ADL screams 'HATE' CRIME: BLACK 'MAN'S' Fatal Decatur Armed Robbery Sentenced To Life In WAKANDA ZOO: DA; His two co-defendants facing charges

[Arheel's Uncle]

Man In Fatal Decatur Armed Robbery Sentenced To Life In Prison: DA

His two co-defendants are facing charges in the June 2019 armed robbery that killed a man in Decatur.

patch.com

Man In Fatal Decatur Armed Robbery Sentenced To Life In Prison: DA​

His two co-defendants are facing charges in the June 2019 armed robbery that killed a man in Decatur.​

Amanda Lumpkin, Patch Staff

Posted Fri, Nov 3, 2023 at 2:11 pm ET


A Stockbridge man accused of robbing, shooting and killing a man has been sentenced to life in prison. (Shutterstock)
DECATUR, GA — A Stockbridge man accused of robbing, shooting and killing a man has been sentenced to life in prison, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced in a news release Friday.

Man convicted of murder in 2019 robbery, killing where witness said he shouted 'obscene gay slurs'

The victim, 28-year-old Ronald Peters, was shot after refusing to give up his bookbag in the armed robbery. Joshua Ellis, 25, was found guilty on Monday.

www.11alive.com

Boston's office said Joshua Cortez Ellis, 25, was convicted on malice murder, three counts of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a first offender probationer.

Ellis was accused of robbing Ronald Peters, 28, with another man at gunpoint around 8:30 a.m., June 9, 2019, near Peters' Orchard Circle home.

Witnesses told officers Ellis shot Peters after he refused to give Ellis his backpack, according to the release. Peters fell to the ground, then Ellis grabbed the backpack and shot Peters once more.

As Ellis and the second man drove away, witnesses reported hearing another gunshot, according to the release.

DeKalb County police officers found Peters suffering from gunshot wounds in his neck, arm and torso, according to the release. He was taken to Atlanta Medical Center, where he died of his injuries.

Detectives located Peters' phone, which showed multiple alerts relating to use of his debit car at a Fairington Road gas station after the shooting, according to the release.
"Investigators obtained surveillance footage from the gas station of Defendant Ellis as he made a purchase with the debit card and then got into a maroon truck," the release said.

The footage also showed the truck going across the street to a nearby retail store. In the video, Ellis was seen going into the store with co-defendants Tyreese Johnson, 23, and Shaleeya Moore, 23.
The truck was recovered a few days later in Atlanta with a possible bullet hole in one of its doors, according to the release. It had been reported stolen in a Clayton County carjacking a day before the fatal shooting of Peters.

According to the release, Ellis confessed to being in the truck and using Peters' debit card at the gas station while Johnson told detectives the plan was to only rob Peters but claimed Ellis shot Peters before Johnson came around the truck.

The release said Moore testified that both Ellis and Johnson exited the truck with guns and masks, and she confessed to driving the truck from the scene after the shooting.

DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie sentenced Ellis on Thursday to life without the possibility of parole plus five years.

Johnson and Moore were charged on suspicion of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, the release said.

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

Ronald Peters, 28

Metro Atlanta hate-motivated shooting: ADL decries it amid grief

The death of Ronald Trey Peters, a 28-year-old man shot and killed Tuesday morning in Decatur, has brought a surge of community mourning as friends remember his giving and uplifting personality.

www.ajc.com

Man killed in alleged DeKalb hate crime remembered as creative, kind​

As shocked friends of Ronald Peters grieve, Anti-Defamation League decries ‘hate-motivated incidents’

<p>28-year-old man killed hit hate-motivated crime, robbery, police say</p>
By Erin Schilling
June 9, 2019
The death of Ronald Trey Peters, a 28-year-old man shot and killed Tuesday morning in Decatur, has brought a surge of community mourning as friends remember his giving and uplifting personality.
Peters was shot multiple times on his way to the MARTA station before work. Witnesses said the gunman used an anti-gay slur before asking Peters to hand over his bag, the police report said.

 

[Arheel's Uncle]

Man convicted of murder in 2019 robbery, killing where witness said he shouted 'obscene gay slurs'

The victim, 28-year-old Ronald Peters, was shot after refusing to give up his bookbag in the armed robbery. Joshua Ellis, 25, was found guilty on Monday.

www.11alive.com

​

Man convicted of murder in 2019 robbery, killing where witness said he shouted 'obscene gay slurs'​

The victim, 28-year-old Ronald Peters, was shot after refusing to give up his bookbag in the armed robbery. Joshua Ellis, 25, was found guilty on Monday.



Author: 11Alive Staff

Published: 9:34 AM EDT September 27, 2023

Updated: 9:34 AM EDT September 27, 2023



DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A man was convicted of murder and other charges this week in the 2019 killing of Ronald "Trey" Peters, in a case in which a witness told 11Alive the gunman had shouted "obscene gay slurs" before killing Peters, a 28-year-old gay man.

The DeKalb County District Attorney's Office announced the conviction of 25-year-old Joshua Ellis on Tuesday. Two other defendants charged in the killing, 23-year-old Tyreese Johnson and 23-year-old Shaleeya Moore, still have pending cases.



Peters was murdered on June 4, 2019, while walking down the street in unincorporated Decatur. The DeKalb DA's Office said two men got out of a pickup truck and demanded his bookbag at gunpoint. When he refused, he was shot in the chest, neck and arm.

RELATED: Gunman yelled 'obscene gay slurs' before killing man on his way to work, witness says

A witness later told 11Alive that the gunman used an obscene slur before shooting Peters, shouting: "Give me your bag, f*****."

Peters' case was among those that contributed to the push for a hate crimes law in Georgia, which was ultimately passed after the 2020 murder of Ahmaud Arbery.

Ellis was not convicted under the hate crime law, and it's not clear he could actually have been charged retroactively under the law. His full conviction included malice murder, three counts of felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felon and possession of a firearm by a first offender probationer. A sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 6.

"We lost one of our own from our community this week," a social media post online from the Atlanta LGBTQ+ community said at the time of Peters' death. "HATE is still alive and well against the LGBTQ community."

Credit: Kelly Nelson

Ronald Peters

Credit: DeKalb County

Joshua Ellis

Kelly Nelson, who employed Peters at her agency LED Enterprise, said in 2019 he was an actor and singer and that his death "feels like the loss of one of my own children."

Peters was a gay man in an interracial relationship at the time of his death. The day after he was killed, Nelson learned not only did he die in a horrific way, but the shooting was possibly hate-motivated.

RELATED: Shot in chest after being called an 'obscene gay slur.' Now, friend calls for Ga. hate crime bill

"The driver was standing over him, jerked the bag and yelling obscene and gay slurs at him, and shot him in the chest point blank,” said Kevin Pickering, a neighbor who witnessed the shooting and called 911.



“If I knew what Trey would want, he would want for people to come together,” said Nelson of the push for a hate crimes law after Peters' death. “He was a kind person who opened his heart to everyone. (He wanted) dialogue between people who don’t share the same politics or outlook. He would want this to be a moment to bring everyone together.”

The Georgia hate crimes law was passed and signed in 2020.