James Carlos Harden, a 39-year-old male, was killed by gun violence on November 19, 2015, in Douglas, Georgia. A longtime resident of Coffee County, he was a welder by trade and a devoted father, son, and brother. He had relocated to Douglas at the age of eight and graduated from Coffee High School. After initially working with his family, he pursued a career as a welder, which led him to travel extensively, though he always maintained his connections to his home in Douglas.
On that Thursday, Coffee County Deputies responded to a report of deceased persons at a residence on Meadowbrook Lane. Inside, they discovered the bodies of James Harden and 33-year-old Meghan Starling Davis Bowen. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist the Coffee County Sheriff's Office with the homicide investigation. The following day, authorities arrested 42-year-old Wallace David Lee in connection with the deaths.
Lee was charged with two counts of malice murder and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. He was subsequently booked into the Coffee County Jail. Reports indicate that Lee had been in a volatile and violent relationship with Meghan Bowen prior to the killings. In 2016, after a trial that lasted two and a half days, a jury deliberated for just 35 minutes before finding Wallace David Lee guilty of both murders. He received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. His conviction and sentence have been upheld on appeal.
