DECATUR, Ga. — A Lilburn man has been found guilty of murdering a man who helped him commit insurance fraud.
According to a release from the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office, a jury found Norman Uriah Simmonds, Jr., 45, guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The charges stem from the murder of Tyrese Washington, 24, on Aug. 31, 2019.
On Friday, Senior Judge Daniel Coursey sentenced Simmonds to fife without the possibility of parole plus five years.
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According to the release, an off-duty Douglasville police officer heard multiple gunshots in an apartment complex on Ashley Creek in Stone Mountain. As he approached, a witness flagged him down and led him to one of the buildings, where the officer found Washington lying facedown with a gunshot wound to the head.
Officers learned Washington had told a friend he was going to that complex that night because someone owed him money. Investigators looked at phone records and discovered the Washington had received multiple calls and texts from the same phone number in the minutes before the shooting, the release said.
During the investigation, a special agent from the Georgia Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner alerted the DeKalb County Police Department that he had been working on a case in which Washington and others had staged an accident with a U-Haul truck in Clarkston. Washington had confessed to being involved in insurance fraud and said that Simmonds had set up the fake accident, promising Washington $1,000 for his part. According to Washington, Simmonds never paid.
A search warrant revealed the phone number that had repeatedly called Washington before the shooting belonged to someone named Anthony Jones, which investigators discovered was likely an alias for Simmonds. Records showed that “Jones” and Simmonds had the same birthdate and the same home address. Also, location data from the phone placed it at Simmonds' home, then at the crime scene, then back at home.
