Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a 7-year-old boy in a home invasion,
DeKalb District Attorney Gwen Keyes Fleming said Monday.
And for the first time, Keyes Fleming linked the slaying of Timothy Johnson Jr. last Sept. 16 to a trial scheduled the next day in which his parents and sister were expected to testify.
Willie Kelsey, 29, of Decatur, was charged with the murder in December.
The allegation that Kelsey was trying to kill a witness is contained in indictments returned by a DeKalb grand jury, Keyes Fleming said.
Johnson's 15-year-old sister, Alexus Sheppard, was critically wounded by gunfire in the same bedroom with Timothy at their grandfather's home in southern DeKalb.
Alexus was to testify in a Sept. 17 trial of four men accused of staging a home invasion against her family in 2006. Kelsey was not a defendant in that trial. Keyes Fleming declined to say what evidence authorities have to link Kelsey to that case.
The district attorney said she consulted Timothy's family about seeking the death penalty and "they agreed with the decision."
State law requires the prosecution to prove one of a specified list of "aggravating circumstances" to justify a death penalty. Keyes Fleming said those factors in Kelsey's case will include committing a murder during a burglary, during an aggravated battery and in an "outrageously wanton" way.
DeKalb police in January also charged Jarvis Marquez Gibson, 24, with murder in the case in January. Prosecutors have not yet decided how to proceed with his case, said Artealia Gilliard, spokeswoman for Keyes Fleming.
Pre-trial proceedings in Kelsey's case will begin after it is assigned to a judge.
Bookmarks