GUILTY GA - William Whitsett, 21, found murdered, Savannah, 23 Dec 2014

Bates has a specialist rank, is a military policeman at Fort Stewart and was arrested last Monday, the Army Times reported. Kevin Da Palmer, age 23, and 20-year-old Genevieve Meeks, a graduate of a Savannah all-girls Catholic high school, were charged on Jan 17. by homicide detectives.

Click to expand...

"Wil grew up in the mountains above Marion, loving nature, people, and a challenge. He was an accomplished artist by the age of 15, carving beautiful sculptures out of wood that were exhibited throughout the area," his obituary said.

Click to expand...

Whitsett was found by AT&T workers as they were burying cable at the site near the intersection of Highway 204 and King George Boulevard in the Georgetown section of Savannah.

It's unclear how Da Palmer and Meeks knew Whitsett.

Click to expand...

Three people were indicted Wednesday on murder and related charges in the death of a North Carolina man whose body was found near Georgetown in December. Army Spc. Bradley Bates, 22, along with Kevin Da Palmer, 23, and Genevieve Elizabeth Meeks, 20, both of Savannah, shot William Whitsett to death on or about Dec. 23, the Chatham County grand jury said in returning a malice murder charge...

The grand jury also indicted the three for felony murder as parties to a crime that caused the death during commission of an aggravated assault on the victim, conspiracy to commit murder by obtaining a .22-caliber pistol, luring the victim to Bates’ apartment and shooting him.

Click to expand...

Three people pleaded not guilty on Monday to murder and related charges in the death of a North Carolina man whose body was found near Georgetown in December...

The next court appearances will be for a motions hearing on June 22 before Chatham County Superior Court Judge Timothy R. Walmsley.

Click to expand...

Attorneys calling the details of this case, “something you would see straight out of a movie.”

A Chatham County jury heard opening statements Monday afternoon in the murder trial of a 21-year-old North Carolina man whose body was found near King George Boulevard in December 2014.

Investigators say in an attempt to become more powerful and a “kingpin” in the nation’s major drug trade, Kevin Palmer shot and killed William Whitsett. The man who had come to Savannah to set up a marijuana trafficking hub in the area.

Click to expand...

Originally Palmer’s girlfriend, Genevieve Meeks, and neighbor, Bradley Bates, a military police officer, were both originally charged with murder. But investigators later dropped the murder charges when they realized Palmer was the only one responsible.

Click to expand...

A jury on Friday night convicted Kevin Palmer of felony murder and related charges in the 2014 slaying of a North Carolina man whose body was found in Georgetown.

The jury, made up of seven woman and five men, acquitted Palmer on a malice murder count.

Chatham County Superior Court Ludge Louisa Abbott said she would sentence Palmer probably next week.

“Mr. Palmer, you may now go with the sheriff,” Abbott told the defendant.

Click to expand...

Kevin Palmer on Tuesday was sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole, plus 25 years, for his convictions to murder and related charges in the slaying of a North Carolina man whose body was found in Georgetown in December 2014.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot rejected a prosecutor’s request for life without parole, citing in part the defendant’s lack of a criminal record and the possibility of rehabilitation.

The judge said she heard overwhelming evidence of guilt on the murder charge, adding “the case cried out for a lengthy sentence.”

Georgia law will require Palmer to serve 30 years of his sentence before being eligible for parole consideration. He will be given credit for time served in jail since his arrest on Dec. 24, 2014.

Click to expand...

Meeks has pleaded guilty to drug charges in the case and testified against Palmer. She will be sentenced later.

A third defendant, former Army Spec. Bradley Bates, 24, faces charges of drug possession, false statements to police and tampering with evidence after prosecutors dismissed the murder, aggravated assault charges.

Click to expand...

A judge has sentenced a former Army specialist to time served on a charge that he lied to a Savannah-Chatham police detective during the investigation into the 2014 slaying of a North Carolina man whose body was found in Georgetown.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot imposed the 260-day jail sentence on Friday for Bradley Bates, the final defendant in the Dec. 24, 2015, slaying of William Whitsett, 21, of Spruce Pine, N.C. Bates has been free on bond as his motions proceeded.

Click to expand...

A second co-defendant, Genevieve Elizabeth Meeks, 20, pleaded open-ended in February to drug charges without any agreement on sentence. She was sentenced to five years on probation under the First Offender Act, which would allow her to have a clean record if she completes probation without incident.

Prosecutors dismissed the murder and aggravated assault charges against both Meeks and Bates, leaving only several drug charges against her.

Click to expand...

Bates, 24, still faced charges of tampering with evidence by destroying a possible blood stain on the carpet in his apartment across the hall from Palmer and Meeks, making a false statement to investigators about a cell phone, and conspiring to commit possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

At the end of a bench trial Aug. 10, Abbot granted the defense motions for a directed judgment of acquittal because of insufficient state evidence.

Click to expand...