Jamal Adams
A man who was living in East Lake in 2023 on Monday told of the last words of his close friend, who was gunned down while sitting in a vehicle that he was helping work on.
James Venable said all that Matthew "Cecil" Overby could get out was, "I didn't. . ." before he slumped over dead.
He said the man with the gun said, "Are you taking the rap for that?" and said, "You'll pay for this, (expletive)." The witness said the man with the gun also said, "I told you, (expletive)."
Jamal Adams is facing a murder charge in the Feb. 1, 2023, slaying. The state is asking for a sentence of life in prison without parole.
At the evidentiary hearing before Criminal Court Judge Barry Steelman, Venable said he had known Overby about two years. He said, "He was a good friend. . . a good-hearted fellow. You couldn't find a better person to be around."
The witness said Overby "was always happy go lucky. He was fun to be around. He never let on that he had any problems."
However, he said Overby once told him of a run-in while he was working maintenance at the Budgetel Hotel in East Ridge. He said he had been accused of taking a gun out of a guest room after he answered a call about a malfunctioning air conditioner. He "swore he didn't take the gun." He said he did take a flashlight by mistake, but he returned it when he noticed it was not his. He said he "was jumped by the other guy."
The state is seeking to introduce at the trial evidence about the Budgetel run-in in which Adams was charged with stabbing Overby. Prosecutor Paul Moyle said it should be allowed as a "prior bad act" that showed a motive for the murder.
Venable said when Overby fell on hard times and became homeless that he took him into his house.
That early afternoon, Venable said they were checking out the linkage on a transmission on his Chevy Silverado. He said he crawled under the vehicle and Overby was in the driver's seat manipulating the gears.
He said when the shots were being fired "I felt like I was being shot at too" and he tried to wriggle around under the vehicle.
Venable said when the gunfire ceased and he crawled out he saw that his friend was dead. He took off running after the gunman. He said he ducked behind a car when the man dropped his gun, picked it up, and pointed it at him.
Andy Fricks, who said he grew up with Overby in North LaFayette, Ga., said he went to Parkridge East Hospital in 2022 and ran into Overby who "had stab wounds all over him."
He said he later saw Overby at a Plasma Center in Rossville and he "shook and seemed real nervous. It was like he was looking over his shoulder. He said some folks were out to kill him."
He said Overby, the father of six children, told him "it was over the stabbing."
Barbara Ramirez-Guerreo said the day of the murder she was with Adams, and they got lunch at the drive-thru of Del Taco in Fort Oglethorpe. She said she was driving a rental car because hers was in the shop. She said they picked up another female near "the Monument in Rossville."
They were driving in Rossville when she said Adams spotted two men working on a truck and he said, "That's that (epithet)." She said, "He kept saying he wanted his life back."
She said Adams asked to be let out a couple of blocks from where he saw the men. She said a short time later he called and she picked him back up.
The witness said he had been wearing a fanny pack, a hoodie, sunglasses and he was armed with a gun. The hoodie and the sunglasses were gone when he got back in the car.
Det. Darryl Slaughter told of finding Adams with a female at a motel in Fort Oglethorpe two days later. He said a handgun was located in the motel room and it was determined the shots that killed the victim had been fired from it.
The detective was able to gather video that showed Adams in the car at the Del Taco, driving by the location where the men were working, returning to the truck and shooting into the vehicle, and running from the scene.
He said the victim "was shot multiple times."
The detective also collected a jail call in which Adams asked the female, Alicia Fields, if police had found his gun. Adams was arrested on Feb. 3.
Cecil Overby