East Point man convicted in drug-related murders
It took a jury 20 minutes on Friday to find an East Point man guilty in the 2007 murder of two brothers.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter sentenced Marcus Ford, 35, to consecutive life sentences.
Paul Gaines, 21, and his brother Michael Gaines, 22, along with two associates, had gone to Ford's home to confront him about stealing customers from their drug trade.
Ford promptly shot Paul Gaines six times and his brother twice, leaving their dead bodies on the street. He then fled the scene, dropping his weapon into the Chattahoochee River.
Ford turned himself in the next day, claiming self-defense, but prosecutors say the victims and their associates were unarmed at the time of the shooting.
About the Author
A native Atlantan, Boone joined the AJC staff in 2007. He quickly carved out a niche covering crime stories, assuming the public safety beat in 2014. He's covered some of the biggest trials this decade, from Hemy Neuman to Ross Harris to Chip Olsen, the latter of which was featured on Season 7 of the AJC's award-winning "Breakdown" podcast.
