ATLANTA — Confessed serial killer Aeman Presley backed out of a plea deal at the last minute Monday after first agreeing to plead guilty to two murders in Fulton County.
In exchange, the state was willing to take the death penalty off the table.
The deal, which would give Presley life in prison without the possibility of parole, still stands for the next 30 days.
Only Channel 2 Action News had a crew in the courtroom Monday morning for the hearing, where near the end Presley asked, “Could I be found not guilty by reason of insanity? Cause what I did was insane … insanity at its best.”
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Presley is charged with the murder of two Atlanta homeless men in November 2014. He’s accused of shooting Dorian Jenkins and Tommy Mims while they slept.
Presley has already admitted and pleaded guilty to two more murders in DeKalb County.
Karen Pearce, a hairdresser, was shot and killed after leaving a restaurant in downtown Decatur. Calvin Gholston, another homeless man, was the first of Presley’s four victims.
Gholston’s sister Patricia Green attended the hearing.
“I didn’t want to see him plea,” Green told Channel 2’s Steve Gehlbach.
She would like to see a trial and the death penalty for Presley.
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“He doesn’t deserve another day on this earth,” Green said.
During the hearing to accept the plea, Fulton County Deputy District Attorney Peter Johnson brought up letters Presley wrote to their office over the past two years.
“In other letters you were saying your attorneys wanted you to plead guilty to receive life without parole, but you were not for it?” Johnson asked Presley
“That question is still looming in my mind. If I chose to go to trial, could I be found not guilty by reason of insanity by a jury?” Presley said.
Prosecutors will honor the plea in the next 30 days, but promise to take the case to trial, where they will seek the death penalty.
If Presley is found not guilty, he still would serve consecutive life sentences without parole for the two DeKalb murders.