COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A second person has been convicted of a murder that went unsolved for four years in Cobb County.
On June 14, Dontavian Jones, 22, was convicted of the 2016 murder of Dewenzell Spence, 41. According to the Cobb County District Attorney's Office, Jones was found guilty of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
On June 3, 2016, Cobb County police responded to a report of a dead male found in the woods of a private property in Mableton. They located the highly decomposed body that was later identified as Spence. Spence was an employee at Hormel Foods and regularly used MARTA to commute. When he didn't use his MARTA card or show up for work on May 31, 2016, it raised concerns.
Detectives accessed Spence's bank account and discovered two withdrawals. Surveillance footage showed Spence at an ATM for seven minutes with two unidentified males and a white van in the background. One male had his face covered, while the other did not. No leads were initially developed.
In January 2020, detectives used facial recognition software and identified the unmasked suspect as Terrance Marshall of Cochran. Marshall had been arrested on June 1, 2016, after a high-speed chase is Alabama involving a vehicle similar to the van in the ATM footage. Jones was also involved in the chase. Following the chase, the van exploded and both suspects fled on foot, but were apprehended within 24 hours.
Detectives confirmed Marshall and Jones as the individuals in the ATM footage. Interviews revealed that Jones, 14 at the time, fled Cochran with Marshall’s help due to an outstanding murder warrant from May 25, 2016. They traveled to Atlanta, where they encountered Spence walking down Hank Aaron Boulevard toward the MARTA station. They held Spence at gunpoint and forced him into to the stolen van. They drove him to Mableton, forced him to withdraw $50 from his bank account and then drove him to the wooded area where he was executed and later found.
Marshall was tried and convicted in January 2024. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, plus an additional five years of imprisonment.
Jones is set to be sentenced on July 15.
