Man sentenced to life in prison for 2022 murder at SE Atlanta apartment complex

George Sharrod Johns, 51, was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault.

Credit: File photo

Credit: File photo

George Sharrod Johns, 51, was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault.

An Atlanta man was found guilty last week and sentenced to life in prison in the death of a Waycross man at a southeast Atlanta apartment last year.

George Sharrod Johns, 51, was convicted of two counts of murder and one count of aggravated assault in the death of 63-year-old James Fred Cason Jr. Johns was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

On Nov. 10, 2022, Atlanta police were called to the Park Vista apartments on Fisher Road around 6:30 p.m. regarding a dispute. Officers found Cason with “severe injuries” and eventually pronounced him dead at the scene.

According to the indictment, Johns inflicted a “sharp force wound” to Cason’s chest with “an object unknown.”

In 2019, Johns was convicted of aggravated assault and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony and sentenced to five years in prison and 10 years on probation after entering a negotiated guilty plea. The prison time, however, was reduced to time served upon his entry into the Homes of Light program, a nonprofit that provides temporary and permanent housing to chronically homeless men and women.