The final defendant accused of murdering Cristobal Becerras-Contreras pleaded guilty to a reduced charge Wednesday. Delaney Scott Ray pleaded guilty to helping set up a robbery in which the victim was shot in the head.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Ray and Kelesha Dorsey testified at the trial of shooter Kyle Anthony Strother, who is serving life without parole.
Ray pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, as well as armed robbery and aggravated battery. Dorsey pleaded to the same charges in April.
Kyle Anthony Strother, 25 of Rome, was sentenced to life without parole Tuesday after being found guilty of murdering Cristobal Becerras- Contreras.
The verdict came following a week of testimony, which included two co-defendants.
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Kyle Anthony Strother
Kyle Anthony Strother, 25 of Rome, was found guilty of murdering 27-year-old Cristobal Becerras-Contreras on Friday by a Floyd County jury.
Storther shot Becerras-Contreras in the head during a 2015 robbery in West Rome.
Pictured: Home of murder
Following a week of testimony, which included two co-defendants in the case, the jury found Strother guilty of murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and armed robbery.
Strother was found guilty of being the gunman. Two women, Kelesha Corron Dorsey and Delaney Scott Ray, are also facing murder charges.
The women testified that the plan was to set up Becerras-Contreras and to rob him, but they said that did not know Strother would kill him.
Judge Bryant Durham granted severance for Dorsey and Ray, and as a result their trials will be held separately.
A fourth person, Marcus Antwon Townsend, 26, was initially charged with making false statements to police. A warrant has been issued for Townshend after he was subpoenaed but failed to show up for the trial. The body of Becerras-Contreras was found behind Townsend home.
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Three Romans, Kyle Anthony Strother, 25, Delaney Scott Ray, 19, and Kelesha Corron Dorsey, 20, all waived a formal arraignment this week and pleaded not guilty to murdering 27 year-old Cristobal Becerras-Contreras.
Kelesha Corron Dorsey, Delaney Scott Ray
Reports said that the three suspects robbed then shot and killed Becerras-Contreras back on December 21, 2015 outside a home on Wood Creek Way.
All three are charged with murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and armed robbery.
Strother is also charged with possession of a weapon during the commission of a crime for being the alleged gunman.
A fourth person, the resident of the home where Becerras-Contreras was found, Marcus Antwon Townsend, 26, is charged with making false statements to police.
All four were indicted March 12.
Strother, Ray and Dorsey are being held without bond. Townsend has been released on bail.
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Marcus Antwon Townsend, 26 of Rome, has been arrested in connection with a December murder on Wood Creek Way. Reports said that Townsend was charged with making false statements and writings to investigators about the December 22nd murder of Cristobal Becerras-Conteras.
Marcus Antwon Townsend
Townsend was arrested on February 19th on two probation warrants, but has since seen the false statement charge added.
Becerras-Contreras’s body was found in the backyard of Townsend’s home at 9B Wood Creek Way.
Reports said that Townsend allegedly received a text from the murder suspect, Kyle Anthony Strother , on December 22, which said “don’t go near ya spot fa a day or 2…tell auntie 2 tellem u bheen gone…stay away…dis ya brother huntin at ya.”
Reports went on to say that after the text was sent Strother called Townsend and they spoke for over a minute and a half.
The phone call was followed for yet another text that read, “Bhro u kant go 2 da house bhrodie…u kame home 2 a strange kar n a manlayin in ya yard.”
Townsend had told police that he did not know anything about the murder.
Police are still searching for Strother.
Kelesha Corron Dorsey, Delaney Scott Ray
Two women, Delaney Scott Ray, 21 and Kelesha Corron Dorsey, were also arrested in the case. Both are charged with being a party to the murder and armed robbery.
