Aeman Presley

Last updated
Aeman Lovel Presley
Born1980 (age 4344)
Conviction(s) Murder (4 counts)
Criminal penalty Life imprisonment without parole
Details
Victims4
Span of crimes
September December 2014
CountryUnited States
State(s) Georgia
Date apprehended
For the final time on December 11, 2014
Imprisoned at Telfair State Prison

Aeman Lovel Presley (born 1980) is an American serial killer who killed four people over four months in 2014, in Georgia's DeKalb and Fulton Counties. Presley fully admitted his guilt, and as a result of a plea agreement, he was given several terms of life imprisonment without parole. [1]

Contents

Biography

Aeman Presley was born in 1980, in Chicago, Illinois. [2] Soon after his birth, his father abandoned the family. In 1992, he joined a gang associated with the Folk Nation and began committing small-time offenses. In order to change this unhealthy lifestyle, Presley and his mother left Chicago in 1995, moving to Stone Mountain, Georgia, a small town with a population of about 6,000. There, Aeman attended the local Stone Mountain High School. In December 1995, as part of a journalistic investigation into the life of juvenile delinquents in the state, Presley, along with several other teens, gave an interview to the TimesDaily, describing his experience as a former gang member. [3] [4]

After graduating high school, he joined the Georgia National Guard, but was fired in the early 2000s, returning to his mother's home in Stone Mountain, where he worked low-skilled labour-intensive jobs. Presley began to exhibit antisocial and violent behavior, developing a drug addiction as well. In December 2002, he was fired from Carmike Cinemas after repeatedly threatening visitors and co-workers alike. In the immediate aftermath, he threatened to kill his former supervisor, who called the police. Aeman was arrested, but avoided prison time, and was instead given a fine and compulsory anger management courses, which he attended for the next several months.

On April 19, 2003, Presley was arrested on charges of assault after beating his mother, heavily resisting the officers and attempting to break the police car's windows while being transported to the station. He was found guilty, but some of the charges were dropped, as his mother came to an agreement with him, with Aeman apologising for his actions. He received a minor sentence, and after his release, he returned to his mother's house. In March 2006, he was rearrested for indecent behavior, and in April of that year, he was convicted and sentenced to several months imprisonment, which he served in the county jail. Released at the end of 2006, he moved to Atlanta, where he met representatives in show business. Thanks to their support, he got a job at an Atlanta TV station, and for the next four years, he worked as an extra in TV shows and news reports. Between 2008 and 2009, he performed supporting roles in the low-budget short films "Exit" and "The Rules", after which he decided he wanted to become a professional actor. [4] [5] [6]

In 2010, Presley left Georgia and moved to Los Angeles, where he rented an apartment and enrolled in the Margie Haber Studio, an acting school based in Beverly Hills. However, his film career did not work out. Despite his previous experience, his acting abilities were considered unconvincing. Over the next three years, he was forced to act as a simple extra during the filmings of various films, unable to pass a single casting to get a role in serious film projects. He spent most of his time at home, drinking alcohol and using drugs. In May 2014, he was detained by the Los Angeles police on charges of illegal drug possession, but was released a day later, due to the lack of a judicial arrest warrant. After an arrest warrant was issued and his apartment searched, Presley left Los Angeles and returned to Atlanta. [7] [8] [4] [9]

Serial murders

Taurus Raging Judge, the weapon used in the murders Taurus Raging Bull.png
Taurus Raging Judge, the weapon used in the murders

After returning to Atlanta, Presley took odd jobs and lived in a homeless shelter. In August, he stole a five-round Taurus Raging Judge revolver from a car, with which he decided to commit robberies. On September 26, he boarded a bus and travelled to DeKalb County, where he came across 53-year-old Calvin Gholston, whom he shot three times. The victim had schizophrenia and dromomania. [10]

On November 23, Presley shot 42-year-old vagrant Dorian Jenkins three times in the chest. Three days later, he shot and killed 68-year-old Tommy Mims, who was sleeping under a railway bridge. After killing Mims, Presley searched for another victim, but instead returned to the crime scene, deciding to fire two additional shots in the dead man's head. [11] [12]

On the night of December 6, Presley travelled to Decatur. In the following early morning, he noticed 44-year-old Karen Pearce heading towards her car. He went up to her and threatened to shoot her with his revolver. Pearce gave up all her valuables, but nevertheless, Presley shot her, killing her instantly. [13] [14]

Arrest

Aeman Presley was arrested on December 11, while trying to pass the underground turnstile without a ticket. He was searched by the officers, who found a bank card, the revolver and a bag of 32 rounds among his personal belongings. He was charged with illegal weapons possession, and taken to the local police station. [15] After a forensic ballistic examination confirmed that the four victims had been killed with the exact gun that he was carrying, Aeman began cooperating with the investigators, confessing to all the murders. [16]

