The life of Lester Summers, a 40-year-old Black man, was cut short by gunfire on a late Saturday evening in Macon, Georgia. On September 10, 2022, just before 11:00 p.m., Bibb County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the 300 block of Grier Street for a report of a person down. They discovered Summers between two houses, critically injured with multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to Atrium Health, where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead. A second man, who was 34 years old, was also wounded in the shooting and was driven to a different hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
As investigators worked to determine what led to the shooting, their focus turned to a suspect who was already in police custody for an unrelated matter. Three days after the shooting, on September 13, Bibb Sheriff’s drug investigators had served a search warrant at a home on Monroe Street.
There, they arrested 37-year-old Turquell Shermain Cone after seizing a stolen handgun, an altered shotgun, seven grams of methamphetamine, and one gram of cocaine, along with scales and packaging material. Cone was booked into the Bibb County Law Enforcement Center.
Through the course of the homicide investigation, detectives identified Cone as the person responsible for the shooting on Grier Street. On September 30, 2022, while Cone was still incarcerated, investigators served him with a warrant for the murder of Lester Summers. A grand jury later indicted Cone on several serious charges in connection with Summers' death, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Turquell Cone initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. Although the case was scheduled to proceed to a jury trial, Cone ultimately changed his plea. He entered a guilty plea in connection with the fatal shooting of Lester Summers, bringing the legal proceedings to a close and resolving the case.
