Two men were sentenced to life in prison Thursday in the fatal shooting of a husband who tried to stop them from taking his wife’s $5 necklace.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge Ann Harris sentenced Demarious Kevaugh Greene, 23, to three consecutive life sentences plus 10 years while his co-defendant, Dylan Marquis Ledbetter, 25, received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The judge also gave Ledbetter another consecutive life sentence and an additional 10 years to serve.
Both men were convicted May 16 on charges of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and possession of a firearm following the Oct. 7, 2016, shooting outside Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen on Windy Hill Road. Ledbetter was also found guilty of aggravated assault on an officer.
Anthony and Cynthia Welch were in the restaurant's parking lot when a man tried to snatch her costume jewelry. Anthony Welch, 48, was fatally shot with a .380-caliber firearm while protecting his wife, and Cynthia was wounded, the Cobb County District Attorney's Office said. The couple had been together 25 years.
While she was on the ground bleeding from a gunshot wound, one of the men ripped the necklace from her neck before they fled the scene in a car, the DA’s office said.
Both defendants showed no emotion and sat quietly while Cynthia Welch, her son and Anthony Welch’s mother spoke about their loss during the sentencing hearing.
Cynthia Welch told the court she lost her best friend, confidant, protector and “the love of my live” the night she and her husband were celebrating their wedding anniversary. The couple had decided to renew their wedding vows the following year, and had just shared a kiss before they were approached by Greene and Ledbetter.
The Welches moved to Georgia to provide a better life for their children, and the patriarch of the family of four worked hard to provide for his wife and kids, Cynthia Welch said.
“That’s what you do when you are a man,” she said. “You work hard for what you want and need and don’t steal from other human beings.”
Cynthia said her husband would have done anything for anyone if it were asked of him. He even would have given the two men the $5 costume jewelry if they’d asked for it.
“Anthony’s life was way more valuable than the $5 necklace that you snatched off my neck.”
Anthony Welch’s mother also didn’t mince words. Ann Jean Welch, supported by her brother during her testimony, said she often wakes up crying at night and cries when her son’s grandchildren ask about him.
“What they took from me was my status as a mother,” she said. “I don’t have a child anymore.”
Welch, who called the shooting “an act of pure evil,” said she will miss her son’s smile. She also said she has watched Greene and Ledbetter throughout the 10-day trial and said they have not shown any remorse for killing her son.
“I hear some people can forgive murders,” Welch said. “I’m just not there yet.”
Cobb police received a break in the investigation four days after the restaurant shooting when two armed men robbed a man of a chain necklace at the Outlet Shoppes at Atlanta in Woodstock. Woodstock police teamed up with their Cobb County counterparts, suspecting the cases were related.
An alert was issued for the suspect’s car, which had Florida tags. On Oct. 15, 2016, the car was seen at a Red Roof Inn hotel in Marietta. The car left the motel with Ledbetter driving, Greene in the front passenger seat and another man in the back.
According to prosecutors, Ledbetter pulled into a Shell gas station, but when officers approached, he put the car in gear and tried to leave. The car struck a Cobb police vehicle and another car. Greene ran from the car and into a nearby motel. Ledbetter ran toward a plainclothes police officer, who shot Ledbetter three times. The third man remained in the car and surrendered to police.
A police dog searched the nearby hotel where Greene fled and found a chain necklace belonging to the victim in the Woodstock robbery. The car was searched and a .380 handgun, which was reported stolen out of Broward County, Florida, was found. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation ballistics expert said the gun fired the bullets removed from Anthony and Cynthia Welch.
When it was time for the defense to present its case, Ledbetter used that moment to speak to the Welch family. Ledbetter, who testified during the trial, said he was innocent of the charges.
“I know words can’t account for y’all’s loss, but at the end of the day…I chose to speak up for myself because in my heart, I know I’m innocent,” he said.
Defense attorney David Marshall won the argument that his client, Greene, should be sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for the malice murder charge. The lawyer said Greene would have to serve a minimum of 30 years in prison. By the time he is 53, he would be a changed man, Marshall said.
“It will be a life lived in prison at one of the most secure and probably one of the toughest prisons in the state of Georgia,” he said.
Judge Harris said there was no explanation for the “path of destruction” Ledbetter and Greene took when they shot and killed Anthony Welch and wounded his wife.
“A man is dead and a woman has been left bleeding and still in the days that followed, the nonchalance and audacity was striking,” she said of the defendants’ behavior.
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