Brandon Carter was having a good day May 8, 2020, unaware he was about to become a pivotal figure in a controversial murder case centered around the savage beating and death of his 86-year-old neighbor.
The 28-year-old Cartersville man was having family over for a weekly gathering that day. He and his then-girlfriend had recently learned they were expecting a baby. As the family socialized, they heard a crash from a neighbor’s house, followed by screams.
In the ensuing moments, Carter was forced to shoot 43-year-old Jason Monroe Eldridge in self-defense and see his octogenarian neighbor, Calvin Lee, badly injured in a beating that was ultimately fatal. According to Carter, his confrontation with Eldridge ended an attack on Lee’s wife, Rosa, who was 82 at the time.
In the aftermath, Eldridge was accused of beating Lee to death with a board during a home invasion and charged with murder, among other counts, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Eldridge stood trial in December and was convicted of aggravated assault, burglary, criminal attempt to commit a felony, criminal damage to property, battery and two counts of terroristic threats or acts, jail records show.
But the jury found Eldridge not guilty of murder, according to court documents obtained by the AJC. Carter was furious at the outcome of the trial but said he gained a measure of relief after Eldridge was sentenced Tuesday.
Eldridge’s sentence includes 65 years in prison followed by seven years on probation, court documents show.
“I was bummed the murder charges didn’t stick and still kind of am,” Carter said.
On his overall reaction to the verdict, though, he said, “I’m ecstatic.”
The day of the incident, Carter and his father quickly decided to investigate the screams coming from his neighbor’s home. Before leaving, Carter grabbed his handgun.
“I don’t know what I’m walking into,” Carter said. “As I’m walking out the front door, I can hear this elderly lady scream for help.”
The screams were loud and frantic, so Carter began to run with his father trailing behind, he said. Upon arriving at the Lees’ home, Carter saw Rosa Lee struggling with a man later identified as Eldridge.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ And when he sees me, he stops his attention toward Mrs. Lee,” Carter said.
Carter continued walking toward Eldridge, who he said initially tried to get into one of the Lee’s cars before angrily confronting Carter and his father.
“He was screaming at us, how he was going to (expletive) kill us, what he was going to do to us, how we should have brought a gun with us because we were going to need it,” Carter said.
After shouting at them, Eldridge threw a trashcan and sprinted up to Carter’s father, hitting him twice. Then, Eldridge noticed Carter’s gun and lunged for it, he said.
The two struggled over the gun for a moment until Carter was able to fire. Carter said he shot Eldridge twice, hitting him in the stomach and groin, but the shots didn’t have their intended effect.
“He just kind of walked back a little bit, but it didn’t faze him,” Carter said.
A little stunned from the shooting, Carter said he held his gun on Eldridge, who continued to shout at him.
“He kept screaming, ‘take a third shot’ or ‘make the third shot count,’” Carter said. “He starts acting like he’s going to run off, so I start walking down around him towards Mrs. Lee. And this is when I notice Mr. Lee. And he’s been beaten, just senselessly. It’s bad.”
When he noticed Calvin Lee lying on the ground injured, Carter said he yelled for his dad to call 911. Bartow sheriff’s deputies showed up soon after, but not before Eldridge again tried to attack Carter with a pipe he’d pulled out of the ground, Carter said.
Carter was not charged for shooting Eldridge.
He attended all but one day of Eldridge’s trial and said the defense’s argument was based on something Rosa Lee said while talking to deputies immediately after the incident. In body camera footage submitted as evidence, Rosa described the attacker as a man with curly hair, Carter said. In his booking photo, Eldridge clearly has straight hair. He was also present at the trial for the jury to see.
During the incident, Carter said Eldridge’s hair was wild and added that he felt the description of a “curly-haired man” did not disqualify Eldridge based on the way he looked at the time of the assault. He also said Rosa never testified at trial and her description was taken only from body camera video that was recorded in the moments just after she had seen her husband violently assaulted, been attacked herself and seen Eldridge shot in front of her.
According to Carter, Eldridge’s defense attorneys took Rosa’s description of a curly-haired man “at face value and just went with it.”
“Yeah, from my understanding, that was the turning point,” Carter said. “That’s basically what the jury based their decision on was her saying it was a curly-haired man.”
Despite the outcome of the trial, Carter said he held out hope that justice would be served.
“Hopefully the judge throws the book at him,” Carter said in December. He was pleased when the judge gave Eldridge a sentence harsher than what the prosecution recommended.
Since the incident, Carter married and welcomed a son in December 2020. The couple moved away from the neighborhood but still keep in touch with the Lee family. Carter said their families have grown quite close.
“We’re kind of bonded in a way that’s indescribable,” Carter said.
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