Nearly a month after a woman was found dead in a southwest Atlanta driveway by a family walking to school, the suspected killer has been arrested.
Demetric Lawson, 26, of Atlanta, was booked into the Fulton County Jail on Thursday on multiple charges, including murder, according to his arrest warrant. He is accused of shooting 31-year-old Latrecia Collins in the head before dumping her body in a driveway on Cascade Road not far from Tuskegee Airmen Global Academy, an elementary school.
According to the warrant, Atlanta police were able to determine that Lawson was with Collins at the time of her death by using a combination of phone records, security camera footage, witness identification and a Crime Stoppers tip.
Collins’ body was found the morning of Aug. 11 by a father who was walking his daughter to school. Officers reported her car as stolen shortly thereafter, the warrant said.
A few hours later, investigators found the car occupied by three men. They were able to share “crucial information,” according to the warrant, that helped develop Lawson as a suspect.
A Crime Stoppers tip gave investigators Lawson’s full name, and all three men later identified him in a lineup, the warrant said.
The men told police that Lawson showed them he was carrying a black handgun when he gave them Collins’ car. They also said they saw him removing a woman’s clothes from the car before he handed over the keys.
City of Atlanta cameras captured the car in the area near where Collins’ body was found at her approximate time of death, the warrant said. Records also showed that Lawson’s phone was traveling with her.
Lawson, who has a criminal history dating to his teenage years, was last released from the Fulton jail in April after nearly a three-year stint, online records show. His prior charges include rape, aggravated assault, robbery and battery.
He is facing new charges of murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, according to jail records. He remains in the Fulton jail without bond.
Collins was interred at Sunrise Memorial Gardens in her hometown of Douglasville on Aug. 26, her obituary said.
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