AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – An Augusta man has been sentenced to life in prison following a murder conviction in a 2022 altercation outside a local gas station.
On Friday, 62-year-old Donald Gross was found Guilty of Malice Murder in the death of 48-year-old Samuel Dewayne Jackson, and sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole, plus 5 years for Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Crime.
On August 21, 2022, Gross went to the Circle K on Tobacco Road to obtain signatures for a recall petition.
The District Attorney’s Office states that Gross then got into a verbal altercation with Jackson. Gross then retrieved a 12-gauge shotgun and shot Jackson in the upper torso.
Gross was arrested at the scene.
Investigators say that the shot trajectory showed that Jackson was turning away when he was shot.
According to the District Attorney’s Office, Gross called 911 before the murder, stating the victim was ‘threatening to kill him’. But, the jury saw no evidence of this, finding that Gross was the primary aggressor in the altercation.
Jackson was unarmed at the time of the shooting.
