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Man sentenced to life in prison for Fort Valley murder

Dereckson Clark will have to serve 30 years before he is eligible for parole

FORT VALLEY, Ga. — Editor's Note: The video in this story is about the victim, Alton Cotton.

A Peach County jury has sentenced a man to life in prison for a 2020 killing.

According to a news release, 46-year-old Dereckson Clark was found guilty of murder Thursday. He will have to serve at least 30 years before being eligible for parole.

That charge is from a fatal shooting that happened in Feb. 2020 on Troutman Avenue. Officers got to the scene and found 57-year-old Alton Cotton with a gunshot wound to the torso.

Cotton later died at the Peach County Medical Center, and Clark turned himself in to investigators.

Cotton worked with the landscaping crew every day at the Kay Center in Fort Valley and had been a member there for several years.

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