COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A jury found two men guilty of killing a man over costume jewelry outside a Cobb County restaurant.
Dylan Marquis Ledbetter and Demarious Greene were convicted of murder in the death of Anthony Welch outside a Pappadeaux restaurant in Marietta in October 2017. The jury deliberated a little more than four hours.
#BREAKING Cobb jury finds Demarious Greene & Dylan Ledbetter GUILTY in Pappadeaux murder. Anthony & Cynthia Welch were blindsided, robbed & shot for Cynthia’s $5 costume necklace. They had just wrapped up a birthday dinner when the killers ambushed them. Anthony died. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/t3elFPuWrh
— Chris Jose (@ChrisJoseWSB) May 16, 2019
Welch and his wife, Cynthia, were at the restaurant celebrating a birthday. They were headed to their car when they were stopped in the parking lot by Ledbetter and Greene.
Cynthia Welch said the men shot her husband of 25 years and then snatched the $5 costume necklace off her neck before shooting her and running away.
Channel 2's Chris Jose spoke with Cynthia Welch after the men were found guilty in her husband's death.
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Welch said she is "thanking God it’s done. They are off the street, and they won’t hurt anyone else."
Surrounded by family outside of the Cobb County courthouse, Cynthia Welch could rest easy knowing the men who killed her husband will go to prison.
“There’s no closure, but it’s accountability -- and they are going to be held accountable for what they did,” Welch said. “When all of this happened, I did struggle with my faith because I said, ‘How could this happen?’”
The man who prosecuted Ledbetter and Greene said he’ll recommend a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
“That’s no secret to the defense. No secret to the court. We had said from the onset, if we weren’t successful in getting them to step up to the plate and accept some responsibility for it then that’s what we would be recommending after trial,” Cobb County Chief ADA Jesse Evans said.
The judge will sentence the killers May 30.
Evans called the shooting cold-blooded and senseless.
Cox Media Group
