In a tragic series of events driven by jealousy, 29-year-old Donna Sanders, a Caucasian woman from Mansfield, Georgia, was murdered on May 23, 2002. The incident was the culmination of a love triangle involving Sanders, her boyfriend Mark Sullivan, and his ex-girlfriend, 42-year-old Barbara Elaine Dalton. The fatal encounter unfolded in front of both Sanders' and Dalton's sons.
On the day of the murder, Dalton waited for Donna Sanders' 10-year-old son, Wesley, to get off the school bus. When Sanders arrived home, Dalton, armed with a gun, forced both mother and son into Sanders' truck. She then drove them to her own son's house on Dixie Road in Mansfield. Inside the home, in the presence of Wesley and her son, Brian Dean, Barbara Dalton shot Donna Sanders in the forehead.
Following the shooting, Dalton fled the scene. Barbara Elaine Dalton was arrested on July 10, 2003, and faced a multi-count indictment that included malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, cruelty to children, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. The state initially sought the death penalty.
The trial took place in the Newton County Judicial Center, where a jury found Barbara Dalton guilty on all charges. On July 15, 2004, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Georgia Supreme Court later upheld her conviction and sentence.
