The latest headlines from our reporters in the USA are sent directly to your inbox every weekday
Your briefing on the latest headlines from the USA
A man who was paralyzed in an attempted robbery in 2021 that left another man dead has been sentenced to life in prison for the attack.
Twenty-year-old Jaiden Williams was 17 when he shot and killed 17-year-old Orbit Pough III on July 26, 2021, in Grayson, Georgia, about 37 miles from Atlanta.
According to WSB-TV, a Gwinnett County jury last week found Williams, a Buford native, guilty of two counts of murder, aggravated assault, attempted commission of a serious felony and possession of a firearm during the commission of a serious felony.
Williams met Pough in the parking lot of a Kroger grocery store. He wanted to buy a THC vaporizer cartridge from Pough, but he didn’t have any money at the time, so he shot him in the side. Pough also had a gun and managed to shoot Williams in the neck, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Pough died in the incident.
Investigators later found contact marks on the barrel that came from a close-range shot, the newspaper reported.
Williams had told police he was in the car with Pough on the way to a drug deal. When Pough acted suspiciously, he shot him. During the trial, Williams told the jury he and Pough were friends.
The police disagreed and said the two were strangers to each other.
A judge sentenced Williams to life in prison with the possibility of parole and five years of probation.
“The victim’s family has suffered a tragic loss,” said District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson. “The defendant was only 17 years old when he took the victim’s life. This sentence will be a long and hard lesson for him. But we simply cannot tolerate our young people going down such violent paths.”
THC vaping pens with a Delta-9 content above 0.3 percent are illegal in the state of Georgia.
