In the summer of 2021, a visit to collect a debt turned fatal for 46-year-old Marcus Lee Caswell Jr., a male from Newnan, Georgia. On August 8th, Caswell and his 31-year-old roommate, Travis Michael Lodato, traveled to the LaGrange home of Joshua Wayne Nutt. The purpose of their visit was to retrieve money that Nutt owed them. The two men were at Nutt's residence for several hours, but the encounter ended in bloodshed. At some point during the visit, Nutt, a known associate of the Ghost-Faced Gangsters street gang, shot Caswell once in the base of the skull and shot Lodato five times.
Following the murders, Nutt robbed the men of their jewelry and other possessions. He then attempted to conceal the crime, spray-painting one of the victim's motorcycles and making plans to break into their Newnan home. The next day, with the help of an accomplice, Nutt drove the bodies of Caswell and Lodato across the county and dumped them into West Point Lake. A fisherman discovered Caswell’s body floating in the lake on August 9th. Authorities initially thought it might have been a drowning, but upon recovering the body, they found a gunshot wound to his head. The following morning, a boater discovered Lodato’s body in the same area.
The investigation quickly led Troup County Sheriff's deputies to Nutt's home. A search of the property revealed the victims' motorcycles locked in a trailer and two pools of blood in the crawlspace, despite Nutt's efforts to clean the scene by ripping out and burning drywall. As investigators were at the home, Nutt drove by and then led deputies on a chase before he was ultimately stopped and apprehended. Inside his vehicle, police found Caswell's motorcycle helmet and car keys. Nutt was arrested on August 12, 2021. His girlfriend, Abbrianna Marie Williams, was also arrested and later indicted on charges of murder, robbery, and making false statements for denying that she knew the victims.
Joshua Wayne Nutt, who was on parole and had six prior felony convictions at the time of the murders, was indicted on numerous charges, including malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. During his trial, he claimed he acted in self-defense, a claim the jury rejected. In March 2023, a Troup County jury found Nutt guilty on multiple counts. He was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, followed by an additional 40 years in prison.
