In the late summer of 2014, the life of 24-year-old Tavin E. Campbell was brought to an abrupt and violent end. On the morning of September 20th, police were called to the Walton Crossing Apartments on Mulkey Road near Austell, where they discovered Campbell fatally shot. The young man, a resident of Marietta, had been shot three times in the torso.
Investigators quickly identified Orain Clifton Patterson, 27, as the suspect in the shooting. The two men were described as co-conspirators who had recently stolen a tractor-trailer filled with furniture belonging to Patterson's own father. Disagreements and mounting tensions over what to do with the stolen goods festered between them. On that fateful Saturday morning, Patterson, accompanied by a 16-year-old girl who remained in the car, went to Campbell's apartment. Inside, the argument escalated, and Patterson produced a. 45-caliber handgun, shooting Campbell multiple times.
Immediately following the shooting, Patterson and the teenage girl fled the state, heading south to the Miami, Florida area. Their time as fugitives was short-lived, however, as U.S. Marshals apprehended Patterson just two days after the murder. The 16-year-old was found safe and returned to her family.
In February 2017, just as his trial was about to begin, Orain Patterson pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Prosecutors stated that Patterson, who had a prior felony conviction for a violent assault, had executed his onetime friend out of greed and anger. A Cobb County Superior Court judge accepted the negotiated plea and sentenced Patterson to 30 years in prison, with credit for the time he had already served since his arrest. Campbell's mother and sister were present in the courtroom but were too overcome with grief to speak, asking the prosecutor to convey the devastating impact their loss had on their family.
