A west Georgia man was arrested after investigators said he brutally beat a man to death during a card game, even while witnesses tried to pull him off the victim.
Sherrod Montgomery, 41, of Carrollton, is charged with both murder and malice murder in the death of Ricky Cox, according to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office. By Georgia law, murder is unlawfully causing the death of another person, while malice murder is causing a death without provocation and “where all circumstances of the killing show an abandoned and malignant heart.”
Cox, 63, of Bowden, died at Tanner Medical Center after the brawl May 20.
The two men got into an argument during a game in a home in the 100 block of Kent Avenue, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. It is not clear what the argument was over, but authorities said it soon turned physical.
Witnesses told the sheriff’s office they could hear the two arguing during the card game and then saw Montgomery attack Cox. At some point between the punches and kicks, Montgomery flipped a table, the sheriff’s office said.
Witnesses tried to pull Montgomery off Cox several times, but he persisted in the attack, authorities said. He left the home after the fight.
A group of witnesses picked up Cox from the floor and moved him onto a couch while others called 911. The injured man was not coherent or conscious after the attack.
Investigators later determined the cause of Cox’s death was blunt force trauma to the head and torso that led to his lung and heart being lacerated.
Montgomery was interviewed the night of the incident but refused to tell investigators what led to the attack, the sheriff’s office said.
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