Accused serial killer to stand trial in death of homeless man first

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — An accused serial killer will stand trial in DeKalb County next February for killing only one of his four alleged victims, and Channel 2 Action News has learned that will not be a death penalty case.
 
Aeman Presley is accused of killing popular Smyrna hairdresser Karen Pearce outside a Decatur parking deck last December. 

He's also charged with killing a DeKalb County drifter named Calvin Gholston. But DeKalb prosecutors plan to try him only for the murder of Gholston in February. 

After that trial is finished, they say they will try him for Pearce's murder, and that, they say, will be a death penalty case.
 
Atlanta Police also charged Presley with the murders of two homeless men.  He will face trial in Fulton County for those killings.
 
Investigators said Presley went on a murder spree between September and December of 2015.  MARTA police arrested him after he jumped a turnstile at the Georgia State MARTA Station.  Detectives linked both the handgun and the unique ammo found on him at the time to all four killings.
 
At a motions hearing in DeKalb County Tuesday, a judge refused to sign an order allowing Presley to remain unshackled during courtroom appearances. Presley's attorneys worried that could prejudice a potential jury.
 
"Unless the U.S. Supreme Court tells me my safety becomes irrelevant, I'm not going to sign this," said DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory Adams.
 
Presley is scheduled to return to DeKalb County court next month.  He could make another appearance in Fulton County Court on those murders Friday.

WSBTV