The man accused of brutally killing two College Park teens while they were on spring break in 2007 pleaded guilty to all charges Wednesday afternoon.
Jeremy Moody now faces the death penalty as the jury that was seated to determine his innocence or guilt will decide next week whether he should suffer the ultimate punishment for the murders, as well as for raping the 13-year-old girl.
“Is it your intention to … accept a guilty plea because you are in fact guilty,” assistant Fulton County District Attorney Pete Johnson asked Moody.
“Yes,” Moody responded.
“How do you plea?” Johnson asked?
“Guilty,” Moody said.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Christopher Brasher, who earlier in the day denied Moody’s request to represent himself, further questioned the defendant on his decision.
“Do you feel like I’m forcing you into a guilty plea because of my ruling?” Brasher asked.
“I believe it was going to be the same either way,” Moody told the judge, after telling prosecutors he wasn’t happy with the attorneys he was assigned from the state’s public defender pool. “I already told you I wasn’t satisfied (with my defense).”
Moody, 35, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of murder, felony murder – causing a person’s death by committing a felony – aggravated assault, kidnapping with injury, aggravated assault with the intent to rob and the rape charge, in connection with the slayings of Delarlonva “Del” Mattox Jr., 15, and Chrisondra Sierra Kimble, 13. They were stabbed multiple times with a screwdriver in the head and neck.
Six charges – two each for murder, felony murder and kidnapping – carry maximum penalties of death by lethal injection.
In addition, the jury could sentence Moody to life imprisonment for the rape charge, plus up to 80 years in sum penalties for the four aggravated assault charges.
Jurors were dismissed early Wednesday afternoon and will return Monday morning to begin hearing testimony for and against Moody getting the maximum sentences for each of the 11 charges.
Earlier in the day, a Fulton County jury heard the first details of the case against Moody, who, along with murder, was also on trial for raping the 13-year-old girl.
“The evidence will show, ladies and gentlemen, that Jeremy Moody intended to kill Del Jr., and Sierra,” Johnson told the jury during his opening statement in the death penalty case.
But even before Johnson could begin to spell out the prosecution’s case against Moody, defense attorneys began to wrangle on their client’s behalf.
“Mr. Moody said that he hasn’t been given his medication today and asked to be allowed to be absent during trial,” attorney Bill Morrison told the judge before the jury was brought into the courtroom.
Brasher told Moody he was entitled to leave, but encouraged him to remain in court.
“I’ll ask that you consider remaining in court,” Brasher said. “But we’ll need to consider some of the other things you asked.”
Moody also requested that he be allowed to represent himself and that the judge include for the jury a verdict option of “guilty, but mentally insane,” prior to Johnson’s opening.
Prosecutors then proceeded with describing for the jury how Mattox and Kimble disappeared on April 5, 2007, how Kimble’s mother found the teens’ naked bodies in the woods behind Bethune Elementary School and how police were led to Moody.
“Sierra was stabbed to death at least 17 times, in head and neck,” Johnson told the jury. “He punctured her airway. Del was stabbed to death over 30 times in neck and head. Four of those stabs were so hard they penetrated his skull and went into his brain.”
Investigators took rape kits from both bodies because of the way they were found, and recovered evidence that eventually was matched to Moody’s DNA.
Moody’s ex-girlfriend called investigators to tell them he confessed to her that he’d killed two people near Bethune.
“’I killed two people in woods near my mom’s house,’” Johnson said Tamika Wright told police, repeating Moody’s words. “’I took off their clothes so there was no evidence, but I’ve got to move the bodies.”
Johnson told the jury Moody initially claimed he’d killed a pair of drug dealers. But when she saw news reports of the slain children and recognized the proximity of where their bodies were found to the home of Moody’s parents, she confronted him, Johnson said.
“He told her he was going to leave town, and go to the Greyhound station,” Johnson said. “He said, ‘Please don’t tell on me. And if you do, at least give me a head start.’”
Wright told police where to find Moody and he was taken into custody, Johnson said.
Moody has been in jail ever since.
In that time, he has reportedly been caught soliciting women suitors on an online dating site, and has allegedly tried to set himself on fire.
After the prosecution’s opening on Wednesday, Brasher denied Moody’s requests to represent himself and to be offered the option of being found “guilty, but mentally insane,” and his attorneys asked for a conference with prosecutors and with the judge.
The jury was released for an early lunch at around 11:45 a.m., and the attorneys for both sides began having a bevy of meetings together, separately and with Brasher to hash out the legalities and details of what would eventually become Moody’s plea.
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