An Atlanta man who shot a woman during a road rage incident on I-85 in Coweta County more than two years ago has pleaded guilty to multiple charges and been sentenced to 25 years in prison, officials said.
Deanthony Clark, 24, pleaded guilty to charges of aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and criminal damage to property July 25, Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herb Cranford said in a statement.
In addition to his prison sentence, Clark will serve 15 years on probation after his release, Cranford said.
Clark pleaded guilty to shooting Amari Franklin in a bout of road rage in April 2021. Though they did not know each other, Clark and Franklin both worked at a distribution facility for the meal delivery service Hello Fresh. At the time of the shooting, police said they believed Clark became angry when Franklin accidentally cut him off while leaving the Hello Fresh parking lot, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Clark pulled up alongside Franklin as they drove on I-85, pulled out a handgun and fired several times at Franklin’s car, Cranford said. Franklin was hit twice, and one of the bullets lodged in her spine. The gunshot instantly paralyzed her from the waist down and Franklin was forced to use her hands to move her foot off the gas pedal and bring her car to a stop on the interstate, Cranford said.
Franklin said she was determined to walk again in the weeks after her shooting, but her legs remain paralyzed more than two years later. Despite the severity of her injuries, the Newnan woman said in court “that Clark had not broken her but made her stronger,” according to Cranford.
Franklin continues to work toward her goal of walking again, Cranford said.
“This case is another example of a person needlessly resorting to violence to resolve a trivial problem,” Cranford said. “In doing so, Clark paralyzed this victim for what he perceived was a traffic violation. As a consequence, it is appropriate that he spends the next 25 years in prison.”
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