Chief Assistant District Attorney Frank Wood believes the trial of Hunter Nicholas Hill will be the first of three this year in connection with the murder of Justin Wayne McKinney and shooting of Anna Franklin in December 2018.
Hill’s trial is set to begin March 7 in Fannin County Superior Court.
Wood said Chief Superior Court Judge Brenda Weaver has severed the three remaining defendants in the case; Hill, Stephan Blake Dickey a/k/a Dye, and Dalton Levi Manuel, meaning they will be tried separately.
All three were juveniles, 15 years old, at the time of the crime, and all three were arrested and charged as adults.
Wood explained that, because they were juveniles, the death penalty is “off the table” under Georgia law.
The three, along with Lakota Ricky Cloer, were arrested soon after the murder. Two months later, in February 2019, Kevin Jack Chamaty and Michael Chase Havard were charged in connection with the crime.
Cloer pled guilty January 31, 2019, to a three-count felony accusation that included two counts of aggravated assault and one count of criminal attempt to commit robbery by intimidation. He accepted a plea of 40 years, 15 to be served and the remaining on probation. He agreed to testify fully and truthfully against the other defendants.
Then, February 21, 2019, a Fannin County Grand Jury returned an 18-count indictment, with all five remaining suspects facing 13 counts of that indictment. Those 13 counts include one count of malice murder and home invasion in the first degree.
Havard and Chamaty entered guilty pleas to three of the counts in the indictment, two counts of aggravated assault and one count of tampering with evidence. Havard pled guilty in August 2020 and Chamaty pled guilty in October 2020.
Havard was sentenced to 20 years with two years to serve and the remainder on probation. He was also fined $5,000 and ordered to do 240 hours of community service.
Chamaty was sentenced to 20 years with four years to serve and the remainder on probation. He was fined $2,000 and ordered to do 240 hours of community service. A request to have Chamaty sentenced under first offender statutes was denied.
Havard and Chamaty were both 20 at the time of the crime.
According to Georgia Department of Correction records:
•Cloer is currently serving his sentence in the Burruss Correctional Training Center with a maximum possible release date of December 6, 2033;
•Chamaty is currently serving his sentence in Montgomery State Prison with a maximum possible release date of March 28, 2025; and,
•Havard is currently serving his sentence in the Riverbend Correctional Facility with a maximum possible release date of April 10, 2023.
Hill and Dickey are housed in the Fannin County Adult Detention Center and Manuel is jailed in Union County.
Fannin County 911 received a call at approximately 12:50 a.m., December 4, 2018, from a female reporting she and a male had been shot. When deputies arrived at the Elrod Lane location in Morganton, they found McKinney, 33, dead and Franklin suffering from a gunshot wound.