Atlanta, GA
Georgia mom scolds jury for convicting son after he’s sentenced to life in prison for murder of man on bike
A Georgia mom’s courtroom outburst took center stage during her son’s murder trial as she unsuccessfully attempted to sway the jury following its unanimous decision to sentence the pair to life in prison
Demetrice Ross and Brandon Williams were found guilty on fifteen combined charges in connection with the 2022 murder of 60-year-old Thomas Arnold on Atlanta’s BeltLine.
Ross’ mother, Valerie, expressed her delusional belief that her son was not a murderer to the Fulton County jury after the pair was convicted on Wednesday.
“I believe with my whole heart, my whole heart, with my whole heart, with my whole heart, with my whole heart,” a hysterical Valerie Ross said. “My son, Demetrice Ross is innocent.”
The older Ross implied she would appeal her son’s conviction, saying that the jury’s seven-hour deliberation was too short and they didn’t have enough time to discuss the case, according to WSBTV.
Ross and Williams were found guilty of shooting Arnold during a violent attempted robbery as he walked back home after spending the evening with friends on Feb. 26, 2022.
Arnold had been at a bar and left before its 10 p.m. closing time and was believed to have been heading back to his home in the nearby Poncey-Highland neighborhood.
Ross and Williams were spotted on surveillance cameras following a woman, making unwanted advances on the popular path encircling the city around the same time as Arnold.
Williams is believed to be the one to fire the fatal shot.
One friend testified during the trial that Williams had admitted to killing Arnold when he tried to steal a car.
“Can’t leave no witnesses because, no face, no case,” the unidentified witness testified.
The “outstanding individual” had spent the evening with friends and was riding his bike on the Beltline home when he was killed, according to 11Alive.
He was found the next morning suffering from fatal gunshot wounds.
An investigation was launched into the senseless targeted attack and no suspects were arrested until after police released nearby security footage.
Williams was arrested two weeks after Arnold was discovered.
Ross was captured by US Marshals a week later.
The trial began on April 24 and lasted four days before a jury deliberated for several hours on Wednesday.
Ross and Williams both faced eight charges each.
Demetrice Ross guilty charges
- Count 1: Malice murder – Guilty
- Count 2: Felony murder, criminal attempt to commit armed robbery
- Count 3: Felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
- Count 5: Criminal attempt to commit armed robbery
- Count 6: Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
- Count 7: Possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony
Brandon Williams guilty charges
- Count 1: Malice murder – Guilty
- Count 2: Felony murder, criminal attempt to commit armed robbery
- Count 3: Felony murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
- Count 4: Felony murder, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
- Count: 5: Criminal attempt to commit armed robbery
- Count 6: Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
- Count 7: Possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony
- Count 8: Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
Both men remained straight-faced and silent as they learned the verdicts, only standing up when court officials handcuffed them before the foreperson was done speaking.
Court officials placed both Ross and Williams in handcuffs before the verdicts were finished being read.
Judge Craig Schwall sentenced the two to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“I have a very difficult job. I’ve been a superior court judge for 20 years and I have probably tried 200 felony jury trials, most of them murder cases,” Schwall said, according to courtroom video. “People say ‘how do you do it? how do you deal with all that sadness?’
“It’s never a happy day in this room,” he said before elaborating on the difficulty with the current murder trial. “This case has really affected me. Two words come to mind, cruel and evil. That’s what we have in this case. There’s no reason we should be here.”
Schwall described the murder as “cold and calculated” calling the murderers as examples of inmates who society should fear and convicted felons who would never show positive change after reform programs.
“These defendants conduct was devoid of morality. It was willful and intentional, without any concern for the value of human life,” he said.
The jurist, speaking directly to Ross and Williams said their “repugnant and deprave conduct” earned them the fate of perishing in prison.
“I am at this point where I can’t imagine not going,” Wilkins-Mickey said. “Every year I learn something new. Of course they add different experiences everything we go, so it really does feel different every time, but I want to learn. I want to continue to learn. This is our culture, it’s our history and I would like to continue to understand why we are where we are today. And I think the only way to do that is to understand our past. Every time I go, I just feel so inspired. It gives me purpose to do the work that I do.”
The trip starts with a flight from Seattle to Atlanta where the group has their first glimpse of what to expect for the rest of their week. The group was given a tour of an area of downtown Atlanta called “Sweet Auburn Ave.” which was once a booming community and neighborhood, filled with businesses, that was systemically dismantled by a highway that was built through the neighborhood. Businesses and families were forced to leave.
Keenan Allen Ladd, one of three educators on the tour said, “I really just appreciated the educators in those moments, because they take you through the whole story of the major moments that happened in the Civil Rights Movement.”
The rest of that first day was spent at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, his birth home and other sites in Atlanta before making the drive to the neighboring state of Alabama to visit Anniston, where the Freedom Riders boarded a bus at the Greyhound station and which was attacked by a group of white supremacist,
The group spent the remainder of their trip in different cities in Alabama, including Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma.
