LILBURN MAN CONVICTED FOR MURDER AFTER DISAGREEMENT OVER INSURANCE FRAUD PROFITS

Friday, August 9, 2024

State v. Norman Uriah Simmonds, Jr.

Decatur, Ga.- DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announces a conviction by jury trial in the case against a Lilburn man accused of shooting and killing a man who had helped him commit insurance fraud.

On Thursday, August 8, jurors found Norman Uriah Simmonds, Jr., 45, guilty on charges of Malice Murder, two counts of Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon stemming from the murder of Tyrese Washington, 24, on August 31, 2019.

According to the investigation, an off-duty Douglasville Police Department officer heard multiple gunshots in an apartment complex located in the 1000 block of Ashley Creek Circle in Stone Mountain. The officer walked toward the sound. A witness flagged him down and led the officer to the back of one of the apartment buildings. The officer found Washington lying face down with a gunshot wound to the head.

Police later learned Washington had told a friend that he was going to the apartment complex that night because someone there owed him some money. Through phone records investigators discovered Washington got multiple calls and texts from the same phone number in the minutes before the shooting.

During the investigation, a special agent from the Georgia Office of the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner notified the DeKalb County Police Department that he had been working on a case in which Washington and others had staged an accident with a U-Haul truck in Clarkston. As part of the investigation into that incident, Washington confessed to being involved in insurance fraud. Washington told investigators that Defendant Simmonds had set up the fake accident and had promised Washington $1,000 for his part in the scheme, which Simmonds never paid.

A search warrant revealed the phone number that had repeatedly called Washington before the shooting belonged to someone named Anthony Jones, which investigators discovered was likely an alias for Defendant Simmonds. Records showed that "Jones" and Simmonds had the same birthdate and the same home address.

Location data from the phone placed it at Defendant Simmonds' home, then at the crime scene during the time of the murder, and finally back at his home.

Today Senior Judge Daniel Coursey, who presided over the trial sitting for the DeKalb County Superior Court, sentenced Defendant Simmonds to Life without the Possibility of Parole plus five years.

The case, assigned to the Homicide and Gangs Unit, was prosecuted by Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney Josh Geller with assistance from Assistant District Attorney Ellie Harris, and District Attorney Investigator John Wilbanks. DeKalb County Police Department Det. Evans led the initial investigation.