Local

Killer cries as judge hands down life sentence

ATLANTA — A two-time convicted killer cried in court as a judge gave him the maximum sentence.

Judge Robert McBurney sentenced Ronald Fisher to life in prison on top of a sentence he's already serving for a previous murder.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne was the only reporter in the courtroom for the emotional testimony.

Prosecutors said Fisher and his friends exchanged words with 17-year-old Eddie Amaan Shaheed before Fisher shot Shaheed in the back of the head on May 30, 2005.

Marcia Shaheed spoke in court Thursday and said she wouldn't stop fighting for justice.

"I felt justice for my son. I felt the fight was worth it," Shaheed said.

"I'm grateful to God," she told Winne.

Fisher could not fight back tears as he spoke in court.

"I'm not the person. This is not justice," Fisher told the judge. He repeatedly stated he was innocent.

"I did not do this and if I could help them find the person, I would," Fisher said.

He wiped away more tears as Shaheed's mother spoke.

"This is my baby. This is my baby," Marcia Shaheed said while holding up baby pictures. "The young man lying on the street was 17 years old, but this was the child I raised."

"I just hope that in the many years that he faces for his acts of cowardice, he might learn to be braver and to be better," Yakka Murphy, Shaheed's cousin, said.

McBurney did not mince words when handing down the sentence.


"I suspect you're not going to need to worry a whole lot about staying warm in the afterlife," McBurney said.
District Attorney Paul Howard credited the family with the conviction.

"The magic in the case was really provided by the family of Eddie Shaheed because they would not give up. They called the Police Department repeatedly, they called my office repeatedly," Howard said.

Prosecutors said Fisher killed again four years after the Shaheed murder. He was convicted in 2011.