A man who confessed to participating in a deadly home invasion in 2020 during a phone call while incarcerated at the DeKalb County Jail was convicted of several charges Thursday, officials said.
Deonte Denard Sills, 30, was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, first-degree home invasion, armed robbery, first-degree cruelty to children, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, four counts of aggravated assault and two counts of battery.
Sills is one of three suspects accused in the deadly attack. Investigators continue trying to identify the two other men, said Claire Chaffins with the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
On March 19, 2020, DeKalb police officers were called to a home on River Road and met with three victims, including a 12-year-old, who said three masked men broke into the residence, according to Chaffins. The men are accused of holding them at gunpoint and demanding money.
As one of the victims was trying to call 911, Chaffins said the suspects smashed the phone and pepper-sprayed them before forcing them into a bedroom.
Frank Collins, 94, went to investigate the situation after hearing all the commotion inside his home. The intruders threw Collins, who was using a walker, to the ground, dragged him into a bedroom and shot him in the head, Chaffins said.
The suspects then fled the scene. Officials did not say what they took from the house.
Collins, who according to his obituary served as a sergeant in the U.S Air Force, was taken to a hospital and later died.
Investigators said they were able to identify a phone belonging to Sills in the area at the time of the home invasion. He was subsequently arrested and booked into the DeKalb jail in May 2020.
It was determined that Sills was not the shooter, but he “did admit to his role in the deadly home invasion during a recorded jail call,” Chaffins said.
He is scheduled to be sentenced later in February.
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