CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A man accused of killing his best friend in Clayton County has been found guilty.
On Friday, a Clayton County jury convicted Joe Link, 75, of felony murder and aggravated assault. Shortly after, he was sent to life with the possibility of parole.
He was on trial for the 2023 death of Cowbern Jones, 68, whom he called his best friend for 30 years.
Channel 2’s Tom Jones was in the courtroom on Thursday when the jury saw the police interrogation video where Link described fighting over a gun with the victim.
On Friday morning, jurors heard closing arguments and then began deliberating. They returned a verdict just a few hours later.
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Prosecutors say Link first threatened Jones.
“When he said he sent him a text telling him that he would eff him up,” said then Lt. Christopher Cato, who is now the Chief of Police in Jonesboro.
Prosecutors say Link searched for Jones with a pipe and then shot him near a cemetery.
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But in a police interrogation video, Link initially denied shooting Jones.
“I want to know why you shot him,” Cato asked him.
“I didn’t shoot him,” Link said.
Later, Link admitted to confronting Jones, trying to get him to return a pistol he loaned him. He said Jones hit him with a walking stick, he got a pipe, they tussled over the gun, and when he tried to aim it away from him, it went off.
“Why didn’t you call 911 for your best friend?” Cato inquired.
“Because I was scared and I didn’t know where I was,” Link said in the video.
The defense said police did a poor job investigating this case. Erin King hammered Cato, the lead investigator, saying he knew there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Link fired the weapon.
“So, you can’t tell this jury definitively whether or not he was the person who fired the gun. Correct?” she asked.
“I cannot. No ma’am,” Cato said.
But prosecutors said Link’s DNA was found on the gun, and a DNA analyst couldn’t identify two other profiles on the weapon.
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