GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A jury found a DeKalb County man guilty of following and killing a Gwinnett County father in a road rage shooting.
Don Wardlaw, 46, was shot and killed on Jan. 27, 2022 on his way to work. Police later arrested and charged Michael Charles Jackson, 61.
This month, Jackson chose to represent himself at his trial, where a jury found him guilty on multiple charges, including malice murder. A judge sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“It is unfortunate that the mere act of driving could lead to this murder,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said. “We hope that Mr. Wardlaw’s family will begin to heal from this tragedy.”
At the trial, detectives testified that Wardlaw was being tailed by Jackson’s pickup truck on Rockbridge Road and at some point, he made a U-turn to try and escape from Jackson.
Police said that is when Jackson shot Wardlaw, who then crashed his car into a home’s yard. Investigators determined that he died from the shooting, not the crash.
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Wardlaw left behind two children who looked to him as a hero, according to his family.
“Bryce won’t have that ever again, and Sierra was her daddy’s girl,” his sister-in-law Danielle McKinley told Channel 2 Action News in 2022.
This is not the first murder conviction for Jackson.
Channel 2 Action News previously reported that Jackson was convicted of second-degree murder in 1989 in North Carolina, which sources say was also related to road rage.
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