On the last day of 2014, what began as a planned drug transaction in Paulding County, Georgia, ended in the tragic death of 18-year-old Gage McGee. A senior at South Paulding High School, Gage was found deceased in the driver's seat of his car on Bryan Miller Road near a water tank, having sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the chest.
Investigators quickly pieced together the events leading to McGee's death.
It was determined that he had arranged to meet two teenagers, 16-year-old Randy Deforrest Frederick and 15-year-old Trent Lee Jacobs, to sell them marijuana. The meeting was set to take place at the secluded water tank area, a location to which McGee drove and the two teens walked.
The encounter took a violent turn when Frederick and Jacobs produced a handgun with the intention of robbing McGee. During the ensuing struggle, McGee was shot. Despite his grave injury, he managed to get back into his vehicle and attempt to drive away to seek help. However, he succumbed to his injuries and crashed his car a short distance from the scene of the altercation.
The Paulding County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, identified Frederick and Jacobs as the primary suspects. The day after the shooting, on January 1, 2015, both teenagers came to the Sheriff's Office and spoke with detectives. Following their interviews, Randy Frederick and Trent Jacobs were arrested and subsequently charged with murder, aggravated assault, and armed robbery. Despite their ages, both were charged as adults and held in the Paulding County Jail without bond. Authorities also recovered the suspected murder weapon, which reportedly belonged to a relative of one of the accused teens.
