Guilty verdict in Cobb cold case murder trial

A Lithonia man was convicted Friday of murder in a five-year-old Marietta cold case, prosecutors said.

Dequontist Marquez Lucas, 29, was found guilty of shooting and killing Samuel “Dra” Steward during a July 22, 2008 robbery attempt, authorities said.

“Samuel … Steward didn’t have anything to take,” Cobb County Assistant District Attorney Marty First told a jury during trial. “Dequontist Lucas executed a 16-year-old boy because he was mad (Steward) didn’t have anything to take.”

The investigation went cold until 2011, when a DeKalb County Police detective looking into a fatal shooting there interviewed Lucas’ onetime girlfriend Quantney Sapee, prosecutors said.

Sapee volunteered information to the detective about the Marietta teen murder, saying she was driving Lucas and another man around and witnessed Lucas shooting Steward, Cobb District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kim Isaza said.

Shell casings from the DeKalb shooting and the Marietta shooting were compared, and GBI ballistics experts determined that the same gun, a .9-millimeter handgun, was in Lucas’ hands during both shootings, Isaza said.

Lucas was convicted of 12 charges, including murder, felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and firearm possession by a convicted felon, authorities said.

Lucas faces multiple life sentences, and his sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 23 at 9 a.m., court officials said.

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Marcus K Garner

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