On a quiet road in Thomson, Georgia, what appeared to be a single-vehicle accident on Tuesday, March 13, 2018, unveiled a darker story. First responders arrived on Sterling Wells Road to find a car that had left the roadway and collided with a tree. Inside the vehicle, 42-year-old Cheri Stone and 43-year-old Kenyetta Germany, both of Evans, Georgia, were found deceased.
The initial belief that their deaths were the result of a car crash was dispelled the following day. Autopsies conducted at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in Decatur revealed that both Stone and Germany had died from gunshot wounds. Their deaths were subsequently ruled a double homicide, prompting a joint investigation by the McDuffie County Sheriff's Office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
After months of investigation, an arrest was made on August 20, 2018. Chet Kent, a 39-year-old from Thomson, was charged with two counts of murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. At the time the charges were brought against him, Kent was already in custody in Thomas County, Georgia, for unrelated offenses and was then transferred to the McDuffie County Jail.
Cheri Denise Stone, affectionately known as 'Stoney,' was born in Augusta, Georgia, on February 18, 1976. She attended school in McDuffie County and was a member of the Stone Springfield African Methodist Episcopal Church. Employed as an assembler for the John Deere company, she was described as the life of the party and was a beloved mother. Her fiancé, Kenyetta Germany, tragically died with her.
