More than two years after a teen was found stabbed to death in a wooded area in Hall County, a man was convicted Friday in a Gwinnett County courtroom, officials announced.
The jury deliberated for two hours before finding Timothy James Krueger, 51, guilty of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault in the death of Sarai’ Llanos Gómez, 19, the Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office confirmed. A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.
“This was a cruel, brutal way for this young woman to die,” District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said.
At the time of her death, Gómez was working as an escort and was sent to Krueger’s house on the night of June 16, 2022. District attorney’s office spokesman Marcus Garner said the two got into an argument over the amount of payment she received and Krueger, who had been robbed by an escort in the past, became agitated.
That’s when Gómez grabbed a knife from the kitchen and tried to leave Krueger’s home in Duluth. But investigators said Krueger disarmed her and stabbed her “repeatedly all over her body before finally slitting her throat.” He then cut off her clothes, wrapped her in a blanket, put her body in his car and drove to Hall County, Garner said.
Gómez was spotted by a nearby homeowner four days later in a wooded area of Paradise Point Road near Flowery Branch Bay and Lake Lanier.
Investigators were eventually able to identify her and use cell phone data to place her at Krueger’s home. Police also matched a vehicle seen on a Ring camera to Krueger’s car.
While at Gwinnett police headquarters not long after the killing, Krueger confessed but claimed self-defense in court, Garner said.
According to Telemundo Atlanta, Gómez was a mother of two who came to the United States in August 2021. She settled into a family member’s home in Chicago and worked various jobs at restaurants before being offered a waitress job in Atlanta.
Gardenia Gómez told Telemundo that the job was not what her daughter expected, but instead involved a sex trafficking network. A Gwinnett police spokesperson confirmed she was engaged in sex work but could not say if she was a victim of sex trafficking.
“Ms. Llanos Gomez has two children who are motherless,” Austin-Gatson said. “This defendant was cold and calculating, and the jury’s swift verdict will deliver much-deserved justice to Ms. Llanos Gomez and to her family and loved ones.”
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