ATLANTA -- Two teenagers have pleaded guilty to murdering Jerrick Jackson, brother of Bishop Wiley Jackson.
Montravious Bradley, 18, and Felton Lovejoy, 19, admitted they shot the 47 year old to death in the driveway of his Lowe Street home.
Their trial was scheduled to begin Monday, but both teens entered guilty pleas after speaking with their mothers and defense attorneys. A Fulton County Superior Court judge sentenced them to life in prison.
Prosecutors said Bradley and Lovejoy were the shooters in the May 7, 2013 incident. Jerrick Jackson and his fiancée Kimberly Little returned home from a night out and were approached by five men who demanded their money.
The suspects told Jackson and Little to go inside the house, where Little's then-18-year-old daughter Anbiya Mitchell was upstairs. Jackson was shot when he tried to stop the men from entering the house.
"I can honestly put him in a book with heroes," Mitchell later said of Jackson. "I really do feel like he's a hero. He's my hero."
After shooting Jackson, the suspects stole blank checks and ATM and credit cards from both victims before running. All five men were captured months later.
Two co-defendants -- Demetrius Morgan and Alejandro Pitts -- each received 25 years in prison for their roles in the crime. The fifth man, 20-year-old Geno Lewis, is awaiting trial.
Last August, in an emotional speech from the pulpit, Gospel Tabernacle Cathedral Bishop Wiley Jackson called his brother's murder "a senseless act of violence," but forgave the killers.
