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Eatonton, Georgia (AP) — A Georgia prisoner convicted of killing two guards while escaping a prison transport bus five years ago was sentenced to death.
The jury on Thursday unanimously agreed on the death penalty for Ricky Dubose, who shot and killed Sgt in June 2017. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue, the press reported. A jury trial on Monday admitted that he was found guilty of including murder.
Donnie Rowe, the second prisoner charged with the murder, was convicted of murder in September. After the jury could not agree whether he should be sentenced to death, the judge sentenced him to life imprisonment without parole.
Dubose and Rowe escaped together from a bus in Putnam County, southeast of Atlanta, on June 13, 2017, and were arrested in Tennessee a few days later.
Dubose was accused of firing a gun and killing a police officer after he and Rowe slipped out of handcuffs and broke through an unlocked gate in front of the bus. Prosecutors say Dubose grabbed one of the policeman’s weapons and shot both the guard’s Monica and the driver, Bill’s head. Security cameras on the bus recorded a violent escape, and about 30 other prisoners witnessed the killings.
Dubose’s lawyer admitted in the opening statement that Dubose was guilty, but the jury should find him guilty and mentally retarded or guilty but mentally ill. Said. That would have excluded him from the death penalty.
Prosecutors rejected the defense’s allegations, saying Dubose was a wisely calculated murderer.
Dubose, 29, had already been sentenced to 20 years in prison for a 2015 armed robbery and assault in Elbert County when he fled. He was also in jail before.
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