In a quiet Lawrenceville, Georgia cul-de-sac on a Saturday afternoon in November 2020, a sequence of violent events shattered the neighborhood's peace. When police responded to a call about a person being shot, they first discovered 45-year-old Eugene McClam, a male resident of the area, suffering from gunshot wounds on a neighbor's front porch. He was alive but gravely injured and was transported to a local hospital where he would later succumb to his injuries.
The investigation quickly led officers to a nearby home where a grim scene awaited them. Inside the house, with its garage door left open, they found two other men, Robert Caverly, 64, and Steven Finch, 33, who were already deceased from gunshot wounds. Both McClam and Caverly were residents of the home where the homicides occurred.
The search for the person responsible began immediately, with a police K-9 unit and a helicopter scouring the area. The investigation into the triple homicide soon pointed to Justice Lusk, a 21-year-old from Stone Mountain. Investigators learned that Lusk had taken an Uber to the residence on Creek Water Court shortly before the gunfire erupted. Witnesses saw him leaving the home carrying a bookbag and a blanket. He attempted to flee the scene in a Lyft, but the driver refused him a ride, prompting Lusk to escape into a nearby wooded and muddy area. He made his way to another home on Millstream Trail where he concealed a backpack containing an AK-47 assault rifle, a handgun, a large quantity of methamphetamine and marijuana, as well as his muddied clothes and shoes in the crawlspace.
The following day, law enforcement received a call about a suspicious vehicle near the Millstream Trail home where the items had been stashed. When officers arrived, they found Lusk in the passenger seat of the vehicle and arrested him around 1 a.m. He was subsequently charged with three counts of felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and three counts of possessing a gun while committing a felony. During the investigation and his subsequent trial, Lusk claimed he had shot all three men in self-defense, stating that he felt his life was in danger. However, prosecutors presented a different motive, arguing that the killings were the result of an attempt by Lusk to steal the victims' drugs.
A Gwinnett County jury did not accept Lusk's claim of self-defense. In October 2024, at the age of 25, Justice Lusk was convicted on three counts of malice murder, three counts of felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and three counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. For his role in the deaths of Eugene McClam, Robert Caverly, and Steven Finch, he received a sentence of three consecutive life terms in prison, plus an additional five years, with no possibility of parole.
