Two suspected gang members from Cobb County were convicted of murder Friday for shooting up a New Year’s Eve party in Douglasville in 2021 and killing a 15-year-old bystander.
Davion White, 21, and Jhabre Wilson, 19, were found guilty on several counts, including malice murder, felony murder and violating Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act, Douglas County District Attorney Dalia Racine said in a statement. White’s girlfriend at the time, Madison Boden, previously pleaded guilty to her involvement in the killing and testified against both defendants at their trial.
The victim was Landon Smith, a Douglas County High School student who was attending the party.
“Landon would have been a senior in high school this year,” Racine said. “All of his hopes, dreams and promise are gone based on the irrational and fatal decision by these defendants to enhance a worthless gang status.”
Credit: Douglasville Police Department
Credit: Douglasville Police Department
Authorities have linked White, Wilson and Boden to the 2Solid gang, which is nationally affiliated with the Bloods, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. References to the 2Solid gang have appeared in multiple indictments around the metro Atlanta area in recent years; accusations involving the gang include a drive-by shooting and a murder, both in the Marietta area.
According to Racine, Wilson and White went to the New Year’s Eve party in search of a rival gang member. They walked through the Deering Court home, which had been rented for the party, wearing masks and brandishing guns. The two defendants searched the party for more than an hour, Racine said.
Though Wilson and White never found a rival gang member, Racine said they initiated a confrontation with other party-goers. As they were driven away from the party, both fired at the house and the crowd of teenagers. One of Wilson’s 9mm bullets struck Smith in the head. He was inside the house at the time.
When police responded, they found more than 50 people at the house, most of them teens, Racine said. Smith was already dead from his head wound.
Investigators took witness statements and later obtained videos from two other houses in the neighborhood that captured the shooting. Racine described the videos as pivotal because they showed that White and Wilson initiated the gunfire.
Nearly three weeks later, police announced that Wilson had been arrested in Oklahoma, along with two other teenagers who were taken into custody in the metro area. The next night, White turned himself in at the Douglas jail. Boden was arrested in late February 2022.
Those two other suspects, Zorree Peeples and Karea Cowvins, faced multiple counts but were not charged with murder. A spokeswoman for Racine’s office said the warrants against Peeples and Cowvins were dismissed Friday, though she did not provide additional details.
Wilson and White have remained in jail since their arrests. Their sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
“It is our families and our communities that are left to suffer when our positive and healthy support systems have failed,” Racine said. “Our mothers and fathers are left picking out burial plots instead of high school diplomas. I don’t have the answers, but I know that this has to stop.”
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