Tito Ivey told police he gunned down a fellow guest at the Hyatt Place hotel at Stonecrest because he felt threatened by the man. Ivey's wife told media the same.
But a DeKalb County jury rejected his defense and convicted him Monday of felony murder in the death of 32-year-old Franklin Jones.
"Investigators found no weapon or evidence that Jones had any intentions to harm Ivey," a news release from the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office said. "Initial media accounts reported that Jones may have been acting erratically at the hotel before the shooting. But hotel management refuted any such claims during trial."
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Ivey, 36, had been staying in the room next to Jones'. Ivey was visiting from Columbia County with his wife to shop and celebrate her birthday. Jones was at the hotel with his girlfriend and three children because they had nowhere else to go, according to previous reports.
Jones and his wife were about to begin working at the hotel.
The men had drinks together in the lobby of the hotel near the Mall at Stonecrest, outside Lithonia.
For reasons authorities haven't made clear, Ivey decided to shoot Jones afterward.
Ivey is set to be sentenced by Judge Gail Flake on Nov. 15.
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