In the early morning hours of April 10, 1994, Richard Slysz, a 50-year-old male, was shot and killed during a robbery at the Junior Food Store in Thomasville, Georgia, where he worked as a clerk. Two men, Ray Jefferson Cromartie and Corey Clark, entered the store while a third, Thaddeus Lucas, waited in a car. Inside the store, Slysz was shot twice in the head. The assailants were unable to open the cash register and fled with two 12-packs of beer.
The investigation into Slysz's murder led police to Ray Jefferson Cromartie. Evidence linking him to the crime included a thumbprint found on a beer carton near the store and shoe prints that matched the shoes he was wearing when he was arrested. The. 25 caliber pistol used to kill Slysz and wound another store clerk, Dan Wilson, in a separate robbery days earlier was also recovered and traced back to Cromartie. Both of Cromartie's accomplices, Lucas and Clark, testified against him at his trial, stating that he was the one who shot Slysz.
In 1997, Ray Jefferson Cromartie was convicted of malice murder for the death of Richard Slysz and was sentenced to death. He maintained his innocence throughout his years on death row, claiming that Corey Clark was the actual shooter. His appeals focused on the desire for DNA testing of evidence from the crime scene, which he and his lawyers argued could prove his innocence. These requests for DNA testing were repeatedly denied by the courts. The victim's own daughter, Elizabeth Legette, expressed her desire for the DNA testing to be performed to ensure the right person was being held responsible.
Despite the ongoing legal challenges and pleas from the victim's daughter, the state of Georgia proceeded with the execution. Ray Jefferson Cromartie, 52, was executed by lethal injection on November 13, 2019. His accomplices, Corey Clark and Thaddeus Lucas, received prison sentences for their roles in the robbery. Years later, just before Cromartie's execution, Thaddeus Lucas claimed he overheard Corey Clark confess to being the shooter, a statement that was part of a final, unsuccessful appeal.
