On the night of January 15, 2025, a dispute among a group of four young men walking along Trammell Road, near the east entrance to Clayton State University in Morrow, Georgia, escalated into deadly violence. During the argument, one of the individuals brandished a firearm and opened fire, fatally wounding 20-year-old Jerome Franklin, a Black/African American male, and 18-year-old Caden Moss. The two other men who were with them fled the scene as police arrived to find a roadside littered with shell casings. Surveillance footage captured the four men together shortly before the shooting. Investigators quickly determined that the incident was not a random act of violence but rather the result of a conflict within the group. None of the individuals involved were believed to be students at the nearby university.
In the weeks that followed, the investigation into the deaths of Jerome Franklin and Caden Moss progressed from a search for unknown assailants to a targeted effort to apprehend a group of suspects. Law enforcement officials from the Clayton County Sheriff's Office and the Clayton County Police Department worked methodically, combining witness statements with forensic evidence and surveillance video to piece together the events of that night. Their investigation revealed that the shooting was the culmination of a pre-planned robbery.
By mid-March 2025, authorities had secured warrants and began making arrests. Five suspects were taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service: 17-year-old Marcello Tisdale, 17-year-old Joel Guion, 21-year-old Jaylen Cobbin, Davion Alleyne, and 20-year-old Kahmari Dials. A sixth suspect, 18-year-old Daisha Ryan, was added to the sheriff's 'Top Ten Most Wanted' list. On March 18, a SWAT team surrounded a residence in Jonesboro, where Ryan was apprehended. Jail records show she was charged with felony murder, armed robbery, and being a party to the commission of a crime. The arrests brought a measure of progress to a case that had tragically cut short the lives of two young men.
