VOLUME 21 NUMBER 51
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MARCH 26, 2016
Published Since April 1995 Serving DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale Counties • www.facebook.com/ocgnews
Bloods gang members indicted after deadly crime spree
Jeffery Price
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eKalb County District Attorney Robert James announced a 50-count indictment on March 24 accusing seven gang members of the Fruit Town Brims, an East Coast set of the Bloods, with terrorizing the county during a four-month deadly robbing spree last fall. The violence ended with the home invasion robbery and shooting death of 23-year-old Marcus Wilder on Dec. 26, 2015 at his Decatur apartment. Wilder was returning home from visiting his roommate in the hospital when he was attacked by the gang members. Police said they believed Wilder’s roommate, Adrian Johnson, was pistol whipped earlier that morning by the same group. James said the group is suspected
Octavius Johnson
Quenterius Brown
of several other robberies in DeKalb. “There were 15 victims in all… We have robberies, burglaries, aggravated assault and felony murder involved,” said James, adding that gangs would not be tolerated in DeKalb. “If you’re in a gang, you need to get out. You need to stop what you’re doing because we’re going to work together with the law enforcement community, we’re going to hunt you down, we’re going to charge you, we’re going to indict you and we’re going to hold you accountable for this type of behavior,” said James. “The county does not belong to gang members.” The indictment names Jeffery Price, Octavius Johnson, Donovan Harrison (not pictured), Quenterius
Brown, Denzel Thomas (not pictured), Jalin McNease and Andrew Lovett for their parts in the crime spree. All of the men are charged with multiple counts of violating Georgia’s gang statute while committing the other crimes. “We want to make sure these violent offenders can no longer endanger innocent citizens,” James said. “The criminal gang menace is a cancer in our community that must be removed, and my office is working diligently to prosecute as many violent gang offenders as possible.” Price and Brown are charged with malice murder and felony murder for shooting and killing Wilder when he walked in on a burglary at his apartment on Dec. 26. The gang had beaten
DeKalb’s special election to fill District 7 seat to be held Nov. 8
Stan Watson
By Valerie J. Morgan
A
n election to fill the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners District 7 seat vacated by Stan Watson will not be held until Nov. 8. Watson, who had two years left on his four-year term, resigned after qualifying on March 11 to run for DeKalb County tax commissioner. The DeKalb County Board of Elections (BOC) voted unanimously on Monday during an emergency meeting not to hold the special election to fill Watson’s seat on May 24 because there isn’t enough time to prepare, said Maxine Daniels, DeKalb’s director of elections. “The board did not believe that we
Jalin McNease
would have enough time to hold a standalone special election. We would have had to hire and train 500 additional people, get more voting machines, put the election on its own ballot and it would have cost $400,000,” Daniels said. Daniels said the board was able to make the decision to hold off on the election until November because state law(212-540) supersedes a DeKalb ordinance, which says a special law must be held no sooner than 19 days and no later than 45 days after a vacancy. Commissioner Larry Johnson, the presiding officer of the BOC, and state lawmakers of the DeKalb Delegation had urged the board to hold the election in May to avoid the District 7 seat from being vacant too long. The District 5 seat was vacant for over two years and wasn’t filled until last year, when Lee May resigned. Mereda Davis Johnson was elected to fill the seat in a special election. Daniels said holding the special election in November would not require any additional expense. During the emergency meeting, the Board of Elections also disqualified Sarah Copelin-Wood as a candidate for the District 3 School Board seat because she did not make the qualifying deadline in time.
Jalin McNease
and robbed Wilder’s roommate earlier that same morning. Harrison, Brown, Price and McNease are charged with attempted home invasion and criminal property damage for a different break-in that same day less than a mile away. Each of the defendants are charged with either armed robbery or attempted armed robbery for participating in separate incidents between September and December. Johnson also is charged with several counts of aggravated assault for shooting Marcus Curtis in the back as Curtis tried to escape a Sept. 22, 2015 robbery attempt. Curtis survived. Price, Lovett, Johnson, Brown and McNease are all being held without bond in the DeKalb County jail. Thomas and Harrison remain at large.
Stonecrest cityhood clears final hurdle in General Assembly
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he Stonecrest cityhood bill received final passage in the General Assembly as the 2016 Legislative Session came to a close. SB 208 passed 39-12 around 11:40 p.m. on March 24, paving the way for a voter referendum, once Gov. Nathan Deal signs the bill. “Three years waiting, but our time is now,” said an overjoyed Jason Lary, president of the Stonecrest City Alliance, which had pushed for the bill. SB 208 amended legislation setting the part-time annual salaries for mayor of the proposed city at $20,000 and $16,000 for City Council members. Full-time salaries had been set at $75,000 and $25,000 respectively. The referendum likely will be placed on the ballot in See Stonecrest, page 10