ATLANTA —
Two gang members have been charged and convicted for multiple heinous crimes following a home invasion that left one person dead.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said that in the evening hours of Jan. 22, 2016 Khalieff Adams, 21, Thomas Cothran, 31, and two other unidentified people went to 27-year-old Anthony Chalmers' apartment off Lanier Street in Atlanta. Chalmers knew both of the men, so he allowed them to come inside his apartment. Two of Chalmers' friends were inside his apartment Jonathan Gray, 29, and his brother Baratta Gray, 27, according to Howard.
According to the district attorney's office, Cothran ordered Adams and two other unidentified people to hold Chalmers, Baratta Gray, and Jonathan Gray and to shoot them if they moved.
Investigators believe Chalmers moved and the men opened fire, striking him along with Baratta and Jonathan. Chalmers died on the scene and his two friends were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital after, according to the district attorney's office, the two were found “writhing on the floor in pain."
Prior to the shooting, the district attorney's office said that a witness who was outside of the apartment heard one of the defendants say to the victims, “Don’t do it, or I’m going to shoot you.”
According to the district attorney's office, the four men stole marijuana and thousands of dollars from Chalmers pockets. When officers arrived they allegedly found 14 shell casings from four different guns. Baratta Gray and Jonathan Gray were able to identify Cothran as the shooter, according to officials.
Atlanta police arrested Cothran on April 1, 2016, at a hotel in Decatur where they found a 9mm pistol with an extended magazine, a .380 pistol, and a .22 pistol.
The district attorney's office said Cothran called Adams while he was in jail to warn him to leave since the surviving victims knew who they were. Adams was identified by the victims and arrested.
While Cothran was in the Fulton County Jail he wrote a letter to Baratta Gray telling him to recant his statement.
“Do the right thing, you know what happens to snitches,” he allegedly wrote.
According to a press release, Adams and Cothran were both charged and convicted for murder, felony murder, participation in criminal street gang activity, first-degree home invasion, armed robbery, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, burglary, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Prosecutors said Adams and Cothran were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole and an additional 55 years. Both men have had run-ins with the law previously. Cochran had been arrested 13 times and Adams had been arrested on prior charges.
RELATED STORIES:
