TROUP COUNTY, Ga. — Editor's Note: The video used in this article is from previous coverage of this topic.
A man who shot and killed two people before dumping their bodies in a lake was found guilty by a Troup County jury on Tuesday.
According to a release by the Coweta Judicial Circuit, after a seven-day trial, Joshua Wayne Nutt was found guilty of two counts of malice murder, six counts of felony murder, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of use of a firearm by a convicted felon during the commission of another felony and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Following the jury's verdict, a Coweta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge sentenced the 41-year-old to serve four consecutive life without the possibility of parole sentences -- followed by an additional 40 years without parole.
The case stems from an investigation by the Troup County Sheriff's Office. According to a release, on Aug. 7, 2021, the victims, Marcus Caswell and Travis Lodato of Newnan, traveled to Nutt's residence in LaGrange to collect a debt Nutt owed them, but he was not present. However, after the two returned home, Nutt came back to his house upset and told another person present that he planned to rob the pair's motorcycles.
Later that night, Nutt contacted Caswell and arranged for the victims to return to his house the next day to settle the debt. The pair arrived on their motorcycles on Aug 8. They were at Nutt's house, along with Nutt and his then-girlfriend, for several hours. Then, at some point, while the girlfriend was outside and the other three were inside, Nutt shot Caswell in the head once and then Lodato five times, including once in the head, according to a release.
Nutt then took their jewelry and other possessions from their bodies, spray-painted Lodato's motorcycle, and drove it to Newnan with the plan to break into their apartment. He then returned to LaGrange, where the pair was dead inside his home.
In the early morning of Aug. 9, Nutt and another person who has yet to be charged drove the victims in Nutt's pickup truck across the county to Lower Glass Bridge Road bridge. Nutt proceeded to dump the victims into West Point Lake. Later that day, a fisherman discovered Caswell's body and a boater discovered Lodato the following day.
On Aug. 12, investigators executed a search warrant at Nutt's Lower Bug Springs Road home, where they found the victims' motorcycles locked in a trailer and two pools of apparent blood in a crawlspace. As the search continued, they noticed Nutt's pickup truck and pursued him. Nutt led deputies on a chase before catching him.
It was later discovered that Nutt tried to clean up the crime scene by ripping off the drywall and burning it, but both the victims' blood and DNA were still found in the home. During interviews that same month, Nutt said he did not know how the victims were killed. He later altered his story at trial, claiming it was self-defense, which the jury rejected with its verdict.
Nutt was on parole at the time of the murders and had six prior felony convictions, according to a release. At Nutt's sentencing, it was also shown that he was associated with the Ghostface Gangsters, which is a violent and notorious statewide prison and street gang.