He was the brother of a friend. And Christina Smith and her fiancé, Marcus Gardner, offered to help him out, her family said.
During a January trip to Missouri to visit Gardner’s family, the couple agreed to let Martell Lamont Scott return with them to Georgia. Scott, 25, wanted to start a new life, he told the couple.
Now, Scott has been charged with two counts of murder. Investigators believe he shot Smith, 30, and Gardner, 29, and left them to die inside their Barrow County home. The two were found March 5 after family members couldn’t reach them.
That afternoon, officers knocked on Willie Smith’s door, about eight miles away, to tell her the news. Her daughter had been killed.
“When they told me, I said, ‘What? I don’t think so,’” Smith told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution days later.
Smith believed she knew who might be responsible. She told investigators that Scott had stayed longer in her daughter’s home than the original plan. Smith worried that Scott was taking advantage of the couple’s generosity, she said.
Investigators with the Winder police department and GBI also suspected Scott was involved.
Credit: Family photo
Credit: Family photo
On March 14, Scott was stopped in Missouri driving Gardner’s Ford Escape, investigators said Thursday. He was initially charged with theft by taking a motor vehicle, police said. Days later, after a Winder detective and GBI agent traveled to Missouri, Scott’s charges were upgraded to include two counts of felony murder, plus possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony. He was returned to Georgia and is being held in the Barrow jail, investigators said.
For the victims’ families, the arrest is hopefully the first step toward justice. But Willie Smith said the deaths devastated those closest to the couple, who were planning to buy a home.
“They had a beautiful future and he took it all away,” she said. “They didn’t deserve that. God’s going to make sure he gets what he deserves.”
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