Gwinnett Daily Post SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2017
www.gwinnettdailypost.com
$2.00 ©2016 SCNI
Vol. 47, No. 64
460869-1
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Homicides, solved cases up in 2016 BY CAILIN O’BRIEN
But finding them justice can take months. *** The Gwinnett County Most of them were killed Medical Examiner’s ofwithin seconds — as long fice worked 33 confirmed as it takes for the bullet to homicides in 2016 as of leave the gun pointed at Friday. That’s 33 victims them. who needed justice this cailin.obrien @gwinnettdailypost.com
year, up a bit from the 28 reported in 2015. In fact, the Gwinnett County Police Department alone worked 28 homicides in 2016, a slightly higher caseload from the 23 the department handled last year.
The increase hasn’t seemed to frazzle detectives. The department cleared 89 percent of its homicide cases this year — up from 78 percent at this time in 2015. Both figures hold up well compared to the national clearance aver-
age for homicides, which hovered just above 60 percent in 2015, according to FBI statistics. But GCPD spokesman and homicide unit veteran Cpl. Deon Washington
AT A GLANCE Gwinnett homicide totals by year 2016 — 33 2015 — 28 2014 — 37 2013 — 27 2012 — 41
See HOMICIDE, Page 9A
I
t was a year that included plenty of tragedy — including a deadly hostage standoff in January and the death of a beloved U.S. Marshal just before Thanksgiving — but also had some more positive moments, such as the Budweiser Clydesdales visiting for Lawrenceville’s Christmas parade. The following are some of the biggest headlines that made an impact on Gwinnett in 2016.
2016
FUNERAL OF U.S. MARSHAL CAROTHERS
GWINNETT STORIES OF THE YEAR
LILLIAN WEBB
TRIAL OF MATTHEW LEILI
TRAGIC TUCKER FIRE
Matthew Leili convicted in wife Nique’s death
It was a case that captured national attention and took nearly five years to bring to trial. A wife missing, a husband long suspected but never charged. But on Feb. 5, the family of Nique Leili finally got the closure they longed for as her husband Matthew was sentenced to life without parole for her death, which occured in July of 2011. After the sentence was read, Matthew Leili said only: “I didn’t do it.” It was the culmination of a case that created headlines from the time Matthew Leili reported his wife missing. She was later found near their Lawrenceville home, in Nique Leilli the woods covered by leaves. From the time the body was found, the husband was a suspect, but it wasn’t until years later that Matthew Leili — who had an elaborate surveillance system that prosecutors said allowed him to keep tabs on his wife — was charged with the crime. The trial was later featured on NBC’s “Dateline” and ABC’s “20/20.” “My Nique will always be in my heart,” her mother, Harriett Garrett, said.
Political pioneer Lillian Webb dies at 87
Lillian Webb was a trailblazer in the truest sense of the word. The former Gwinnett County chairwoman, who was named Gwinnett’s Citizen of the Year in 2014, she is credited with many things we now take for granted in the county. Everything from SPLOST and water and sewer improvements to major transportation projects like Ronald Reagan Parkway had Webb’s fingerprints on them. The woman known affectionately as “Miss Lillian” was always on the cutting edge, leaving behind a series of achievements that had never been done before: • First woman to chair the Gwinnett County Commission. • First Republican to be chair of the Gwinnett commission. • First woman elected to the Norcross City Council. • First woman to be mayor of Norcross. • First woman to be president of the Georgia Municipal Association. She died on Sept. 15 at the age of 87, having left her mark on the county.
MORE INSIDE
MORE TOP NEWS STORIES, 7A
Tucker fire claims lives of mother, two daughters A woman and her two daughters died in a fatal fire in the Tucker area in midFebruary in a blaze where husband and father Brent Patterson survived. There were multiple investigations into the incident among Gwinnett firefighters, the Medical Examiner’s officer and the District Attorney’s office. Patterson told authorities he left his wife, Kathy, and daughters, Madelyn, 9, and Kayla, 12, upstairs while he went to investigate a popping noise in the night. The sound was flames. He said the blaze had spread while he was downstairs and he couldn’t get back upstairs to save them. The fire reportedly started in the first-floor living room, in the area of an electric-powered reclining couch. The father said he had been upstairs getting ready for bed with the others when he heard a popping sound downstairs and went to investigate. The father asked attendees of his family members’ funeral service to wear pink, Madelyn’s favorite color, or blue, Kayla’s favorite. At the service, a pastor remembered Kathy for kindness and dancing. The girls attended Nesbit Elementary and were known for their hugs, which the pastor described as enthusiastic and also “inseparable.”
TOP SPORTS STORIES, 1B
Gwinnett mourns fallen U.S. Marshal Carothers
Law enforcement officers from all over the country mourned with Gwinnett County when U.S. Marshal Deputy Commander Patrick T. Carothers was killed in the line of duty this year. Carothers, 53, was killed in Long County when he tried to serve a warrant for fugitive Dontrell Montese Carter’s arrest. Carothers’ team Patrick T. was entering a singleCarothers wide trailer where they’d found Carter hiding when Carothers was shot twice. He didn’t have to enter the building. “He was there as a supervisor,” said Paul Carothers, one of Pat’s five children. “But he felt it was his duty to be in there with his men.” Three of the Carothers children have graduated from Greater Atlanta Christian School. Two more are still enrolled. Carothers’ funeral was held in the school’s Long Forum Hall Nov. 26. The room was filled with members of the school faculty as well as friends, family, community members, U.S. Marshals and members of the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s office. Law enforcement officers from as far away as New York and Chicago came to pay their respects.
PHOTOS OF THE YEAR, 1C
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