Trial

In September 2015, Presley's trial began at the DeKalb County District Court for the murders of Galston and Pearce. [17] As the result of a plea bargain, he was spared the death penalty and sentenced to two life imprisonment terms without parole in June 2016. After the verdict was announced, Aeman declared to be remorseful for what he had done, and asked the victims' relatives for forgiveness. [18] Following his conviction, in January 2017, Presley stood trial in Fulton County for the murders of Jenkins and Mims. He pleaded guilty to both murders, claiming that after he had killed the first victim, he got addicted to murder, but also declared that he shouldn't be subjected to criminal liability due to his insanity. [19]

In media

An Investigation Discovery show Signs of a Psychopath (season 4) made an episode about the case. [20]

Season 17 Episode 3 (title Blood Lust)of A&E's show The First 48 depicts the investigation into the deaths of 2 of his victims.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Williams</span> American murderer and serial killer

Wayne Bertram Williams is an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who is serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killings of two men in Atlanta, Georgia. Although never tried for the additional murders, he is also believed to be responsible for at least 24 of the 30 Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, also known as the Atlanta Child Murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlanta murders of 1979–1981</span> Series of at least 28 murders, mostly of children, in Atlanta, Georgia

The Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, sometimes called the Atlanta child murders, are a series of murders committed in Atlanta, Georgia, between July 1979 and May 1981. Over the two-year period, at least 28 children, adolescents, and adults were killed. Wayne Williams, an Atlanta native who was 23 years old at the time of the last murder, was arrested, tried, and convicted of two of the adult murders and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlton Gary</span> American serial killer

Carlton Michael Gary was an American serial killer who murdered three elderly women in Columbus, Georgia, and one in Syracuse, New York, between 1975 and 1978, though he is suspected of at least four more killings. Gary was arrested in December 1978 for an armed robbery and sentenced to 21 years in prison. He escaped from custody in 1983 and was caught a year later. Evidence was found linking him to the earlier murders and he was convicted and sentenced to death in August 1986. He was executed by lethal injection on March 15, 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Mendenhall</span> American serial killer

Bruce D. Mendenhall is a convicted American murderer and serial killer. He was arrested in Tennessee in July 2007 and found guilty in 2010 of the June 26, 2007 murder of Sara Hulbert, whose body was found by the security guard on duty that night. A long haul trucker, Mendenhall's truck was found to contain the blood of numerous other murdered or missing women. He has been charged with the murders of three other women at truck stops in Alabama, Indiana and Tennessee. He is still under investigation for murders in Georgia, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The Nighttime Killers is the media epithet for the killers responsible for a string of brutal murders in Kyiv, Ukraine, between 1991 and 1996. Two men, Vladyslav Volkovich and Volodymyr Kondratenko were arrested and charged with 16 murders. Most victims were shot with a .22 sporting rifle and stabbed or bludgeoned with a wide variety of weapons ranging from stitching awls to bricks and iron bars. The killers claimed that they began the murder spree in order to prepare themselves for an eventual career as contract killers, practicing on the homeless, and continued killing for profit and for fun. Kondratenko killed himself in prison during the trial. Volkovich was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Ray Bowles</span> American serial killer (1962–2019)

Gary Ray Bowles was an American serial killer who was executed in 2019 for the murders of six men in 1994. He is sometimes referred to as The I-95 Killer since most of his victims lived close to the Interstate 95 highway.

Telfair State Prison is a Georgia Department of Corrections state prison for men located on 210 Long Bridge Road, Helena, Telfair County, Georgia, United States. The facility opened in 1992 and currently has a capacity of 1420 prisoners.

Amir Qayyum was a Pakistani serial killer who killed 14 homeless men in Lahore, Pakistan.

Tiago Henrique Gomes da Rocha is a Brazilian former security guard and serial killer who has claimed to have killed 39 people. He approached his victims on a motorbike and shouted "robbery" before shooting them. However, he never took anything. He targeted homeless people, women and homosexuals in Goiás. Sixteen of his victims were female, with the youngest being a 14-year-old girl whom he killed in January 2014.

The shooting of Anthony Hill, a U.S. Air Force veteran, occurred on March 9, 2015, in Chamblee, Georgia, near Atlanta. Hill, fatally shot by police officer Robert Olsen, suffered from mental illness and was naked and unarmed at the time of the incident. The incident was covered in local and national press and sparked the involvement of Black Lives Matter and other advocacy groups who demonstrated their anger at the shooting. In January 2016, a grand jury indicted officer Olsen on two counts of felony murder and one count of aggravated assault. Nearing the fourth anniversary of the homicide, it was decided that Olsen's trial would be rescheduled for September 23, 2019, with delays including three successive judges having recused themselves in the case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howell Emanuel Donaldson III</span> Serial killer

Howell Emanuel "Trai" Donaldson III is a serial killer who was convicted of the 2017 murders of three men and one woman around the Seminole Heights neighborhood of Tampa, Florida. All four victims were shot dead seemingly at random. Prior to his arrest, the media called the killer the Seminole Heights serial killer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Little</span> American serial killer (1940–2020)

Samuel Little was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 93 people, nearly all women, between 1970 and 2005. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has confirmed Little's involvement in at least 60 of the 93 confessed murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in United States history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Player</span> American serial killer

Michael Player was an American serial killer who committed a total of ten murders in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Skid Row, earning him the nickname The Skid Row Slayer. Since the mid-1970s, it was the third case of a serial killer who operated in the area.

Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace is an American serial killer and burglar. Between 1988 and 1989, he robbed and killed elderly women primarily in Atlanta's Vine City neighborhood. Among his burglary victims was Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow. Pace was convicted of four murders, but was not tried for a fifth, and was sentenced to death for his crimes.

David Bullock, known as The .38 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who killed at least six people in New York City between December 1981 and January 1982. Owing to his unassuming appearance and character, his killing spree was undetected by local police for some time, who were unaware that a serial murderer was operating in the area.

The castration serial murders were a series of murders of young men committed in between two and at least five American states between August 1980 and November 1986. All the victims were kidnapped, shot in the back of the head and castrated post-mortem, from which the case got its namesake. They were initially considered unrelated due to the crime scenes' geographic remoteness until 1989, when forensic evidence concluded that two of the victims had been killed with the same revolver, with the other three likely being related as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Lee Duffy</span> Convicted American serial killer

Charles Lee Duffy is an American serial killer and rapist who murdered three women in the Atlanta metropolitan area over several months in 1997. Within days of the final murder, Duffy was turned in by his mother, who had recognized him after surveillance images of the killer were broadcast. He subsequently pled guilty and received two life sentences without parole.

The Stockton serial shootings were a series of fatal shootings that occurred in Stockton and Oakland, California, between April 2021 and September 2022. The shootings have been linked together by ballistic tests, but police have not revealed if the same gun was used in every shooting. On October 15, 2022, a Stockton man, Wesley Brownlee, was arrested in connection to the shootings. On December 27, Brownlee was charged with an additional five charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Patton</span> American serial killer

Carl Millard Patton Jr. is an American serial killer who committed five murders across Georgia from 1973 to 1977 with multiple accomplices. Via DNA testing in 2003, he was arrested for the murders, subsequently pleading guilty and given a life sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Walraven</span> American murderer

James Samuel Walraven, known as the Bathtub Strangler, was an American murderer and suspected serial killer who murdered Gisele Clardy and was the prime suspect in two similar murders of women in their apartments in Georgia in 1981. He was convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair, which was later commuted to a life sentence.

References

  1. "Man admits killing 2 homeless men as they slept outside". www.cbsnews.com. 23 January 2017.
  2. "PRESLEY, AEMAN LOVEL Inmate 0001140808: Georgia Prisons (DOC)". Archived from the original on 2021-02-03. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  3. "Times Daily - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  4. 1 2 3 Boone, Christian; Journal-Constitution, The Atlanta. "Alleged serial killer's life a deep well of rage". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  5. "Aeman Presley". IMDb.
  6. "Suspected serial killer had Rockdale history". www.covnews.com.
  7. Boone, Christian; Journal-Constitution, The Atlanta. "Suspected serial killer possibly linked to fourth murder". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  8. "Truth Behind HipHop: Man blames his murdering spree on violent rap lyrics". Archived from the original on 2020-08-22. Retrieved 2020-09-13.
  9. "Homeless slayings suspect accused of 4th killing". December 16, 2014.
  10. "Man's family makes emotional plea after brutal shooting death". WSBTV. 21 October 2014.
  11. ""Bloodlust" drove Ga. man who killed four, police say". www.cbsnews.com. 21 April 2015.
  12. Stevens, Alexis; Journal-Constitution, The Atlanta. "Twist of fate for suspect in multiple metro Atlanta killings". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  13. "Woman found dead in Decatur. December 8, 2014".[ permanent dead link ]
  14. "Suspect in murder of Kinston native accused of 4th killing". WCTI. Associated Press. December 16, 2014.
  15. "Atlanta police link fourth killing to suspect arrested in train station". The Guardian. Associated Press. December 16, 2014 via www.theguardian.com.
  16. "Suspected serial killer allegedly confessed to Decatur murder". December 15, 2014.
  17. "Accused serial killer Aeman Presley appears in court". www.11alive.com.
  18. "Man accused of multiple murders sentenced to two life sentences". FOX 5 Atlanta. June 14, 2016.
  19. "Convicted murderer says he was helping homeless man by killing him". WFXT. 21 January 2017.
  20. Signs of a Psychopath: Season 4, Episode 7 , retrieved 2022-03-14