An Atlanta man charged with killing the son of a local Baptist bishop was convicted of murder, among other charges, by a DeKalb County jury Friday and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Asa Seeley, 40, was found guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and other drug and gun charges, DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston said in a statement. Seeley shot and killed 50-year-old James Morton Jr. at a hotel near Stone Mountain in September 2021.
Superior Court Judge Shondeana Morris sentenced Seeley to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 35 years.
Seeley was arrested alongside a second suspect, Melissa Ann Washington, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. According to court records, the case against Washington was not presented to a grand jury for indictment and she was released from the DeKalb jail in December 2021. She served as a witness at Seeley’s trial, court records show.
“There is nothing like losing a child. Nothing. Nothing compares to it,” James Morton Sr., the bishop at New Beginning Full Gospel Baptist Church, told Channel 2 Action News soon after his son’s death. He died in February at age 76.
According to Boston, DeKalb police were called to the Budgetel Inn & Suites on Memorial Drive around 10 p.m. after getting reports of a person shot. They found the victim in a hallway, dead from multiple gunshot wounds.
Employees at the hotel showed police surveillance video of Morton Jr. walking down a hallway to Seeley’s room, going inside and shaking hands with someone, Boston said. Morton then began to leave the room, but Seeley came outside and stopped him.
Credit: DeKalb County Sheriff's Office
Credit: DeKalb County Sheriff's Office
The footage showed the men begin to argue, leading Seeley to pull out a gun, Boston said. Morton tried to back away, but moments later Seeley began shooting at him. Morton ran down the hall and around a corner toward the elevator, but Seeley followed and fired multiple shots into Morton’s back.
After the shooting, Seeley returned to his room and then left in a gold Acura. He was arrested in Chamblee the next day driving the same car and wearing the same clothing that could be seen in the surveillance footage. Investigators also found a rental agreement for the Budgetel room in his car, as well as several plastic bags of drugs.
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