Three Augusta men will spend life in prison without the possibility of parole after Thursday convictions for murder in the 2020 death of a Popeye’s worker.
A Richmond County jury deliberated just a few hours before finding Kenneth Green Jr. guilty of malice murder and Kendrick Green and Tor’jae Tanksley guilty of felony murder in the March 10, 2020, slaying of Donnell Graham, 27.
Prosecutors said Graham and Green Jr. each had had a child with the same woman. Green Jr. had been released from prison a few months earlier and recruited Kendrick Green, 15, and Tanksley, 16, from Olmstead Homes to kill Graham as he got off from work.
Superior Court Judge Ashley Wright sentenced all three to life without parole plus five years for possession of a gun during the crime.
She gave Green Jr. – no relation to Kendrick Green – another 10 years for being a convicted felon in possession of a gun.
“In a case like this, everyone has already agreed that nobody wins because you can’t win. There has been complete and utter disregard for the value and sanctity of life,” Wright said after the verdicts were read.
“Shooting an unarmed man in the back four times can only be described as evil,” she said.
Since their arrests, Kendrick Green and Tanksley have contributed to the “chaos” in the Charles Webster Detention Center, Wright said.
At the overcrowded facility, each has been charged at least seven times for incidents such as arson, riot behavior, aggravated assault and weapons possession, Assistant District Attorney William Hammond told the court.
After the three-day trial, Hammond asked the court to impose the maximum sentences.
Graham’s daughter will grow up knowing “her brother’s father killed her father,” he said.
Augusta Circuit District Attorney Jared Williams said he’s continuing to spend time with area youth to try to break the cycle of gun violence.
“I spent Wednesday morning at a school talking to kids, so that none of them ends up making the type of decision that cost four people their lives in this case,” Williams said.
Prior to the sentencing, Graham’s father Pernell Graham told the court despite his own serious health problems he promised his granddaughter he’ll be there for her.
Donnell was “my baby boy” and a “man with pride” who was caring for his daughter, he said.
Attorney for Kendrick Green, Khary Talley, said many inmates at Webster believe they must stay armed with shanks to avoid being stabbed.
Originally from Florida, Green lacked access to mental health care at the jail, Talley said.
Tanksley had no criminal history prior to Graham’s death, his attorney Tianna Bias said. Her client had no incidents at the jail during his first two years there, she said.
Prosecutors said Green Jr. was 29 years old when he hatched a scheme to stake out and kill Graham as he got off work at Popeye’s.
As Graham drove behind an adjacent Pizza Hut, the two younger defendants shot him in the back four times, Hammond and ADA Keagan Waystack said.
Ashley L. Jones, who was 29 at the time of the crime, also faces murder charges for allegedly driving Green Jr. to pick up the other defendants at Olmstead and take them to the Popeye’s at Daniel Village.
Jones, whose trial is at a later date, denied knowing the plan was to kill Graham. She and Green Jr. had gotten intimate, although he lived with the woman with whom Graham had a child, she said.
Green Jr. asked her to take him to Olmstead to “pick up the boys” to “make a play” of some sort, Jones testified.
The younger men called Green Jr. “Big Homie,” she said.
In days prior, Jones said she overheard Green Jr. telling Graham he was going to kill him.
On the night of the killing, Jones said she and Green Jr. dropped the younger men near Popeye’s then drove to a nearby Circle K for her to smoke a joint.
Jones said she later drove Green Jr. to toss a bag of clothes in a sewer and a gun at Phinizy Swamp.
When police arrived at her house three days after the incident, Jones said Green Jr. pulled up a news article on her phone about the homicide and said he’d “off’d” Graham.
