Jury deliberating fate of man accused of killing best friend, dumping body in Gwinnett park

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — A jury is deliberating in the case of a man accused of killing his best friend.

Tori Lang, 18, was found dead in a Gwinnett County park two years ago.

Now, a jury has to determine if Lang’s death was a murder or a suicide.

Earlier this year, a different jury couldn’t decide, and there was a mistrial.

Gwinnett County police found Lang dead in a picnic area inside the park in 2021. Not long after, DeKalb County police recovered her burned-out car discovered not far from the park.

After many months of investigation, police finally charged her “best friend,” Austin Ford, with murder and assault.

Channel 2′s Richard Elliot was in the courtroom when defense Attorney Lawrence Lewis admitted that Ford was at the park when Lang died from a single gunshot wound to the head, but he insists it was a suicide.

“We just need to determine who pulled the trigger,” Lewis said.

Lewis also admitted that Ford lied to police for months after the death, but he argued that lying wasn’t murder.

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“You can write on any document that you have in the back that Austin Ford lied, but you can never write ‘guilty’ on the verdict form because he lied. Because him lying got nothing to do with the murder,” Lewis said.

Prosecutor Norris Lewis argued that the evidence showed Lange’s death wasn’t suicide and that Ford is the one who pulled the trigger.

“The state’s interest in this case is finding the truth,” Norris Lewis said.

He said Ford’s lies alone should be suspicious.

“The defendant lied for eight to nine months. To police, to Tori’s family, to police, to Tori’s family, to police over and over again,” Norris Lewis said.

Earlier this year, a jury convicted Ford of concealing a death and theft, but couldn’t decide on the murder charge.

A jury is now deliberating Ford’s fate.

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