One of the defendants in the ongoing “Young Slime Life” gang trial has been found guilty of murder in a separate case. The deadly incident was captured on surveillance video.
Cordarius Dorsey was convicted Wednesday in the January 2020 shooting of Xavier Turner outside a College Park barbershop. Prosecutors argued the shooting was gang-motivated and that Dorsey sought to boost his status as a member of the Bloods.
Dorsey is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for a 2019 robbery and murder outside a Gresham Park gas station. That incident also was captured on surveillance footage. Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams sentenced to him to life without parole, plus an additional 55 years, in the College Park case.
“There exist people like Mr. Dorsey who just want to watch the world burn,” prosecutor Gautam Rao said in his closing arguments. “He has no problem taking the lives of other people.”
Dorsey’s attorney said he plans to appeal.
Jurors were made aware of Dorsey’s previous gang-related convictions, including two armed robberies and the fatal 2019 shooting. In Georgia, if cases are charged under the street gang and terrorism prevention act, a judge can decide to admit evidence of a defendant’s prior criminal activity.
Credit: DeKalb County Sheriff's Office
Credit: DeKalb County Sheriff's Office
Prosecutors painted a picture of a gang member with little regard for human life, and jurors were shown text messages Dorsey sent after the shooting.
“Bra I just killed another (n-word) on Old Nat,” Dorsey messaged a friend two days after the incident.
“Shawty, I just killed a (n-word) at the discount,” a message to someone else read.
Dorsey’s attorney, Suri Chadha Jimenez, sought to introduce doubt that his client was the man who pulled the trigger.
Grainy surveillance footage made it difficult to tell exactly who fired the fatal shot, but witnesses described Dorsey to the police. He was also spotted at the scene wearing the same clothing as the gunman in the video.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Between the 2019 and 2020 shootings, Dorsey went on a “one-man crime wave,” prosecutor Adam Abbate said. He posted social media pictures of himself wearing stolen jewelry and uploaded videos in which he declared he had no problem killing people. A search of his internet browsing history also revealed he repeatedly researched the College Park case.
Even after his arrest, Dorsey allegedly tried to order hits from the Fulton County Jail, the prosecution said.
“This defendant will stop at nothing,” Abbate told the jurors. “Your verdict is the only thing that will slow him down.”
Dorsey displayed erratic courtroom behavior, making peculiar movements and gesturing wildly to the jurors and judge throughout the trial. After his conviction, Judge Adams had him removed from her courtroom when he refused to put on his face mask, calling him “recalcitrant.”
Dorsey was brought back into the courtroom for sentencing after agreeing to put on his mask.
Adams, who has a reputation for being a strict, no-nonsense judge, was recently assigned to the case involving 61 defendants indicted on RICO charges regarding Atlanta’s planned public safety training center. Protests over the center have at times turned violent and destructive.
Jimenez acknowledged in his closing arguments his client’s courtroom behavior.
“Sometimes it’s very difficult to like my client as he does things that are very frustrating when I’m trying to defend him,” he said. “Just because he’s done some horrible, terrible things does not mean he’s done this.”
Dorsey was one of 28 people indicted last year in the sprawling Fulton County YSL case, along with Atlanta rappers Young Thug, who remains jailed without bond, and Gunna, who was released from custody after entering a guilty plea. Jury selection in that trial began in January and is still underway.
Selecting a jury in Dorsey’s latest murder case took about six hours, and jurors returned a guilty verdict after about an hour of deliberations. The trial lasted six days.
Attorneys for Young Thug have cited Dorsey’s courtroom antics in requesting Chief Judge Ural Glanville remove Dorsey from that trial, saying the conduct could “sabotage” their client’s right to a fair trial.
Glanville has acknowledged Dorsey’s “extra movements” in his courtroom, but has yet to decide whether to sever his case and have him tried separately. Doing so would bring the remaining number of defendants set to stand trial together to seven.
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