On the night of May 15, 2017, Genaro Rojas-Martinez, a 39-year-old Hispanic male, finished his shift at a restaurant in Smyrna, Georgia, and headed to a nearby Texaco gas station on South Cobb Drive. What he didn't know was that he was being followed. After pulling up to a pump around 11 p.m., Rojas-Martinez went inside the convenience store to pay. As he returned to his vehicle, a man who had been waiting for him, approached from behind and fatally shot him once in the back of the head.
The shooter then quickly fled the scene in a green Chevrolet Avalanche. Rojas-Martinez, a husband and father of three daughters, was left dying at the gas station.
The investigation into the seemingly random act of violence quickly gained momentum when Smyrna police released surveillance photos of the getaway vehicle. A tip from the vehicle's owner, who had seen the news reports, led authorities to identify the suspect as 37-year-old Joseph Priester of Thomaston, Georgia. Investigators learned that Priester was a convicted felon with an outstanding warrant for a parole violation. Though there was no known connection between the two men, it was discovered that Priester had waited for hours outside Rojas-Martinez's workplace before following him to the gas station in what prosecutors would later describe as a 'cold-blooded execution.'
A manhunt for Priester ended a few days later when U.S. Marshals apprehended him in New Jersey. He was extradited back to Georgia to face a string of charges, including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Priester had also committed an armed robbery and another shooting just the day before the murder. After a week-long trial in September 2018, a Cobb County jury took only 31 minutes to find Joseph Priester guilty on all counts. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional five years.
