DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County man is going to spend the rest of his life in prison after a jury convicted of him murdering the man who helped him pull off an insurance fraud scheme.
Norman Simmonds Jr., 45, was found guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault and other gun charges in the death of 24-year-old Tyrese Washington in August 2019.
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Investigators say an off-duty Douglasville police officer heard gunshots at an apartment complex on Ashley Creek Circle in Stone Mountain. When he walked toward the gunshots, he found Washington face down with a gunshot wound to the head.
They later learned that Washington had told a friend that he was going to the apartment complex because someone there owed him money.
As they investigated, an agent from the Georgia Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner told them he was working a case in which Washington and others staged an accident involving a U-Haul truck in Clarkston.
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During that investigation, Washington admitted that he was involved in insurance fraud. He told them that Simmonds set up a fake accident and promised to pay Washington $1,000, but never died.
Prosecutors say phone records show a number registered to Anthony Jones, an alias for Simmonds, called and texted Washington several times in the minutes before the shooting. The same records also placed Simmonds at his home, then at the crime scene at the time of the murder and then back at his home.
Simmonds was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus an additional five years.
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