A man will serve time in prison after he was convicted of shooting his girlfriend in the head and hiding her at his mother’s home, according to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard.
Jerrontae Cain, 39, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and five years on probation for the 2017 incident, Howard said.
The woman, 42-year-old Nicole Gordon of Atlanta, didn’t realize she had been shot and couldn’t remember the shooting, Howard said.
Gordon suffered severe headaches, memory loss and trouble communicating for more than a month before a friend took her to a hospital on June 25, 2017. At Atlanta Medical Center, doctors found a bullet lodged in the rear of Gordon’s skull, Howard said. Medical staff called Atlanta police to investigate.
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Though Gordon couldn’t remember being shot, she recalled an argument she had with Cain, Howard said. She told investigators that during the fight the driver’s-side window of her car broke and crashed on her face. She then lost consciousness.
When she woke up, she was in Cain’s car, she told investigators. Gordon said Cain took her to his mother’s home and they treated her for what she thought was a head wound caused by the impact of the broken glass.
“At no point during the month between the fight with Cain and her eventual visit to Atlanta Medical Center did Gordon receive any professional care,” Howard said.
When police interviewed Cain, he said Gordon crashed her car into a tree and that’s what caused the glass to break and fall on her.
“The crime scene proved to be inconsistent with Cain’s explanation,” Howard said, “and doctors determined that the injuries Gordon suffered were consistent with being shot in the head.”
An arrest warrant was issued for Cain in 2017, but he wasn’t arrested until January 2019.
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The FBI asked for the public’s help to locate Cain in February 2018. He was arrested nearly a year later.
“Cain was taken into custody ... at an address on Aspen Avenue in College Park,” FBI spokesman Kevin Rowson previously said. “When agents and task force officers approached the house, Cain climbed into the attic of the home. The FBI Atlanta SWAT team was called in and after a couple hours, Cain surrendered without further incident.”
Rowson said a tip to CrimeStoppers Atlanta led the task force to the College Park home.
During Cain’s trial, friends of Gordon said he had abused her in the past, Howard said. They said she had bruises and black eyes on “several different occasions.”
The bullet in Gordon’s skull has not been removed; doctors determined that trying to take it out could kill her, Howard said.
Cain was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Cain, who has 13 prior arrests, was convicted of sexual battery in 2010. Howard said Cain also has an open case against him in Fulton County on a first-degree burglary charge.
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