SAVANNAH ― The Chatham County district attorney is dropping the charges against suspects in five murder cases she said were “compromised” because they were investigated by fired Savannah police officers accused of lying.
District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones announced her decision Thursday to drop the charges in the cases — including a 2015 triple homicide — during a press conference outside her office at the Chatham County Courthouse. She acknowledged the defendants are unlikely to face new charges barring the emergence of new evidence.
The dismissals are part of the fallout of investigations and indictments of Savannah police Detective Ashley Wood and Cpl. Darryl Repress. Wood is accused of using false information to obtain search warrants while Repress is alleged to have lied about a romantic relationship with an informant who was a convicted felon.
Savannah Police Department
Savannah Police Department
The district attorney’s office reviewed more than 50 cases investigated by Wood and Repress since May, leading to Thursday’s dismissals. Four additional felony cases involving killings were previously resolved through plea deals.
Jones said involvement by Wood and Repress should not affect any other cases.
“Justice delayed is not justice denied, and we will in the coming months and years continue to do everything within our power and within the bounds of the law to keep this community safe,” Jones said.
A Savannah Police Department spokesman issued a statement regarding the case dismissals.
“The actions of these former officers are completely unacceptable. After identifying their misconduct, the Savannah Police Department swiftly investigated and terminated them,” Nick Zoller wrote in an email.
The dismissals stirred discontent in the Savannah community at both the Police Department and the district attorney’s office. Jones won office in the 2020 election, unseating an incumbent, but her tenure has been marked by controversy.
Jones has faced both an ethics probe and sanctions from a federal judge while also struggling with staffing in her office. At one point, she had less than half the number of assistant district attorneys as her predecessor.
Jones has also been criticized throughout her term in office for negotiating plea deals to resolve cases involving violent offenses. When the General Assembly passed legislation in 2023 establishing the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission to punish “rogue prosecutors,” Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law at the Chatham County Jail rather than in Atlanta where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been chastised by Republicans for her job performance or in Athens where Deborah Gonzalez has likewise been condemned.
Jones, a Democrat, is up for reelection this November, and she is facing one of her former assistant district attorneys, Republican Andre Pretorius.
One Savannah elected official, Alderman Detric Leggett, expressed sadness upon learning about the dismissal of a case involving the deaths of two brothers and a cousin, which happened in the home next to Leggett’s mother’s residence. Leggett recalled playing with the brothers when they all were children.
“I was just excited to know that an arrest was made and that we were getting close to an ending to a very horrible situation,” said Leggett, who represents a district that includes downtown Savannah. “It was something that affected not only just a couple of streets, but the entire community. And to hear that multiple layers of breakdown happened is very disheartening.”
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