COBB COUNTY, Ga. -- Early on the morning of Nov. 20, 2017, a resident of an apartment complex called police to report a disturbing discovery: a teenager's body lying on the ground in a Cobb County playground.
Investigators later identified the body as that of 17-year-old Nasser Benefield. He'd been stabbed multiple times.
The young man's mother told 11Alive that her son had been living in the nearby apartment complex on Mableton Parkway for a few days after moving to the Atlanta area from Macon. He was living with his grandfather.
Naseer's grandfather, Kalem Hasan, told 11Alive when he left the apartment to get dinner, his grandson was on the phone with somebody, but he didn't know who.
"He told me, 'Be safe grandpa.' and I said, 'OK', and I went on and left," Hasan said.
When he got back, Naseer and his backpack were gone. He said he got ready for bed and locked the door, because he knew the 17-year-old would have to knock to get let back in.
"But that knock never came," he said.
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Police said they used phone records to connect then-18-year-old Dawson Lee Wagner to the crime. He was arrested weeks after.
On Feb. 1, 2019, Wagner, now 19, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, possession of a knife during commission of a felony, concealing a death and making a false statement.
Assisting Superior Court Judge Henry Thompson sentenced Wagner to serve 40 years in prison.
“This was a senseless crime of overwhelming violence perpetrated by an individual who displayed an utter lack of remorse for the crimes he committed,” Senior Cobb County District Attorney Jennifer Stevenson said. “We hope that this conviction brings some measure of closure to the family of Naseer Benefield, which has been devastated by this tragic loss.”
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