Four Cobb County gang associates have pleaded guilty in connection with the 2015 murder of a 35-year-old man, prosecutors said.
The body of Alexander Alcides Lara Ayala was found Feb. 25, 2015, off of Blackhawk Trail in Mableton.
Two members of the Ghostface Gangsters street gang — Christopher Lee Brewster, 29, of Austell, and Kenneth Lamar Ransom, 42, of Lithia Springs — pleaded guilty on Monday to felony murder and violating Georgia’s street gang terrorism and prevention act, Cobb County District Attorney Vic Reynolds’ office said Tuesday in a statement.
They were each sentenced to life in prison.
Two other people, also associated with the gang, had previously pleaded guilty to three gang-act violations each. Chelsea Jane Walker, 25, of Marietta, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and 20 years on probation.
Jason Adam Chester, 32, of Mableton, faces 15 years in prison and 10 on probation.
Prosecutors said the defendants lured Ayala to the trail, “where he was ambushed, shot and killed two days before his body was found,” Reynolds’ office said.
The suspects were arrested after investigators found a truck engulfed in flames and linked it to Brewster, Ransom, Walker, Chester and the victim.
“This victim suffered greatly at the hands of the defendants in this case and their gang,” said Senior Assistant District Attorney Jaret Usher, who prosecuted the case. “With these guilty pleas, we have not only sent an undeniable message to these defendants but to the entire Ghostface Gang that this sort of brutal, gang-motivated crime will not be tolerated in Cobb County.”
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