DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A convicted murderer who cut off his ankle monitor and ran away has finally learned his sentence: life with the possibility of parole plus 40 years.
Taiquan Mitchell, 24, shot and killed Marcus Waters in DeKalb County in January 2014.
A jury also convicted Deon Dorsey. He too got life, plus 40 years.
Police say Mitchell was out on bond and never showed up to hear the verdict last week.
The victim's family says they feared for their own lives while he was on the run.
"We didn't know where he was going. Everybody was kind of fearful because we didn't know where he was going to go. We were on our p's and q's making sure our alarm was on," Waters' stepmother, Venus Waters, said.
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A fugitive squad caught him days later in Columbia, South Carolina. %
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The judge made a rare statement before the sentencing Tuesday.
“In this life, it's about choices. And yet many people make choices every day and they do not choose to take someone's life,” said Judge Asha Jackson.
Mitchell asked the judge for mercy and apologized to the victim's family.
The victim's family told the court he should get the maximum, and told Channel 2's Sophia Choi that they don't buy Mitchell's apology.
"That was the first time he turned around and looked. But you notice he looked, then turned his head back around," the victim's father, Mark Waters, said.
Mitchell wiped away tears as the judge read his sentence.
Cox Media Group
