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DEKALB COUNTY, GA–DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announces the conviction by jury trial of a Stone Mountain man accused of shooting two teen girls, killing one.
On Thursday, Nov. 6, jurors found Malachi Coleman, 23, guilty of Malice Murder, Felony Murder, two counts of Aggravated Assault, and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, for the murder of Jayce Pirtle, 19, and the shooting of a 16-year-old girl.
According to the investigation, on Jan. 2, 2023, officers with the DeKalb County Police Department (DKPD) responded around 5 p.m. to a call of a person shot in a residential neighborhood located in the 500 block of Arbor Ridge Drive in Stone Mountain. Upon arrival, they located two teen girls with gunshot wounds. Jayce Pirtle was pronounced deceased at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the head. The second victim was transported to the hospital and survived her injuries.
The surviving victim told investigators at the hospital that a man dressed in all black confronted her and her sister, Jayce, when they were walking home. He chased them down and she heard her sister begging Coleman by name not to shoot her.
Officers obtained video footage of the shooting from a nearby home’s security camera. The video shows the defendant, dressed in black, chasing the girls and standing over the surviving victim as he shoots her twice in her lower body, then sprinting after Jayce off screen. The video also captured audio of Jayce screaming, “Malachi stop, please, please Malachi no!” Two additional gunshots can also be heard.
Defendant Coleman was dating a friend of the two victims. The girls got into a verbal altercation with him the day before the shooting when he became upset that his girlfriend spent New Year’s Eve with the girls and some of their male relatives.
Immediately following the verdict, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Yolanda Parker-Smith, who presided over the trial, sentenced t Coleman to Life Without the Possibility of Parole.
The case, assigned to the Homicide and Gangs Unit, was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Ryan Patrick, with assistance from Senior Assistant District Attorney Kara Roberts, District Attorney Investigator Jarrod Browder and Victim Advocate LaTonya Gates. DKPD Detective A. Crowe led the initial investigation.