Flournoy was arrested after allegedly threatening to pour hot grease on a co-worker at J.R. Crickets if she didn’t open the cash register for him and give him $60, according to the DA’s office.
While he was in custody in connection with the robbery, investigators spoke with a witness who said Flournoy and Hutchison spent time together.
Flournoy admitted visiting Hutchison's apartment the night she was killed and his DNA was eventually matched to evidence collected from the electrical cord wrapped around her neck.
After a five-day trial, he was convicted of murder, felony murder and aggravated assault.