Three metro Atlanta men were found guilty of murder Wednesday in the death of a 21-year-old man in Alpharetta in 2016, officials said.
The men — Michael Jamar Dawson of Lithonia, Dontravious Mahone of Riverdale and Jemal Gines of Decatur — were each convicted of murdering Kadarius Cortez Medlock, the news station reported.
Medlock was shot in the head and killed April 21, 2016, in The Preserve at Academy subdivision on Wade Creek Road, police said.
When the men drove to Medlock’s house that morning, Mahone put on a neon safety vest and brought an orange safety cone to pretend to be a utility worker, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s office said in a statement.
They then “invaded Medlock’s home through the front door” and tied up the victim using an extension cord while they ransacked the house, Howard’s office said.
As they were leaving, they shot Medlock in the back of his head, killing him, the statement said.
When Alpharetta police got to the scene, the only evidence left was the traffic cone. Investigators tracked the type of cone to a nearby hardware store, and used surveillance footage at the store to find video of two of the suspects buying the cone.
They were also able to identify the car they drove to the subdivision and use GPS tracking to link the men’s phones to the scene of the murder.
Dawson’s DNA was also found on the traffic cone, prosecutors said.
The suspects were arrested two months later through an operation in which four agencies executed search warrants on three residences in the metro area, the AJC reported in 2016.
They stole Medlock’s video game system, a Gucci scarf, a watch and a Louis Vuitton duffle bag, investigators determined.
They were convicted of more than 10 charges, including murder, armed robbery and false imprisonment. They are set to be sentenced Monday.
About the Author
