COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) -- The Georgia Attorney General’s Office has stepped in and picked up three Muscogee County murder cases.
The cases were conflicted out of the local District Attorney’s Office because DA Stacey Jackson had been involved previously as a criminal defense attorney.
Attorney General Chris Carr talked exclusively with WRBL about the situation.
Georgia law has allowed the new Gang Prosecution Unit in the Attorney General’s Office to step in and prosecute gang-related cases.
Two of the cases involve the June 2021 double murder at Wilson Apartments in Columbus.
Rodderick Glanton and Elysia Cooley, who was 17 at the time, are charged with the shooting deaths of teenagers Jesse Ransom and Saiveon Pugh.
The third defendant is Marquise Hawkins. He is charged in the August 2020 shooting death of 26-year-old Alex Bales-Davis at a BP Gas Station on Buena Vista Road.
“I don’t want to get into the specifics of each case, however, we are pleased that our office now has gang jurisdiction so that we can prosecute statewide," Carr said. "And our office took these three cases and assigned them to the gang unit and we will review them and take them from there.”
Currently, there are no gang-related charges against Glanton, Cooley, or Hawkins. Carr was careful when asked about potential gang charges.
“That would be the authority we have," Carr said. "And if it is gang-related, we will not hesitate to aggressively prosecute.”
During his work as a criminal defense attorney, Muscogee County DA Stacey Jackson represented Cooley and Hawkins. That is why Jackson, nor his office can be involved in those cases.
Pete Skandalakis is the head of the Prosecuting Attorneys Counsel of Georgia which assigns conflict cases across the state. He says there are currently 175 cases that have been moved out of the Muscogee County DA’s office based on conflicts. That is since Jackson became DA back in May.
It is not a one-way street. Skandalakis tells News 3 that the Chattahoochee Circuit’s District Attorney’s office is handling 24 conflict cases in other parts of the state. Jackson alone is prosecuting nine of those cases.
"The system only works in conflict cases if when an office is giving cases away, they are willing to take some in return," Carr said. "And I commend the DA for taking those cases because it takes the pressure off others where conflict cases may exist."
Carr says that the gang prosecution unit will work to get gang members off the streets.
“Each and every Georgian deserves to be safe," Carr said. "The Georgia Constitution says it’s the paramount duty of government to protect person and property. So, I don’t care if you live in southwest Georgia, southwest Atlanta, Buckhead, Blairsville, or Columbus. Each and every Georgian deserves to be safe and we know 60 to 90 percent of all violent crime is gang affiliated.”
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