DECATUR MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE PLUS 85 YEARS AFTER SHOOTING INTO MINIVAN, KILLING MAN, INJURING BABY

Monday, August 5, 2024

State v. Deonta David

Decatur, Ga.- DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announces a conviction by jury trial in the case against a Decatur man accused of firing into a minivan full of people, killing a man and permanently injuring a baby.

On Thursday, August 1, jurors found Deonta David, 28, guilty on charges of Malice Murder, Felony Murder, five counts of Aggravated Assault, two counts of Cruelty to Children in the First Degree, Aggravated Battery and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony stemming from the shooting on August 20, 2020.

According to the investigation, officers with the DeKalb County Police Department responded at around 7 p.m. to an address in the 2800 block of Flat Shoals Road after a 911 call reporting multiple people had been shot in a minivan. Officers found Diante Harring, 25, unresponsive inside the van. They also found a 10-year-old boy who had been shot in the abdomen, a 7-month-old boy who had been shot in the foot, and Harring's adult brother, Clifton Vickers, who had been shot in the arm. The children's mother was the only one inside the van who was not hurt.

Paramedics transported the victims to the hospital where Harring was pronounced dead. While Vickers and the 10-year-old made a full recovery, the baby permanently lost a toe.

Investigators learned that Harring and the rest of the people in the van were visiting Atlanta from New York. Harring had arranged to meet up with Defendant David to buy some marijuana, which he and the Defendant had done before. After some back and forth, Defendant David told them to drive to an apartment complex on Columbia Drive.

When they arrived, Defendant David opened fire on the van with an AR-15 rifle. Another unknown person with David also shot into the vehicle with a handgun. Harring drove out of the complex to escape the gunfire. At one point, Harring was no longer able to drive safely and Vickers took the wheel before they finally stopped on Flat Shoals Road, a little more than three miles from the shooting scene.

Once he recovered from his injuries, Vickers was able to identify Defendant David out of a lineup. Cell phone data also placed the Defendant in the area of the shooting when it happened. Text messages on Defendant David's phone show he was the last person to communicate with Harring in the minutes before his death.

Immediately following the guilty verdicts, Senior Judge Winston Bethel, who presided over the trial sitting for the DeKalb County Superior Court, sentenced Defendant David to Life plus 85 years.

The case, assigned to the Homicide and Gangs Unit, was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Helen Pott with assistance from Senior Assistant District Attorney Reid White, District Attorney Investigator Curtis Averhart and Victim Advocate Kaysha Albritton. Former DeKalb County Police Department Det. J.B. Williams, who is now a District Attorney Investigator, led the initial investigation.