A Conyers man and his sister-in-law won't face the death penalty after admitting that they robbed, beat and then stabbed to death an ailing widow in 2004.
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter initially sought the ultimate punishment for Donald and Kayla Sanders. However, the pair avoided a trial by agreeing Friday to enter a negotiated guilty plea.
A Gwinnett County judge sentenced them both to life in prison on charges of murder and armed robbery in the slaying of 67-year-old Doris Joyner. As part of the plea agreement, Donald Sanders, 41, agreed not to seek parole for 30 years. Kayla Sanders, 28, promised not to seek parole for 25 years.
A recap of the facts of the case, read aloud by Porter prior to the sentencing, offered this window into the grisly crime:
The pair were desperate to get bail money for Kayla's husband Jay Sanders, who was in the Barrow County jail on a domestic violence charge, when they identified Joyner as an easy target on Aug. 10, 2004. Donald and Jay's brother Gerald Sanders, who had worked for Joyner's husband's tree-trimming business, told them that Joyner had jewelry and cash at her house on Egypt Road near Snellville.
Joyner's husband had died on a job site a month prior when he was struck and killed by a falling pine tree.
"The initial plan was to attempt to obtain a loan, and if that failed, to rob Mrs. Joyner," Porter said.
Kayla tried sweet-talking her way inside, but the widow turned her away. At that point, Donald and Kayla forced their way inside, restrained Joyner, and bludgeoned her with a clothing iron until she lost consciousness.
They quickly gathered firearms, jewelry and other valuables they could pawn and piled them by the door.
Joyner started to stir.
What happened next is unclear, since Donald and Kayla accused each other. One of them grabbed a knife and stabbed her repeatedly.
They later pawned the items they stole for about $1,300, using $900 to bail Kayla's husband out of jail the next morning.
Defense attorney Elizabeth Vila Rogan, who represented Donald Sanders, said both he and Kayla were probably using methamphetamine when they broke into the home. The crime was out of character for Donald, Rogan said, adding, "He's kind of a gentle giant."
Rogan's statement to the court on his behalf said that he accepted responsibility for taking part in the slaying.
Kayla Sanders had agreed to testify against Donald if the case went to trial. Wearing black wire-framed glasses and with her long hair twisted into a fist-sized bun, she looked more like a pudgy schoolteacher than a cold-blooded killer.
Her defense attorneys Tom Clegg and Lyle Porter described her as a battered woman who became tangled up in a methamphetamine addiction.
"She feels a profound sense of regret for her involvement in this particular event and obviously wishes this had never happened," Clegg said.
Jim Meadows, Joyner's only surviving child, sat, with his arms folded, in the back of the courtroom throughout the proceeding and left without speaking to a reporter. He wrote a letter to the district attorney's office to be read aloud prior to sentencing and included in the court record. In it, Meadows said he did not forgive or forget what happened to his mother, "a small and sick woman who had lost her husband the month before and had a world of worries and grief to deal with." He rejected the defendants' excuses for their actions.
"Perhaps he will die in prison, I don't care," Meadows wrote. "If he is so fortunate to do so, that is more humane than what he did to a small, sick old woman who was my mother. I pray his mind tortures him as he realizes he gave away his own life as he stabbed the life out of her."
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