When a Paulding County teenager was 16 years old, he was arrested and charged as an adult in the shooting death of a former high school athlete.
Two years later, the teenage murder suspect was convicted, meaning he’s guaranteed to be behind bars until his late 40s at least.
Darnell Isiah Priester, 18, was found guilty of 10 felonies Monday, including malice murder, in the death of 18-year-old Tommy Lee Robinson, the Paulding County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Priester got into an argument with Robinson, who had recently graduated from Paulding County High School, after a football game on Aug. 18, 2018, AJC.com previously reported. The argument led to Priester shooting Robinson, whose body was found at the Ivy Trace subdivision.
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Former and current Paulding County High students between the ages of 16 and 19 were involved in the argument, Dallas police said. Priester fired at the group from a second-story window, hitting Robinson in the chest and 18-year-old Timothy Nelson in the leg, the DA’s Office said. Nelson survived his injury.
Three other people were also in the line of fire, but they were not injured.
Shortly after the shooting, Dallas police Capt. Bill Gorman told AJC.com that “there were two different groups of young people who have been at odds for a year ... and it came to a head Friday.” He didn’t know what the tension was about, but he said it was not gang-related.
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Robinson, who played football in high school, graduated that spring and was headed to college, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Priester was convicted of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, five counts of aggravated assault and two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, the DA’s Office said.
His sentencing is scheduled for March 9. The mandatory minimum sentence for malice murder in Georgia is life with the possibility of parole, which is a guaranteed 30 years in prison.
