In the small town of Sparta, Georgia, the life of 18-year-old Javen Lamont Turner was cut short in a burst of gunfire on a Friday afternoon. On January 3, 2025, at the intersection of Broad Street and Miles Street, a violent encounter between individuals in two separate vehicles escalated to a fatal shooting. Turner, a passenger in one of the cars, was struck multiple times by the gunfire. He was rushed to a nearby hospital for his injuries but succumbed to them the following day, on January 4, 2025.
The investigation into the shooting, led by the Sparta Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, quickly identified several suspects. Within days of the incident, authorities had apprehended four individuals in connection with Turner's death. Those arrested were 18-year-old Darrian Deandre Greene, 22-year-old Nehemiah Henderson, 18-year-old Mikez Yaraus Edwards, and a 16-year-old juvenile. All four were charged with felony murder. The three adults were booked into the Hancock County Jail, while the juvenile was taken to a youth detention center.
A fifth suspect, 20-year-old Armarion Hunt, was also identified and a warrant was issued for his arrest on a felony murder charge. After a 15-day manhunt, Hunt was located and taken into custody in Milledgeville. In a later court appearance on December 17, 2025, Armarion Hunt pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. In exchange for his plea, charges of murder and aggravated assault were dropped. He was sentenced to 20 years, with the first 15 to be served in prison. During the proceedings, it was revealed that the shooting stemmed from an altercation between the occupants of the two cars and that Hunt had fired shots from the backseat of one of the vehicles.
