Goldy Lee Watkins Sr., a 59-year-old Black man from Riverdale, Georgia, was killed on May 27, 2014, in what local reports described as a deeply personal and violent confrontation inside his own home. The evening ended on Stark Court, where Watkins was found shot twice, a grim ending for a man described in coverage as someone known for helping others and opening his home to someone in need. His death was reported not as a random act, but as a betrayal that unfolded under his own roof.
According to the accounts published at the time, the man accused in the killing was Joseph Horace Stephens, 21, who had been staying with Watkins. Police said the fatal encounter came after Watkins tried to put Stephens out of the house because he believed Stephens had been stealing from him. What began as a dispute inside the home turned deadly, and investigators said Stephens then fled the scene in Watkins’ black 2007 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck, leaving behind a case that quickly drew attention across the Riverdale area.
The arrest came quickly. On May 29, 2014, Clayton County sheriff’s officials took Stephens into custody, and reports said his own mother helped turn him in. Authorities charged him with felony murder, theft by taking, aggravated assault, and false imprisonment. One report said he was being held without bail, and when asked by a television reporter whether he had killed the man who had given him a place to stay, Stephens denied it. In the public reporting located online, Stephens was the only named suspect and the only arrest tied to Watkins’ death. No additional suspects were identified in those sources, and no later online source located here clearly established a trial result or conviction in this case.
