District Attorney Jared T. Williams announced a guilty verdict in a domestic violence murder case.
Kelli Lewis Watkins-Neal, 37, had moved closer to her mother, the longtime victim of domestic violence by defendant George James Wilson, the DA said.
As her mother regained strength and spoke of leaving Wilson, 76, he told her she had to choose between him or her stepdaughter.
“Is this what you want,” demanded Wilson, stabbing Watkins-Neal three times in front of her mother Dec. 11, 2021, prosecutors said.
Wilson was a felon who beat his wife frequently, breaking her arm and leg and shooting her in the leg over the years, they said.
A Richmond County jury found him guilty Wednesday of malice murder, felony murder and possession of a knife during the commission of a felony.
The case was tried by Augusta Circuit ADA Sarah Elizabeth Strickland, assisted by ADA Randi Guillory, investigators Billy Kitchens and Samuel Long, Victim Advocate Courtney Menard, and Legal Assistant Patsy Smith.
“He betrayed her,” ADA Strickland said of the defendant and his wife. “As if the years of violence were not enough, he betrayed her even more by murdering her daughter.”
Chief Richmond County Superior Court Judge Daniel Craig sentenced Wilson to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus five years for possessing the knife.
“There are no women to beat where he’s going,” Williams said after the verdict.
