In the early evening of January 21, 2013, the life of 21-year-old Rebecca Lorraine Foley was tragically cut short in Savannah, Georgia. A student at Savannah State University, she was driving her car into the Colonial Village at Marsh Cove apartment complex on the city's Southside where she lived. It was then that a single bullet was fired through her rear driver-side window, striking and killing her.
The young female was discovered on the ground by responding police officers.
For nearly three years, the case remained without arrests, causing frustration for her family. Then, in December 2015, a breakthrough was announced. The Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department charged three men in connection with Foley's death. The suspects were identified as Kevin Lenard Smith, 23, Roderick Demione Parrish, 22, and Jordan Lamar Campbell, 23. At the time the warrants were served, all three individuals were already incarcerated on unrelated charges. A Chatham County Grand Jury indicted the trio on charges including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Prosecutors asserted that the men were members of a gang and that Foley was killed during a botched robbery attempt.
In November 2018, a jury reached a verdict in the long-awaited trial. Roderick Parrish and Jordan Campbell were convicted of the felony murder of Rebecca Foley and were subsequently sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The case against the third man, Kevin Smith, proved to be more complicated. The jury could not reach a unanimous decision on the murder charges against him, and his case has been subject to multiple trials and delays in the court system. Prosecutors later revealed that a getaway driver involved in Foley's murder, James Pastures, was killed in 2015 because fellow gang members suspected he was cooperating with the police investigation. In the years following her death, Foley's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the owners of the apartment complex, alleging they were aware of crime and safety issues but failed to act. The family reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount.
