In the fall of 2022, Ja’Nautica Juju La’Shay Whitehead, a 19-year-old female, was looking forward to a future she was actively building. Having enrolled in college to become a certified medical assistant, she was focused on her education and her job at a local Waffle House. However, her attempts to distance herself from her high school boyfriend, 25-year-old Deeron Hicks, were met with escalating violence and control. In the months leading up to her death, Hicks had repeatedly assaulted and strangled her, and had threatened her with a gun. Just two weeks before the fatal encounter, he confronted her at her workplace, lured her into the parking lot, choked her, and chased her with a firearm.
On November 25, 2022, as Ja’Nautica was on her way to work, Hicks followed her. Phone records would later show that he called her multiple times until she pulled her car over. It was then that he shot her twice in the head at close range. The following day, on November 26, 2022, officers from the DeKalb County Police Department responded to a call about a vehicle parked in a wooded area off Snapfinger Parkway in Decatur, Georgia. Inside, they discovered Ja’Nautica’s body; she was still in her Waffle House uniform.
The investigation into her death quickly pointed to Deeron Hicks, and he was arrested on December 17, 2022. He was subsequently charged with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. After a trial in which the prosecution detailed the pattern of domestic abuse and his actions on the day of the murder, a DeKalb County jury found Hicks guilty on all charges. He was sentenced to life in prison plus five years.
