Owner of popular bakery pleads guilty to arranging murder of business partner

CHEROKEE COUNTY, Ga. — The owner of a once popular bakery in Cherokee County is headed to prison.

The Cobb County District Attorney says Ross Byrne entered a guilty plea on several charges including violation of the RICO act, conspiracy to commit concealing the death of another, conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension of another, and criminal solicitation to commit murder.

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Jerry Moore, 46, was stabbed to death in his Cobb County home in 2014. Byrne had recently moved out.

Investigators said Byrne and Moore shared the business and the home, but then their relationship turned sour.

A former bakery employee, Jonathan Wheeler, was arrested for the murder. A judge sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole after a Cobb County jury found him guilty in August 2018.

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Shortly after Wheeler’s trial, a grand jury indicted Byrne after prosecutors said he ordered the killing so he would be the bakery’s sole owner.

Prosecutors say while in custody, Byrne tried to get another inmate to kill Wheeler so his former employee could not testify against him.

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Before his trial, Byrne admitted to his role in the death of his business partner, and his attempt to have Wheeler killed.

Prosecutors say Byrne pleaded guilty Apr. 8.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark sentenced Byrne to twenty years in prison.

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