SPALDING COUNTY, Ga. — Two Spalding County suspects charged in a multi-count indictment have learned their fate after a week-long trial.
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Demoni L. Beck, then-17, and Jadaquis Noble, then-20, were charged with the murder of Jacqueris Holland.
On May 27, Holland was traveling on North Hill Street near the old People’s Choice Club, when a silver car flew past him as someone fired gunshots that hit Holland twice in the upper body.
He collapsed in front of his car, where he died from his injuries alone in the middle of the road.
Holland was a cosmetology student at Southern Crescent Technical College and dreamed of opening up his own barber shop.
“You always hear people in news interviews talking about how the person who was killed was ‘getting their life together,’ ‘going to college,’ ‘had goals,’ and ‘was a friend to people,’ ‘was loved by everybody that knew him’. I can tell you that Jacqueris Holland was not that guy. Jacqueris was not working on it, Jacqueris Holland was it,” Sheriff Darrell Dix said.
The sheriff’s office says Beck and Noble were involved with local gangs. Holland was not.
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The District Attorney’s Office said DNA evidence linked Beck to a car that was spotted at the scene of the murder and from which shots were fired at Holland.
Officials said other evidence including Flock cameras, GPS and cell phone data, from different locations before and after the murder provided showed that Beck and Noble stalked Holland before killing him.
The duo was charged in a multi-count indictment including malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, violation of the Georgia Gang Act, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and tampering with evidence.
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A Spalding County jury returned a guilty verdict on Beck but could not reach a verdict on Noble. The State will retry Noble in the near future.
Chief Judge Sams sentenced Beck to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus five years.
“Gang violence has taken too many lives across the Circuit. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to work hard to eradicate gang violence from the Circuit and keep the citizens of Spalding County safe,” District Attorney Broder said.
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