breaking news

SANDERSVILLE, Ga. — A Washington County grand jury returned an eight-count indictment Tuesday against three former sheriff’s deputies in the July 2017 killing of a Milledgeville man. 

Middle Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Kathy S. Palmer read the indictments aloud in the grand jury room Tuesday afternoon. 

Former Washington County sheriff’s deputies Henry Copeland, Michael Howell and Rhett Scott are each charged with two counts of felony murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter, one count each of false imprisonment, aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless conduct in the death of 58-year-old Eurie Lee Martin of Milledgeville.

Martin died of a heart attack after he was tased by deputies answering a call of a suspicious person near the intersection of Deepstep and Sinai roads July 7 in Washington County. 

Martin was walking from his residence in Milledgeville to a rural area of neighboring Washington County to visit relatives, something family members and friends said he regularly did, when he died.

Copeland, Howell and Scott were fired from their jobs as road patrol deputies following the conclusion of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigation into Martin’s death. Before the three men were terminated from their jobs with the sheriff’s office, they were on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the GBI probe.

This is the second time the three men have been indicted in Martin’s death. In February, murder indictments against the three men were dismissed because a court reporter was informed by Middle Judicial Circuit District Attorney Hayward Altman that she was not needed the day of grand jury proceedings.

Senior Superior Court Judge H. Gibbs Flanders Jr., of the Dublin Judicial Circuit, ruled in February that the previous indictments returned by the grand jury were invalid because no court reporter was present.

 

Flanders ruled that Altman should have allowed a court reporter to transcribe the grand jury proceedings and those testifying in the case against the three men.

Following Tuesday’s indictment, the defendants, will be required to turn themselves in to authorities in Washington County at which time the sheriff will decide whether they will be transported to Emanuel County or be retained in the Washington County jail.

The jury deliberated about five minutes before returning Tuesday’s eight-count indictment.