Prosecutors and defense attorneys will begin screening potential jurors Monday in the death penalty trial of Richard Ringold, who is accused of gunning down his girlfriend, two of her friends and her 11-year-old daughter during a domestic dispute in 2009.
The girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter also was shot through the shoulder, but the little girl survived and is expected to testify against Ringold.
Ringold has pleaded not guilty and says he has an alibi. According to his defense attorney, Charlie Wrinkle, Ringold said he was playing video games with friends on Aug. 27, 2009, and knows nothing about the slayings.
Prosecutors say the shootings unfolded after Ringold had an argument with his girlfriend, 28-year-old Atania Butler, in the driveway of her home. Ringold had moved in with Butler just one day earlier. Prosecutors say Ringold was arguing with Butler because he had recently become romantically involved with another woman.
That day, Gifty Kargbo was visiting her boyfriend, Rico Zimmerman, 19, who also lived with the Butlers at their home on Clairidge Lane in Lawrenceville. Kargbo was the only victim to escape the confrontation unscathed — by running to a neighbor’s house and calling 911.
Kargbo later told police that she saw Ringold march Butler through the front door, holding Butler’s left arm behind her back with one hand and brandishing a gun in his other.
She said Butler yelled out for Zimmerman, who was in the living room, and that Zimmerman tried to diffuse the situation by saying to Ringold “Rich, chill out,” according to testimony Gwinnett County police Detective Jose Dominguez gave during a preliminary hearing.
Police say that’s when Ringold fatally wounded Butler, Zimmerman, Butler’s 11-year-old daughter, Jhane Thomas, and another friend, LaKeisha Parker, 30. All four of them suffered gunshots to the head.
When police arrived at the Butler home, they found Butler’s 4-year-old daughter, Nhaje Alexander, conscious but bleeding heavily from a gunshot wound to the shoulder. She told the first arriving officers “Rich shot my family,” Dominguez said.
Ringold, 47, was indicted on four counts of murder, one count of aggravated assault and five counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Jury selection in the Ringold case is expected to take at least a week.
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