A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for orchestrating the 2014 murder of his business partner, covering it up so he could become the sole owner of a Woodstock bakery and then attempting to have a co-conspirator killed.
Ross Byrne, 58, was arrested in 2018, just a few days after another man, Johnathan Wheeler, was found guilty of stabbing Jerry Moore to death.
Credit: Cobb County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Cobb County Sheriff's Office
Moore’s body was found Jan. 27, 2014, in his Marietta home after having been stabbed 32 times, according to prosecutors. The murder weapon was a novelty knife etched with the words “Redneck Toothpick,” prosecutors added, though it was never found.
Cobb County police investigators quickly learned that Byrne, Moore’s longtime roommate and business partner, had recently moved out after their personal and business relationships began to fall apart in late 2013, according to his indictment.
Moore felt Byrne had a spending problem and was running the business into the ground, the indictment said. By New Year’s Day 2014, Byrne had moved out of Moore’s home, and Moore had drafted terms to end their business partnership, something Byrne knew.
Initially, Byrne and Moore shared a 50-50 ownership of the Best Dang Bakery Around, located on Ga. 92. The two men held different roles: Byrne baked and Moore was the money man.
Each half of the business had an estimated worth of $35,000. If one partner wanted to buy out the other, that’s how much it would cost unless one of them died. In that case, the other automatically got the share. So after Moore was killed, Byrne got full control of the bakery.
Wheeler, who was a former bakery employee, was eventually arrested for the brutal attack and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after a Cobb jury found him guilty in 2018 of malice murder, armed robbery and burglary in the first degree.
Credit: Cobb County Sheriff's Office
Credit: Cobb County Sheriff's Office
Wheeler’s girlfriend later revealed that Byrne played a key role in the slaying. He helped clean Moore’s blood off Wheeler after the murder and took possession of items Wheeler had stolen from Moore’s residence, prosecutors said.
Byrne was arrested shortly after that revelation.
While in custody, he solicited another inmate to kill Wheeler, prosecutors said, because he was fearful that Wheeler might testify against him. Byrne’s plot was discovered, however, and he admitted to his role in Moore’s death and his attempt to have Wheeler killed.
“Despite having introduced Jerry Moore to his killer, this defendant showed absolutely no remorse for Johnathan Wheeler’s vicious killing,” Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green, who prosecuted both cases, said in a statement.
Byrne pleaded guilty April 8 to racketeering, conspiracy to commit concealing the death of another, conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension of another, and criminal solicitation to commit murder.
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