A Gwinnett County jury found a man guilty of murder for shooting and killing two people during a drug deal when he was a teenager in 2020, officials said.
Steven Tran, 23, of Kennesaw, will spend the rest of his life in prison after the verdict was handed down against him Friday, Gwinnett District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gaston said in a statement. The jury found Tran guilty of two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
The fatal shootings took place April 16, 2020, at a home on Racquet Club Circle in Lawrenceville. According to Austin-Gaston, Tran had arranged to buy two pounds of marijuana from two men, 23-year-old An Ha and 20-year-old Julian Talbo.
Tran “entered the home, robbed the two men and then began shooting,” Austin-Gaston said.
Tran, who was 19 at the time, fired a dozen shots inside, killing both Ha and Talbo, according to the DA. Investigators later found physical evidence at Tran’s home connecting him to the crime, and Tran later confessed to the murder.
After the jury’s verdict Friday, Tran was given two consecutive life sentences plus five years without the possibility of parole, Austin-Gaston said.
Less than two weeks before he killed Ha and Talbo, Tran had been arrested in Cobb County on multiple drug-related charges, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Police said they found a plastic container of suspected marijuana in the center console of his Lexus SUV, as well as a scale, cash, tablets that appeared to be Xanax and a white bottle containing codeine.
Tran confessed in that case as well, police said. In his arrest affidavit, the officer wrote that Tran admitted he was selling drugs. He was booked into the Cobb adult detention center and released on his own recognizance the next day. A little more than a week later, he killed Ha and Talbo in Lawrenceville.
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