Suspects in brutal murders of couple sentenced to life in prison
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. - A Fulton County Superior Court judge sentenced two men Monday to four consecutive life-in-prison sentences without parole, plus 60 years, for the execution-style shooting of a young man and his pregnant finance.
Judge Kimberly Adams handed down the sentences after 44-year-old Andre Gay and 45-year-old Richard Wilson pled guilty to the August 2014 murders.
Fulton County prosecutors described the case as something they had never seen before and called Gay and Wilson “career killers.”
The two men kidnapped 23-year-old Jeonta Brown and 21-year-old Briana Brooks from a relative's driveway in northwest Atlanta, and later shot them in the head and left them to die on the side of the road when their ransom demands were not met by the victims’ family.
Despite her wounds, Brooks was able to deliver her baby two months early before passing away.
During Monday’s sentencing, Judge Adams admonished Wilson who chuckled when asked by the court if he was willingly entering the guilty plea.
Judge Adams asked him, “Do you think there’s something funny here?”, and he replied no.
The judge told the pair she did not want to hear from them during the sentencing hearing.
Just after midnight on Aug. 30, 2014, prosecutors say Gay and Wilson kidnapped Brooks and Brown because they believed one of their relatives had recently received a significant amount of money from an insurance settlement.
Hours into the kidnapping the defendants called the victim's family members demanding ransom.
Eventually, the defendants drove the victims to a location in Northwest Atlanta where they shot Brown and Brooks in the back of the head and left them to die on the side of the road.
When Atlanta Police arrived, they found the couple handcuffed together with their hands behind their backs. Brown was already dead while Brooks was unconscious.
Medics rushed her to Grady Memorial Hospital where her unborn baby was delivered two months early. Brooks died days later.
Brown and Brooks were the parents of two other young children.
Prosecutors said Gay and Wilson met in prison. The two have killed at least seven people in Fulton County.