In the afternoon of March 26, 2014, a fatal encounter in a southwest Atlanta apartment complex parking lot claimed the life of 34-year-old Nicholas Hagood, a male resident of Marietta. Hagood was discovered with at least one gunshot wound to his chest and succumbed to his injuries at the scene at the Windsor Square Townhomes on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
The incident, which appeared to be an armed robbery, took a violent turn, leaving a family to grapple with a sudden and tragic loss.
Investigators soon identified two primary suspects, 19-year-old Demetruis 'Mollyworld' Fortson and 24-year-old Jeremy 'Stray J' Southern, believed to be associated with a gang. Warrants were issued for their arrest on murder charges. The investigation expanded, ultimately leading to the indictment of Fortson, Southern, and three other individuals: Tavius Bates, Octavious Jordan, and Stephen Willis. The charges against the group were extensive, including malice murder, felony murder predicated on armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, and aggravated assault.
The subsequent legal proceedings brought some measure of justice for Hagood's death. A Fulton County jury found Demetruis Fortson guilty of felony murder, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Stephen Willis was also convicted in connection with the crimes. The case against Fortson was bolstered by evidence linking him and his co-defendants to another armed robbery that occurred just 40 minutes before Hagood's murder in a nearby county, where items stolen in the first robbery were found near Hagood's body. An eyewitness at Hagood's apartment complex reported seeing a man with a 'dreads' hairstyle, later identified as Hagood, who appeared 'out of place and slightly disoriented' next to a car just before the shooting.
