By Patti Dozier
May 08, 2008 08:48 pm
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THOMASVILLE — The death penalty will be sought in a 2007 double homicide in which a man is charged with killing his wife and teenage stepson.
J. David Miller, Southern Judicial Circuit district attorney, made the announcement Thursday afternoon.
A new indictment was returned Thursday on the suspect, Timothy Lamar James, 36.
The body of James’ wife, Tammy James, was found in April 2007, on the front lawn of the family’s Glem Drive Home. The body of Jamayias Wyche, 16, was inside.
The boy, a Thomas County Central High School ninth grader, was shot multiple times inside the mobile home. His mother also was shot several times. The fatal shot to Ms. James was fired in the yard, according to Thomas County Sheriff’s Office investigators.
Other children at home at the time witnessed the killings.
James fled after the killings. His vehicle was found the next day on Reichertville Road farm where he was employed.
The suspect was captured in Jacksonville, Fla., several days later after an exhaustive manhunt.
James was indicted earlier on two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, six counts of aggravated assault, five counts of cruelty to children, two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
James was indicted this week on two additional counts of statutory aggravated circumstances.
Miller said a jury must find a defendant guilty of statutory aggravated circumstances to impose the death penalty.
“It’s not currently required by law to do that,” Miller explained. “ ... We’re being particularly cautious of how the law could change in the future.”
Miller will file a notice of intent to seek the death penalty in Thomas County Superior Court, with the Georgia Supreme Court and with Judge Arthur McLane, chief judge of the Southern circuit.
Chief judges assign judges in death penalty cases.
James declared indigence and will be represented by state death penalty lawyers.
In the most recent Thomas County death penalty case, the defendant, Charles Singletary Jr., entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Singletary was charged with cutting the throat of and beating an elderly woman as she called for help. Her cries and begging of Singletary to stop the attack were recorded on an answering machine.
The woman, a Sanford Heights resident, died three months after the March 2004 attack.
The death penalty was sought in a 1991 death in which the victim’s charred headless corpse was found in McIntosh County woods. The homicide took place in Thomas County.
Victim Jenny Rhames’ ex-common law husband, Mickey Griffin, was found guilty of the killing in a 1999 trial. The jury did not recommend death. Griffin was sentenced to life in prison.
Ray Jefferson Cromartie, convicted in 1997 of killing a Thomasville convenience store clerk during an armed robbery, is on Georgia’s death row.
Cromartie also was convicted of shooting a second convenience store clerk, who survived.
Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 220.
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