GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A 20-year-old man has learned his sentence after shooting and killing a teen during a 2021 botched drug robbery, according to the district attorney's office.
Jaiden Williams, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, criminal attempt to commit a felony and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in the death of a 17-year-old.
“The defendant was only 17 years old when he took the victim’s life. This sentence will be a long and hard lesson for him to learn from. But we simply cannot tolerate our young people following such violent paths," said Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson.
The incident happened on July 26, 2021, when Williams told Orbit Pough III he wanted to buy a TCH vape catridge. Williams did not have any money to make the purchase when he met Pough at a grocery parking lot in Grayson, but he had a gun, a news release from the district attorney's office stated.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors stated that the two were strangers, but Williams insisted that he and Pough were friends, the news release stated.
Williams also stated that he told police on the night of the shooting he was riding in a car with Pough on the way to a drug when he shot Pough for looking "suspicious."
The district attorney's office said that investigations found that Pough was shot at close range. Officials added that Pough was armed and pulled his weapon, hitting Williams in the neck and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, plus five years on probation.
