ATLANTA — A jury reached a guilty verdict Thursday in the trial of a man accused of murder for causing a 2016 crash that left a grandmother and her two grandchildren dead in College Park.
Diontre Tigner faced 15 counts in the crash that killed 75-year-old Dorothy Wright, her 12-year-old grandson Cameron Costner and her 6-year-old granddaughter Layla Partridge. He was found guilty on all charges.
The grandmother and the two children were hit by a driver being chased by College Park Police while they were on their way to church on Jan. 31, 2016. Family lawyers have characterized the chase as a "reckless high-speed pursuit" and at one point they sued College Park, as well as the City of Atlanta, over the crash.
The trial began this week. Tigner's full charges include six counts of felony murder, three counts of hit-and-run, fleeing and attempting to elude, reckless driving, two counts of failure to obey traffic signs and signals, failure to maintain lane, theft by receiving property.
According to the College Park Police account, officers began chasing the car just after 9 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 31, 2016, responding to a reported auto theft at the Westin Hotel near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Police said at the time they attempted to pull the driver over, but he didn't stop. He was then chased to the intersection of South Gordon Street and Rogers Avenue, where the crash occurred.
For nearly six years following their deaths the children's mother and daughter of Wright, Joi Partridge, begged the driver who ran off to come forward. Tigner was finally taken into custody by officers on the evening of Dec. 23, 2021.
In 2019 the mother said she was still heartbroken.
"I miss them every day," she said. She described her son as a ball of joy and her daughter as a firecracker.
Partridge told her attorneys she was overjoyed Tigner was finally caught.