MACON, Ga. — Cotina Fuller was shot and killed by her husband Wayne Fuller in Macon, the Macon District Attorney's Office says. But her death on Friday came during an ongoing criminal case against Wayne Fuller over a case of domestic violence.
According to a petition for a temporary restraining order, Wayne was accused of punching Cotina in April and he told his wife: "Someone gonna die but it not gonna be me." The T.P.O. was granted by a judge just under a month later.
Four months after that dispute, Cotina Fuller was found shot to death at a gas station on Riverside Drive in Macon. Her husband would later kill himself during a chase with law enforcement, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office says.
The death of Cotina Fuller reflects the "preventable" nature of domestic violence homicides, Macon District Attorney Anita Howard said in a press conference on Monday.
"As you can see, throughout this timeline, there were multiple opportunities for intervention," Howard said.
Throughout the case, Howard said that her office had tried to keep Wayne Fuller off the street. After Wayne Fuller violated the protective order, her office charged him with aggravated stalking, Howard said.
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But even though Cotina Fuller asked them to drop the case, they declined.
"The district attorney's office refused," Howard said. "We believed that Wayne Fuller posed a danger, not only to Cotina Fuller, but to the community."
Then, the District Attorney's Office said they opposed bond when Wayne Fuller went before a judge, but he received a bond.
"Oftentimes, I've been asked over my career as a prosecutor, why do we pursue cases where victims no longer want to prosecute," Howard said. "The 'why' for me and my assistants will be Cotina Fuller and how she was tragically taken from us."
The temporary protective order against Wayne Fuller was dismissed after Cotina Fuller requested it be thrown out.
After she filed for the request, the court filings show that the TPO was dismissed on June 26 without prejudice, meaning that she could file again.
"I Cotina Fuller would like to drop the protective order against my husband Wayne A Fuller. I do not feel like my life would be in any danger," she wrote on June 13.
In under two months, Cotina was shot to death.
"Domestic violence is not a private matter," Howard said. "It's a community crisis, and it requires community-wide awareness and action."
To Howard, Cotina Fuller's death reflects the cycle of domestic abuse.
"The cycle of tension building, violence, reconciliation, calm," Howard explained. "We must always be talking about that cycle and understand that victims struggle having their loved ones tied up in the criminal justice system because they have emotions."
For the criminal justice system, Howard says it demonstrates the importance of weighing the risks in a way that victims sometimes cannot do on their own.
"We must take every threat seriously, even when victims themselves may downplay the danger," Howard said. "This touches every part of our community."
Howard says she wants more education for people in the criminal justice system who work with victims of abuse so that they can better recognize the signs of the "cycle of domestic abuse."