A west Georgia man who prompted a SWAT standoff when another man’s body was found hidden at his home has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder, officials said.
Aaron Tarrie Ashley Sr., 41, was found guilty of killing a man with a shotgun and concealing the body behind his Bremen home, Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herb Cranford said in February. Ashley claimed at trial that he shot the victim, Christopher Cook, in self-defense, Cranford said.
Ashley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 25 years, officials announced Friday.
The fatal shooting took place at Ashley’s home on Jan. 19, 2020, Cranford said. Few details were released about the circumstances around the killing, but Cranford said Ashley was in his home when he shot Cook.
Ashley dragged Cook’s body to his backyard, where he covered it with a camouflage sleeping bag and piled tree limbs over it, Cranford said. Ashley then cleaned up the crime scene and hid the shotgun at someone else’s home.
After Cook’s body was found, authorities searched for Ashley and found him at another house, Cranford said. When law enforcement officers confronted Ashley there, he barricaded himself inside. Officers from multiple agencies responded to the hours-long standoff, including Bremen police, Carrollton police, Haralson County deputies and the Paulding County SWAT team, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Ashley eventually surrendered peacefully.
At trial, he tried to claim he killed Cook in self-defense, Cranford said. The jury did not agree and convicted him of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, theft by taking and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
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