Georgia prosecutor dismisses murder charges in three cases due to police misconduct indictments

District Attorney Shalena Cook Jones from Chatham County, Georgia, has decided to drop charges against six individuals involved in three separate murder cases. This decision follows the indictment of two former Savannah police officers, Ashley Wood and Darryl Repress, who are facing charges of perjury and violating their oaths of office. Jones explained that after a thorough review of numerous cases involving the implicated officers, the tainted nature of the cases made them unwinnable in court. She expressed sympathy for the families of the five victims involved in the dismissed cases but emphasized that police misconduct had severely compromised the cases.

The indictment of former officers Wood and Repress came after a Chatham County grand jury uncovered unrelated instances of misconduct. Repress, who was fired in 2023 after an internal affairs investigation revealed his inappropriate relationship with a convicted felon informant, faces charges of dishonesty regarding the affair. Wood, a former detective, is accused of deliberately including false information in search warrant applications for multiple cases. While Repress’s attorney, Kimberly Copeland, did not immediately respond to requests for comment, Wood’s attorney, Keith Barber, staunchly defended her innocence, asserting that she will be fully exonerated.

One of the affected individuals, Marquis Parrish, accused Wood of falsely claiming to have seen him in a security camera recording related to a 2021 fatal shooting. Parrish spent two years in custody before the charges were dropped by Jones’ office in June. Additionally, charges were dismissed against two men involved in a 2016 killing resulting from a gang-related shootout, as well as three men implicated in the 2015 fatal shooting of two brothers and their cousin in a Savannah residence.

Jones refrained from disclosing specific reasons for dropping charges in each murder case, citing the ongoing legal proceedings involving the former police officers. The attorney for Jerrell Williams, one of the men charged in the 2015 triple homicide, expressed relief and vindication after years of legal battles and incarceration. Despite the dismissal of these cases, Jones indicated that they are unlikely to be reopened or reinvestigated due to the pervasive impact of police misconduct on the evidence and integrity of the prosecutions.