COWETA COUNTY, Ga. — Five people convicted in the 2020 killing of a 14-year-old Coweta County girl during a home invasion will each spend decades in prison, the district attorney's office announced this week.
Haley Adams was shot in the back during what police described as a "targeted" home invasion in February 2020. They said at the time she'd hid while four armed people broke into the house and restrained her mom, searching for a man who was not there.
When they were back outside, she allegedly went to the front door with a BB gun and was shot at multiple times by the someone in the group.
This week, Coweta District Attorney John H. Cranford Jr. announced convictions against the five people, alleged members of the "Ghostface Gangsters," who were ultimately charged in Adams' death - 24-year-old Justin Ramsey aka "ATL," 35-year-old William Tyree aka "Chevy," 40-year-old Kyle Conley aka "Chi Town," 29-year-old Aubrie Brown aka "Bri 7," and 31-year-old Spencer Wix.
According to a release, the five pleaded guilty to numerous charges - Ramsey, in particular, pleaded guilty to felony murder and 14 other charges, including first degree home invasion and violation of the Georgia Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act. He was given a life prison sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Tyree pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, false imprisonment and violating the Street Gang Act, and will spend at least 35 years in prison without parole as part of a 60-year sentence, the DA's Office said.
Conley was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to violating the Street Gang Act, voluntary manslaughter and first degree home invasion; Brown was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charges; and Wix was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and first degree home invasion.
According to the release from the DA's Office, the home invasion originally targeted a man who lived at the home whom Tyree had a "personal vendetta" against. The plan was to "scare the man and rough him up" and then steal guns at the home.
Once inside, they instead encountered Haley's mom, the district attorney said.
"After tormenting Haley’s mother at gunpoint, once the four perpetrators realized the man was not present, they abandoned the robbery plan and began to flee. As they ran outside, Haley, who had been hiding in her room during the invasion, retrieved a BB pistol and chased after the intruders. As she was on the front porch with the BB gun in hand, Ramsey opened fire at her, striking her once in the back, a wound to which she ultimately succumbed later that night," the release said.
According to the DA's Office, the "Ghostface Gangsters" originated as a prison gang in the Cobb County Jail in the early 2000s, composed primarily of white inmates, and grew into a violent statewide street gang. If the case had gone to trial, the DA's Office said that prosecutors would have shown Tyree "used his status as a high-ranking Ghostface Gangster to procure violent offenders to carry out his violent plan," with Ramsey, Conley and Brown "motivated by their desire to participate in the gang's criminal endeavors and to meet the expectations placed upon members by the gang." Wix was not in the gang, but associated with it as he was Brown's brother, the DA's release said.
"This case shows the harm that all street gangs do to our community and the devastation they cause to victims and their families," a statement in the release said. "The view of the District Attorney’s Office is that street gang members who commit gang crimes should be sent to prison. And if those crimes are violent, they should be sent to prison for decades. While our criminal justice system obviously cannot compensate for the loss of Haley Adams, the District Attorney’s Office is satisfied that justice was done in this case and that our community is safer as a result of these sentences."