A Cobb County jury convicted two men of murdering a popular Chattahoochee Tech instructor in 2009.
Matthew Wells, then 18, was sentenced to life plus 15 years and 30-year-old Curtis Billings was sentenced to life without parole plus 35 years for their convictions on multiple felonies.
Their most serious crime was shooting and killing Joseph Gunn on June 21, 2009, when the instructor confronted them outside his Smyrna condo as they were trying to break into his truck.
The two fled with Gunn’s .38 caliber revolver that they allegedly used the next month in a shoot-out with Clark-Atlanta University police. That’s how police connected them to Gunn’s death.
On July 8, 2009, police say, officers confronted Wells and Billings on the college campus when they saw one of them carrying a gun.
Wells complied with their demands to drop his weapon, but Billings allegedly shot back. The campus police officers fired back and Billings was wounded.
Billings was taken to the hospital while Wells was taken to Atlanta Police Department headquarters to be questioned.
Several hours later, when Atlanta police detectives left Wells alone in an interrogation room, he picked the locks on his leg irons and walked out unnoticed. Surveillance cameras captured images of Wells getting onto an elevator, taking it to the ground floor and leaving the building.
Police found Wells several hours later at his girlfriend’s house.
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