The man and woman found fatally shot on the side of a Buford road Saturday were headed to the halfway house at Phillips State Prison, where the man had just two days to serve before he was to be paroled.
Margie Gibbs, 67, was driving Jimmy Watts, 53, back to the Transitional Center on West Rock Quarry Road in Watts' pickup truck, said Watts' brother, Ken Watts.
They had left Rabun County, where they visited Watts' family, around 5 p.m. Two hours later, a passing motorist on West Rock Quarry Road saw Gibbs and Watts lying alongside the truck with gunshot wounds.
Watts was scheduled to be paroled Monday after serving 3 1/2 years for a cocaine conviction, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles said.
In his work release program, Watts cleaned office buildings with Gibbs, Ken Watts said. Watts and Gibbs, a maid who lived in Alpharetta, met three years ago while he was incarcerated at Walker State Prison with Gibbs' son, Ken Watts said. She began visiting Watts on weekends.
Ken Watts said the relationship was "not a boyfriend-girlfriend type of thing," at least not to his brother, and that he never saw any overt displays of affection. "It was just like they'd known each other a long time," Ken Watts said.
But Gibbs told her grandson she was dating Watts, said Laverne Baker, Gibbs' former daughter-in-law.
The brothers spent Saturday looking at Watts' old house in Tiger, which burned down while he was in prison. Ken Watts had started rebuilding and the brothers installed windows together.
"He knew he was getting out and he was really, really happy," Ken Watts said. "He was telling me he was going to tell Margie that he was coming home to (Rabun County), that he wasn't going to live in Atlanta, that he wanted to be up here with his family."
Ken Watts said he was told by police his brother was shot five times.
Police said they'll release autopsy findings when both autopsies are completed. They have not specified a motive, defined the relationship between Watts and Gibbs, or said whether anyone else was involved.
Watts, nicknamed Bo, grew up in Rabun County and worked construction. He was married three times and had two daughters and a granddaughter. Watts probably turned to cocaine for money, his brother said.
"You make mistakes, you have to pay for them and that's what he was doing," Ken Watts said. "After being gone for four years and getting to come home, he was more excited than I've ever seen him."
Gibbs, who was from Columbus, recently moved to the Atlanta area and got a job cleaning Buckhead office buildings, Baker said.
Gibbs was alive when she was found. She was rushed to Gwinnett Medical Center, where she died from her wounds. Watts was pronounced dead at the scene. A handgun was found near the Toyota Tacoma.
"He was supposed to get out Monday morning at 8 o'clock, my sister was going to pick him up," Ken Watts said. "He was so happy. He said, ‘Ken, I finally get to sleep in my own bed.'"
-- Staff writer Megan Matteucci contributed to this article.
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