Ja'Ron Acklin, a 24-year-old father to a toddler, was found with his hands tied behind his back and a bullet hole in his head. Missing from his Dunwoody apartment were designer bags, a cell phone and two hoverboards.
A year and a half later, one of the accused killers has been convicted in DeKalb County court.
Kashawn Mitchell, 24, of Snellville, was sentenced by Judge Gregory A. Adams to two life sentences, followed by five years, authorities announced Friday.
The second defendant, Julius Bynum-Horn, 22, of Lilburn, heads to trial next week.
Acklin had reportedly attended Gwinnett County’s Shiloh High with the men.
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A friend found Acklin’s body in his apartment at Asbury Commons on Nov. 16, 2015. He had been killed three days earlier, and the friend was worried to not have heard from him.
According to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, Acklin had been held at gunpoint after an argument with the defendants.
The men fled after Acklin was bound and shot.
“The assailants were captured on surveillance video entering the victim’s apartment building through a side door and leaving approximately an hour later in the victim’s car, after having arrived on foot,” DA’s spokeswoman Yvette Jones said in a news release. “Separate surveillance video captured the two riding the stolen hoverboards outside of a store where they purchased spray paint to disguise the items.”
Mitchell was convicted of murder, robbery and aggravated assault following a jury trial last week.
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