While in Montgomery, the group visited the Montgomery riverfront, a location where enslaved people were brought off of boats and taken to the city’s downtown area to be auctioned off.
Leann Coates, Seahawks premium service representative, described the experience as shocking.
“It’s very powerful to be standing there at the riverfront, and know that not long ago, people were brought on ships and sold. That street is still called commerce street. Things have not changed in the way you think they have changed.”
While the group was in Montgomery, one of the locations they visited was the Legacy Museum, a museum that immerses visitors in the history of Black Americans from the Transatlantic slave trade all the way through to present day and mass incarceration.
And while the actual tour of the South was just five days, the journey doesn’t stop there. Ladd said he immediately returned to his classroom and thought about ways to get his students involved and educated on the topics he learned about on the tour. Allen Ladd said he utilized the one thing he knows all of his students use, social media, specifically Tik Tok and Instagram reels, to help the students learn information in a natural way.
“When I got back, I actually had them all take out their phones and go on Tik Tok and look up the Institute for Common Power, just so they could see that experience first-hand. We did that for like two days. By the third day, a lot of their algorithm’s changes and they were able to get real life information that they weren’t getting before.”
He added, “This tour furthers my want, urge and that yearning to make sure I’m standing up for everyone who doesn’t have the opportunity to utilize their voice, to just amplify voices. There’s a lot of people that we’ve learned on this trip, this Truth and Purpose, to utilize your voice for the voice of others. And that’s something that I’m going to do… I’m in a unique position as an educator. I have the opportunity to guide or facilitate youth, and I have an opportunity to open the eyes of our youth and I have something that is precious… I want to make sure they have the correct information. I don’t want to steer them in a particular direction, but I definitely want to put the correct information in front of them, so they can understand what this country looked like previously, to give them a vision of what they believe this country should look like moving forward in the future.”
A lot of the participants come away from the trip feeling a sense of community, empowered and are more enlightened about the history of Black Americans than they were before.
Learn more about the Truth and Purpose tour and the organization, the Institute for Common Power, that spearheads this trip here.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — I-285 WB was blocked in Fulton County on Thursday morning as crews cleaned up a fallen tree.
Video of the scene showed the tree and leaf litter sprawled across several lanes. Crews were using chainsaws to clean up the mess.
Several vehicles at the scene appear to be damaged, but it’s unknown if anyone was hurt. Atlanta News First has reached out to the fire department for more information.
As of 9 a.m., the road had partially reopened.
This is a developing story. Check back with Atlanta News First as we learn more.
Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.
When the Hawks were picking at No. 23 last night, one of the players that was on the board and thought to be in consideration was North Carolina center Henri Veesaar. Veesaar was one of the top centers at the point in the draft and would have been a totally reasonable pick for Atlanta at No. 23. However, Atlanta selected Saint John’s big man Zuby Ejiofor, and Veesaar slipped out of the first round altogether.
Veesaar continued to take an unexpected tumble in this year’s draft and was facing a lot of criticism about his decision to leave college for the NBA, spurning lots of NIL money in the process and falling farther than anyone thought.
His fall ended at No. 52, however, when the Atlanta Hawks traded up from No. 57 to select him. Veesaar becomes the third draft pick for the Hawks in this year’s draft, joining a class that includes Houston PG Kingston Flemings and the aforementioned Ejiorfor.
Now that the Hawks have another big man on their roster, how does he fit and what kind of grade should Atlanta get for selecting him
First thoughts on Veesaar
There was some criticism about the Hawks taking Ejiofor last night, not because of his skillset necessarily, but because he was another undersized big.
Veesaar stands at 6’11, 227 LBS and he is going to give the Hawks size on the interior, strong rebounding, and can stretch the floor as a big, which is a skill that the Hawks value.
After transferring to North Carolina from Arizona, Veesaar proceeded to have the best season of his college career. He started 31 games for the Tar Heels and averaged 17.0 PPG, 8.7 RPG, and 2.1 APG while shooting 62% from the floor and 43% from three. Veesaar had decent volume as a three point shooter as well averaging three attempts per game.
There is a lot to like about how he is going to translate to the NBA level. There is one big concern with Veesaar and it is his defense.
If there is one on-court reason Veesaar slipped this far in the draft, it is because he is quite a poor defender. He lacks quickness and lateral movement as a rim protector, does not operate well in space, and is going to be targeted heavily at the next level. For him to become a viable big in the NBA, even if just a backup, Veesaar is going to have to become a much better defender.
Still, his skillset on offense is a huge plus this late in the draft.
The Hawks are going to have some decisions to make with their roster and there is no guarantee that Veesaar is going to make it on a guaranteed contract. I think this is a wonderful pick though by the Hawks, as he fills a huge need and was the best player available by far.
The Atlanta front office continues to preach best player available and this selection is further proof of that.
Grade: A-
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