Patti Dozier
August 11, 2008 08:49 pm
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THOMASVILLE — Pointing out that one of the victims in a 2007 double murder was the mother of several children, Judge James E. “Jim” Hardy sentenced Timothy Lamar James to four consecutive prison terms that include two life stints plus four decades.
The other victim was a 16-year-old boy.
James entered guilty pleas in Thomas County Superior Court Monday to two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
James murdered his wife, Tammi James, 36, and his stepson, Jamayas Wyche, at the family home on Glem Drive in April 2007. He struck his wife on the head with a .22-caliber rifle after shooting her several times. She died on the front lawn of the family home.
Five children witnessed the murders. Two of the surviving children also were struck with the rifle.
James, 39, will be eligible to be considered for parole in 60 years, when he is 99. He must serve 30 years of each consecutive life term. He was sentenced to 20 years consecutive on each of the aggravated assault convictions.
“This is a real tragedy,” Hardy told James before pronouncing sentence. “ ... These children will never forget this until the day they die.”
The murders have had an impact on his own family as well, Hardy told James.
A member of the dead woman’s large family is satisfied with the sentence.
“I’m totally satisfied with that sentence,” Sylvia Holmes said outside the courtroom after the sentence was handed down. “He deserves every day of it.”
“It’s closure for us. We can finally go on. The healing process can definitely begin. It’s over for us,” Holmes, Tammi James’ sister, added.
Security was tight in the Thomas County Superior Court Jail-Justice Center courtroom. More than a dozen law enforcement officers stood along courtroom walls.
Before the sentencing procedure began, Charles Haire, a courtroom security deputy, told the audience there would be no “commotion” among spectators. Anyone who violated the order would be arrested and taken to jail, Haire said.
Upon entering the courtroom, Hardy requested proper decorum. “If I have any outburst from anybody, I’ll ask you to leave the courtroom,” Hardy said.
After entering guilty pleas to four counts, James asked to speak privately with his attorney, H. Burton Baker, Cordele Judicial Circuit public defender. The two left the courtroom, followed by deputies, and went into a jail area off the courtroom.
When they returned, James waved at courtroom spectators, and the proceeding continued.
Jim Prine, Thomasville-based Southern Judicial Circuit assistant district attorney, said Tammi James and her children had gone to the family home to retrieve personal items. They found locks changed and the back door nailed shut.
The defendant was called. He arrived and opened the house.
James entered the house with a .22-caliber rifle and shot James in the presence of the children when she tried to block the room where she and the children took refuge.
Prine said James shot through a door, and projectiles struck his wife several times. He then struck her on the head with the firearm.
“He also assaulted two of the children with the weapon,” Prine told the court.
James told the judge he understood his rights, which Hardy read to him in the courtroom. He signed the indictment against him, signifying his guilty pleas.
James declined to speak when Hardy asked if he had anything to say.
Baker said James wanted to express “his deep sorrow,” and he could not provide an answer to why he committed the acts, other than he could no longer cope.
“He snapped, and there’s a price to pay for his actions, and he knows that,” Baker told the judge. “ ... He went outside of his natural self.”
“ ... There is some good in this man, your honor,” Baker said, adding that James apologizes to the victims’ family and to the community.
Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 220.
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