MACON, Ga. — A Macon man will spend the rest of his life in prison after murdering a 16-year-old walking to school in 2017.
According to a news release, jury selection was held Monday for the trial of Wesley Holt, 21. By Tuesday, Holt pleaded guilty to malice murder after the first witness testified.
Here’s what prosecutors were ready to present to jurors:
Jayvon Sherman was walking on Beech Avenue to get to Central High School when he was murdered on Oct. 19, 2017.
Just before he was killed, another student was walking along the same route when Holt came up on a bicycle and pointed a gun at his head. That student was wearing a shirt with a hood over his head.
After Holt came up to him, he took the hood off and Holt recognized him as a childhood friend.
Holt apologized and the student kept walking. The student testified that after he started walking again, he heard several gunshots behind him and saw that Sherman was shot.
He was scared and kept walking, and he later took a phone call from Holt who told him not to say anything.
Deputies later went to Holt’s home and found a shell casing that matched those at Beech Avenue. They also found the gun described by an eyewitness. He was charged on Halloween 2017.
In 2018, investigators wiretapped inmates’ conversations on illegal cellphones, and one of them was with an inmate named Wes who talked about not wanting the witness to testify.
Plans were made with other gang members to intimidate the student from testifying. The student testified he was contacted less than two weeks before the trial began by Holt’s brother, who asked him not to testify.
He did anyway.
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