2 men convicted in home invasion murder in Gwinnett County
COREY MYART AND GABRIEL MORALES
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - Two men face life in prison for roles in a deadly 2020 Norcross home invasion, according to Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office.
A Gwinnett County jury found 24-year-old Corey Arnell Myart of Fayetteville guilty of felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and felony home invasion for the Jan. 31, 2020, shooting death of Malik Werts. Gabriel Morales, who is 23 and from Norcross, was found guilty of two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault. They will be sentenced at a later date.
Morales and Myart learned that Werts’ roommate occasionally sold marijuana, and as a result, sometimes had large amounts of the drug in their Norcross apartment at Ashley Lakes Drive. Because of that, they planned to rob him.
In the early morning of the incident, as the roommate was packing up a U-Haul truck, he encountered the two would-be thieves and gave Myart a cigarette before returning to his apartment.
Moments later, Myart and Morales burst through the entrance of the apartment wielding handguns. As Morales forced the roommate to the floor, Myart went through the apartment. The roommate soon heard gunfire coming from the room where Werts was. A witness saw Morales and Myart flee the apartment building and speed away in a black car and called police.
The roommate told investigators that an acquaintance had introduced him to two friends the day before, and one of the friends was Morales. Both friends asked questions about the roommate’s availability of marijuana. Werts’ roommate provided investigators with the number of the man who introduced him to Morales, and then showed a screenshot of an Instagram account with the photo of Morales, and a text message saying Morales was the "short gunman."
Investigators identified the car as belonging to Myart’s younger brother, 23-year-old Cobe Myart, who is also charged in connection with the incident and is awaiting trial.
Assistant District Attorneys Drew Unger and Jim Carmichael prosecuted the case for the Gwinnett DA’s Office.