GRIFFIN, Ga. (AP) — Three people have been charged with murder in Georgia after one of them shot a man who confronted them about throwing eggs at his home, authorities said.
The suspects — two 18-year-olds and a 19-year-old — wanted to vandalize Johnathan Gilbert’s home about 40 miles (64 kilometer) south of Atlanta as part of an “ongoing lovers’ quarrel,” Spalding County Sheriff Darrell Dix said in a news release Friday. The release did not elaborate on the dispute or say how old Gilbert was.
The vandals went to the home in Griffin on July 3, but ran back to their car when they were confronted by Gilbert, who was unarmed, according to the sheriff’s office.
A backseat passenger, Sydney Maughon, 18, shot Gilbert multiple times before the suspects drove away, Dix said.
Maughon, Jeremy Munson, 18; and McKenzie Davenport, 19; have been charged with malice murder. Though Munson and Davenport did not shoot Gilbert, they traveled to his house to commit a crime that led to his death, making them “all culpable just as if they had each pulled the trigger themselves,” Dix said.
A call to the sheriff’s office on Tuesday to see whether the suspects had attorneys or had entered pleas was not immediately returned.
