TROUP COUNTY, Ga. — A man pleaded guilty in the 2022 stabbing murder of a pregnant woman in LaGrange and was given a life sentence with the possibility of parole, the district attorney in Troup County said Thursday.
Breanna Burgess was 20 weeks pregnant when she was found dead in July 2022, stabbed 14 times in the throat, Coweta Judicial Circuit DA John H. Cranford Jr. said in a released.
At the time of her killing, a GoFundMe described 26-year-old Burgess as a mother of three. "She didn't deserve this and this was the last thing we expected to happen," it said.
Avery will be eligible for parole in 2052, Cranford's office said, "but the parole board will be authorized to reject his request."
Cranford's office said in a release that investigators tracked a Camaro, that a friend of Burgess' said she had last seen her and Avery in, to a home in LaGrange a few hours after the murders. It still had blood on the outside, the release said, and blood stained clothes were found in the washing machine and dryer of the home. DNA analysis matched the blood to Burgess'.
Avery was taken into custody along with another person, Shallandra Freeman, and charged with murder. The status of Freeman's case is unclear.
"Curteze Avery cut short the life of Breanna Burgess and her unborn child. For this, it is just that he is now sentenced to serve life in prison," Cranford's release said. "While the family of Ms. Burgess will never fully heal from this senseless crime, the District Attorney's Office is relieved to have obtained a life sentence without the family experiencing the difficulty and uncertainty of a jury trial."
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