In the early hours of a Sunday morning in Lithonia, Georgia, the life of 32-year-old Franklin Jones Jr. came to a tragic and violent end. On August 2, 2015, DeKalb County police responded to a call of a person shot at the Hyatt Place hotel located near Stonecrest Mall. Upon their arrival at around 3:00 a.m., they discovered Jones's body in an interior hallway of the hotel. He had been fatally shot.
At the time of his death, Franklin, his longtime girlfriend Jennifer Liggons, and their three children were experiencing homelessness. They had been staying at the hotel due to the generosity of strangers. This act of kindness, however, could not shield them from the violence that would ultimately tear their family apart.
The investigation into the shooting quickly led to the arrest of a suspect, 35-year-old Tito Ivey. Ivey claimed that he had shot Jones in self-defense, alleging that he believed Jones was attempting to rob him. However, investigators found no evidence to support this claim. An examination of the scene revealed no signs of a struggle, and it was determined that Franklin Jones Jr. was unarmed at the time of the incident.
Based on the evidence, or lack thereof to support a self-defense narrative, Tito Ivey was taken into custody and subsequently charged with the murder of Franklin Jones Jr. The tragic event left a grieving family to cope with the sudden and senseless loss of a partner and father.
