On a warm evening in June 2016, Enrique Ramirez Trejo, a 49-year-old man, left his job as the general manager at El Charro, a Mexican restaurant in Covington, Georgia, for the last time. After a long career of more than two decades at the restaurant, his journey home on Saturday, June 18th, took an unexpected and tragic turn. He stopped at a Shell convenience store on the Covington Bypass where he encountered three young men and offered them a ride.
Sometime after leaving the gas station, Trejo was shot multiple times. A witness later reported hearing four or five gunshots. His body was discovered the following morning in a drainage culvert on Lower River Road. The cause of death was determined to be multiple gunshot wounds. His 1999 Ford Expedition was missing, leading police to issue a lookout for the vehicle.
Later on Sunday evening, a Covington police officer spotted Trejo's stolen SUV. When the officer initiated a traffic stop, the occupants fled on foot. After a chase, the individuals were apprehended. The subsequent investigation led to the arrest of 16-year-old Antavian Love. Love was charged as an adult with murder, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, theft by taking, and theft by receiving.
In April 2017, a Newton County jury convicted Antavian Love, then 17, for the murder of Enrique Ramirez Trejo. He was found guilty on multiple counts, including malice murder, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. Testimony during the trial from the two other youths who were present revealed that Love had feigned losing his phone to get Trejo to stop the car before shooting him. In July 2017, Antavian Love was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
