On a Saturday in late May of 2016, the body of 40-year-old Robert 'Jesse' Purcell, a male employee of a Marco's Pizza, was discovered in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He was found in the car he had been living in on the exit ramp of Highway 78 westbound to Hugh Howell Road, the victim of a fatal gunshot wound. His coworkers had reported him missing when he failed to show up for his shift, an occurrence they described as highly out of character for the reliable and hardworking man.
Having
recently fallen into homelessness, Purcell had been sleeping in his car behind the restaurant for the preceding six weeks. It was there, in the early hours of May 27, 2016, that he was ambushed by two men. The motive for the attack was determined to be robbery.
Within days, Gwinnett County police made two arrests in connection with the homicide. The suspects were identified as 18-year-old Tremaine Washington and 25-year-old Tye Roderick Stewart, both from Snellville. Washington was charged with felony murder and aggravated assault, while Stewart faced charges of murder and armed robbery.
The investigation revealed a grim sequence of events. After shooting Purcell in the chest during the robbery, the assailants discovered he was still alive as they attempted to move his body into the trunk of his own car. They then brutally slammed his head against the pavement to ensure his death before placing him in the trunk. For several days following the murder, Washington drove Purcell's car with his body still inside. He used the victim's phone to inform the pizzeria that Purcell would be absent from work and to research how to operate the car's manual transmission. He later sold Purcell's cell phone for a mere $45. Washington's undoing came when he bragged about the killing, leading to a 911 call that pointed investigators in his direction. Upon his arrest, police found Purcell's driver's license and some of his clothing at Washington's home.
In April 2018, a jury found Tremaine Washington guilty of murder, felony murder, armed robbery, and aggravated assault after deliberating for less than half an hour. He was subsequently sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. Information regarding the final disposition of the charges against Tye Roderick Stewart was not readily available in public online sources.
