With negro friends like these....
Work Work Work
=================================================================
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/0803/23beating.html
8 charged in fatal beating of 'friend'
By DAVID SIMPSON
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Police say Kareem Cowan knew the people who killed him -- they were the same
group of teens and twentysomethings he had known for years and who hung out
with him in his south DeKalb County neighborhood.
Now eight people are accused of killing Cowan, 20. Most lived within a
quarter-mile of Cowan's house on Glendale Court.
Six of the murder defendants, along with a woman accused of concealing
Cowan's death, sat handcuffed together before a magistrate court judge
Friday night. About 20 spectators sat in the rear of the courtroom, some in
tears.
The brief hearing shed no light on what happened to Cowan, and the
spectators left quickly without speaking to reporters.
Cowan's body was found Wednesday in woods near Columbia Elementary School,
not far from his home north of I-20 between Columbia Drive and Candler Road.
He was beaten to death Sunday, according to the charges. Police believe
Cowan was kicked, punched and struck with an object after a dispute over "a
female."
Police, relatives and neighbors agree the suspects were well acquainted with
Cowan. It is not clear how much time Cowan spent with them, but the group
had close bonds among themselves. Three are from the same family, two dated,
two were especially good friends.
But no one was offering an explanation of why they could have turned so
savagely on Cowan, as police charge.
On Glendale Court, friends and relatives filed in solemnly Friday to console
Cowan's family. None wanted to talk about the murder or the victim. The
family has declined interviews.
The Cowan home is among a line of well-kept brick ranch houses. On a
cul-de-sac further down the street, there are some boarded-up windows and
tall weeds.
Sheena Rayford, the 18-year-old sister of suspect Joseph Rayford, said her
brother lived with Lashundra Shenae Carr and two of the other suspects at
the Carr home three doors from Cowan's home. Joseph Rayford also was close
friends with suspect Thomas Geter, Sheena Rayford said.
Cowan was on good terms with the group, she said, but she believes some
trouble arose with the recent arrival of a new girl in the neighborhood.
Someone made a comment concerning the girl, she believes.
"I don't know who got heated and who got mad," she said.
Those charged with murder and being held without bond are Rayford, 23;
Geter, 22; Robert Carlos Jackson, 26;
Unree Carr, 21; Lashundra Shenae Carr, 22; Desmond Carr, 17; and a
14-year-old girl whose name was not released because of her age. An
additional unidentified murder suspect had not been arrested Friday.
Linda Bentford, 27, of Atlanta was charged with concealing a death,
allegedly because she helped transport Cowan's body. Her bond was set at
$10,000.
A preliminary hearing in the case was set for Oct. 28.
Geter has served time in prison for aggravated assault. He was accused of
assaulting and threatening to kill his girlfriend and a friend of hers in an
August 2000 altercation in which he fired shots into the air and the floor.
He was sentenced in May 2001 to two years in prison, followed by eight years
on probation.
-- Staff writer Jen Sansbury contributed to this article.