GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The case against a man accused of killing a Gwinnett County teen will not head to trial for a third time after two mistrials were declared.
Gwinnett County police found 18-year-old Tori Lang dead from a gunshot wound in a picnic area at a local park in 2021. Not long after, DeKalb County police recovered her burned-out car discovered not far from the park.
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After many months of investigation, police charged her “best friend,” Austin Ford, with murder and assault. Ford’s attorney Lawrence Lewis admitted that Ford was at the park when Lang died, but he insists it was a suicide.
Earlier this year, a jury could not come to a unanimous verdict on the murder charge and a mistrial was declared. Channel 2 Action News was inside the courtroom last week when a mistrial was declared again during the second trial.
Prosecutors announced on Wednesday that they will not try Ford on the murder and aggravated assault charges for a third time. Ford was convicted on counts of theft by taking and concealing the death of another.
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On the convicted charges for Ford, prosecutors recommended 30 years to serve. The judge sentenced Ford to 20 years with 10 to serve with a set of conditions, including no contact with the Lang family.
“Unfortunately, there was a lack of direct evidence speaking affirmatively to which person pulled the trigger. The defense argued that Tori herself pulled the trigger as she was ‘suicidal,’ a narrative pushed primarily by the Defendant. The circumstantial nature of proving that Ford fired the shot that killed Tori, and ME’s inability to rule out suicide made this a particularly difficult case to prove,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson wrote in a statement.
Austin-Gatson said that her office will continue to support and pray for Lang’s family.
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