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Gangster Disciples member found guilty of 2023 murder in LaGrange

By FOX 5 Atlanta Digital Team
Published  May 29, 2024 9:33am EDT
Troup County
FOX 5 Atlanta

TROUP COUNTY, Ga. - On May 17, a Troup County jury convicted Lateef Jamil Moreland, 24, of Valdosta, of several charges, including Malice Murder, Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, Possession of a Firearm during the Commission of a Felony, and four violations of the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. 

The trial, which lasted a week, was presided over by Coweta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge N. Markette Baker. Moreland is scheduled to be sentenced on June 5 in the Superior Court of Troup County.

Evidence presented at the trial indicated that just before midnight on Jan. 28, 2023, Alan Dale Huguley, Jr., 30, was sitting in the driver’s seat of his sedan in the parking lot of the Quality Inn on Jameson Drive in LaGrange when two masked gunmen approached his vehicle and fired at least twenty-one shots. 

Huguley suffered twelve gunshot wounds. The jury found that Moreland, affiliated with the Gangster Disciples criminal street gang, carried out the murder as a hit to further the gang's interests and enhance his status within the gang. Moreland was also known as "L.J.," "Monsta Black 74," "David Black," and "Hatebaby G."

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Surveillance footage from a convenience store in LaGrange captured Moreland, without a mask, wearing the same clothes as one of the shooters on the day of the murder. Moreland was identified and arrested in his hometown of Valdosta on June 10, 2023. 

Ballistics evidence from the murder was matched to a distinct teal-colored Taurus handgun, which had been seized in an unrelated investigation by the Valdosta Police Department on May 31, 2023. Investigators also found digital evidence, including numerous images from social media, showing Moreland in possession of the same handgun. 

Moreland had been released from prison on September 19, 2022, after serving five years for a robbery conviction in Lowndes County.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Jack Winne prosecuted the case, while LaGrange Police Department Detectives Darrell Prichard and Jarrod Anderson led the investigation.