Richard Wilson
Background
Richard Augusta Wilson, also known by the nickname “Fathead,” is a Georgia murderer connected to a long pattern of violent crimes in the Atlanta area. He is most widely known for the 2014 kidnapping and execution-style murders of Jeronta Brown and Briana Brooks, a young engaged couple who were abducted during a ransom plot. Wilson had already been convicted in an earlier killing before the 2014 murders, and investigators also tied him to other violent deaths. Because several of the alleged cases were described by authorities as suspected or connected rather than fully adjudicated in court, the most reliable victim information includes the murders for which Wilson was convicted or publicly tied by law enforcement.
Early Violent Crime
Wilson’s known criminal history included a deadly 1991 robbery in Atlanta. In that case, he and others were involved in robbing residents in the Bowen Homes housing project. During the robbery, 23-year-old Kenneth Martin tried to get away and was shot to death. Wilson later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and armed robbery. He received a 20-year sentence but served about 11 years before being released on parole.
The 2014 Kidnapping and Murders
The case that brought Wilson national attention happened on August 30, 2014. Jeronta Brown and his pregnant fiancée, Briana Brooks, had returned from a late-night food run with their young daughter and Jeronta’s teenage sister. As they arrived at a home in Decatur, Georgia, two masked men confronted them. The assailants posed as law-enforcement officers, forced the couple into handcuffs, and abducted them.
The kidnappers believed the family had access to money and demanded a ransom of $150,000. Over the next several hours, the victims’ family received terrifying calls while the couple remained captive. When the ransom was not paid, Brown and Brooks were taken to northwest Atlanta, handcuffed together, and shot in the head. Brown died at the scene. Brooks, who was seven months pregnant, was still alive when she was found. She was taken to the hospital, where doctors delivered her baby by emergency C-section. Brooks died on September 3, 2014.
Victims
- Kenneth Martin, 23 — Killed on April 21, 1991, in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin was shot during a random robbery at the Bowen Homes housing project. Wilson pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and armed robbery in connection with this killing.
- Fikree Jordan, 37 — Killed on January 8, 2014, at Farrington Place in Atlanta, Georgia. Authorities publicly tied Wilson to Jordan’s murder, which was described as connected to a drug deal, though available accounts indicate this case was treated differently from the convictions in the Martin, Brown, and Brooks cases.
- Jeronta Brown, 24 — Killed on August 30, 2014, after being kidnapped from outside a home in Decatur, Georgia. He was found in northwest Atlanta, handcuffed to Briana Brooks, with a gunshot wound to the head.
- Briana Brooks, 21 — Shot on August 30, 2014, after being kidnapped with Jeronta Brown. She died on September 3, 2014, in the Atlanta area after doctors delivered her baby by emergency C-section. She was seven months pregnant at the time of the attack.
Modus Operandi and Pattern
Wilson’s crimes showed a pattern of armed violence, intimidation, and disregard for human life. The 1991 killing of Kenneth Martin happened during a robbery, while the 2014 murders of Jeronta Brown and Briana Brooks involved planning, impersonation, abduction, ransom demands, and execution-style violence. In the Brown and Brooks case, Wilson and his accomplice, Andre Cleveland Gay, targeted the couple because they believed the family had received money from an insurance settlement. The crime was not a spontaneous confrontation; it was a deliberate kidnapping carried out for money.
The killers used fear and control throughout the abduction. They confronted the victims at night, restrained them with handcuffs, transported them away from the original location, and used the victims’ phones to pressure relatives for ransom. The final act was especially brutal: the couple was left handcuffed together after being shot. Brooks’ survival long enough for her child to be delivered became one of the most heartbreaking details of the case.
Arrest and Conviction
After the murders of Brown and Brooks, investigators identified Andre Gay and Richard Wilson as suspects. Gay was arrested first, and Wilson was later captured in Birmingham, Alabama, while reportedly trying to sell a firearm. Both men had long criminal histories and were out of prison at the time of the 2014 killings.
In 2018, Wilson and Gay pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, kidnapping for ransom, criminal attempt to commit feticide, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy, and firearm offenses. They were each sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus additional years in prison.
Legacy of the Case
The murders of Jeronta Brown and Briana Brooks became one of Atlanta’s most disturbing modern homicide cases because of the calculated nature of the kidnapping and the vulnerability of the victims. Brown was a young father and fiancé. Brooks was a young mother, seven months pregnant, who survived long enough for her baby to be delivered. Their deaths exposed serious concerns about violent repeat offenders, parole decisions, and the danger posed by criminals who had already committed deadly crimes before being released back into the community.
Richard Wilson remains imprisoned for the murders. His name is most closely associated with the deaths of Kenneth Martin, Jeronta Brown, and Briana Brooks, along with the law-enforcement connection to Fikree Jordan’s 2014 killing. His criminal history reflects a long span of violence, from the early 1990s through the 2014 ransom kidnapping that ended in the deaths of a young engaged couple.
