In the late afternoon of Super Bowl Sunday, February 4, 2018, the life of 33-year-old Javaris Antoine Brown came to a violent end in Macon, Georgia. A passerby discovered Brown unresponsive in the driver's seat of his parked car on Carling Avenue and alerted authorities. When deputies arrived, they found that he had been fatally shot.
The investigation into the death of the male victim quickly pointed to a meeting that had taken place earlier that day.
Detectives learned that Javaris Brown had been in contact with Keith Beddingfield Jr., then 25 years old. The two had arranged to meet near the intersection of Carling and Napier Avenues. Beddingfield arrived with his then-wife, Karen, who remained in their vehicle while her husband got into Brown's car. Inside the vehicle, an argument broke out, followed by the sound of multiple gunshots.
Following the shooting, Keith Beddingfield Jr. returned to his vehicle, and the couple fled the scene. They allegedly drove back to the area shortly after, realizing that Beddingfield had left his phone behind in Brown's car. Investigators were able to connect Beddingfield to the crime, and he was arrested several days later. His wife, Karen Morton-Beddingfield, was also taken into custody and charged in connection with the murder in May of that year.
During the subsequent trial, further details of the motive emerged. Brown's girlfriend testified that he had recently lost his job and had been selling marijuana to make money. She stated that he believed a man named 'Keith' had robbed him of drugs at gunpoint the day before the fatal shooting. In February 2020, a jury found Keith Beddingfield Jr. guilty of malice murder, felony murder, and armed robbery. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. While incarcerated and awaiting trial, Beddingfield was also involved in a scheme to have his ex-wife killed to prevent her from testifying against him. Her case was still pending at the time of his conviction.
