By Rhonda Cook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — Douglas County District Attorney David McDade has filed notice that he intends to seek the death penalty against two of the four men suspected in the beating death of 18-year-old Bobby Tillman last November.
For a time, McDade held out the option that all four could plead guilty to attacking Tillman, and in exchange he would not seek the death penalty.
One of the four, Emanuel Boykins, said last spring he would take the deal, but he changed his mind. The other three never told McDade they would consider it.
On Monday, McDade filed notice with the court that he will ask for the death penalty if either Boykins, 18, or Tracen Lamar Franklin, 19, is convicted. Horace Damon Coleman, 19, and Quantez Devonta
Mallory, 18, also are charged with murdering Tillman, but the prosecutor said if they are convicted their sentences would be life in prison.
McDade declined to discuss his reasons for asking for death for only two of the suspects.
The notice was filed on the day Tillman would have turned 19, his mother said.
Monique Rivard said when she woke up Monday, her son’s birthday, “it felt like his death all over again.”
Tillman had been to an evening church program on bullying Nov. 6. After church, he went to a party in Douglasville, where the parents of two of Tillman’s friends were hosting a small gathering to celebrate the girls’ good grades. The party was supposed to be small, but it grew to about 60 when word of it spread through Facebook and texting.
The parents ended the party when two female guests began to fight. They continued to fight in the front yard and one of them allegedly hit Boykins.
Witnesses told police that Boykins announced he didn’t hit girls but would strike the next male to walk past. That was Tillman.
According to witnesses, the four punched and kicked Tillman, who was 5-feet-6 and weighed 124 pounds. He died from a broken rib that punctured his heart.
Copyright 2011 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution