GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A Gwinnett County jury has convicted a man in a 2021 fatal robbery using an online dating site.
Mark White, 23, was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony for the October 2021 shooting death of 39-year-old Garcia Gaddis.
Gaddis left his home on the night of Oct. 21, 2021, and was not seen again. Police responding to a noise complaint the following Sunday afternoon located a suspicious Dodge Ram 1500 parked in the Lawrenceville neighborhood near Pierce Brennen Drive and Tech Center Parkway.
Inside, officers found Gaddis with a single gunshot wound to his head. His cell phone, wallet and car keys were missing.
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Investigators found that on the night he was last seen, Gaddis had been contacted on the Tagged dating app by a user who eventually was determined to be White.
In an online exchange between the two, Gaddis had agreed to meet White near the Little Suwanee Pointe neighborhood. When he was near, White told Gaddis to pick him up near the pool area. Surveillance cameras showed Gaddis’ truck drive through the neighborhood shortly after 11 p.m., and showed him stop to pick up a man with shoulder-length dreadlocks from the parking lot of the pool clubhouse.
Minutes after the truck was seen driving toward the entrance to the neighborhood at Tech Center Parkway, the same dreadlocked man was seen walking from the entrance back to the pool clubhouse.
Police found a shell casing in the cab of Gaddis’ truck that matched three shell casings from a gun fired during a July 19, 2021, incident in which White was accused of shooting at his ex-girlfriend and her mother. The mother collected the shell casings and kept them until police contacted her during the investigation of Gaddis’ murder.
Police body camera footage from an eviction from a townhome across from the pool several weeks later showed a man inside the unit who was dressed similarly to the figure captured on video the night Gaddis was killed. An arrest warrant for White was issued, and he was apprehended in June 2022.
Following his conviction, White was sentenced to life in prison plus five years without the possibility of parole.
“We pray that this verdict and the justice it serves provides some solace to this victim's family and loved ones,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said. “The defendant took advantage of Mr. Gaddis and justice has been served.”
Gaddis' cousin, Mercedes Evans, previously told 11Alive that Gaddis had moved to the Atlanta area from Mississippi. The 39-year-old man was a truck driver who also drove for Uber on his time off because he loved meeting people.
He was remembered as a big brother, a son, a cousin, and a hard worker.
To read more about Gaddis, click here.
