Deonna Ragland

Keonte Ragland

Keishann Rowe

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Keishann Rowe, 21, Keonte Ragland, 20, and Deonna Ragland, 19, were found guilty by a Catoosa County jury of the 2021 murder of 19-year-old Jaylon Eberhardt of Fort Oglethorpe. Each was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Prosecutors said evidence presented during the week-long trial showed that Ragland had a series of minor disagreements with him in the weeks before Jaylon Eberhardt’s murder, culminating in a physical fight between the two.

It was stated that on the afternoon of September 23, 2021, Ragland, her sister, and two of their friends, Rowe and Malachi Housley, were socializing and smoking marijuana at Ragland’s residence in Catoosa Gardens Apartments. While at the apartment, they observed Jaylon Eberhardt walking through the complex and “perceived his presence in the complex as a sign of disrespect for Raglands.”

Prosecutors said the Ragland brothers, along with Rowe and Housley, conspired to lure Mr. Eberhardt back to the Catoosa Gardens Apartments on the evening of Sept. 23, 2021, and kill him.

Ms. Ragland, who was 16 at the time of the murder, sent messages to Mr. Eberhardt on SnapChat and agreed to meet him outside in the playground of the Catoosa Gardens Apartments. Mr. Eberhardt began walking from his home at Oglethorpe Ridge Apartments toward the Catoosa Gardens Apartments, believing he would meet Ms. Ragland at the playground. Without Mr. Eberhardt’s knowledge, Ms. Ragland instructed Rowe and Housley to capture and kill Mr. Eberhardt, prosecutors said.

The State said that while Deonna Ragland sent messages to Mr. Eberhardt encouraging him to come visit her, she also sent messages to Rowe and Housley, giving him Mr. Eberhardt’s exact location so Rowe and Housley could ambush and kill him.

When Mr. Eberhardt arrived at the playground, Ms. Ragland informed him that she would not be coming out to meet him, and Mr. Eberhardt began walking toward the house. Ms. Ragland then informed Rowe and Housley that Mr. Eberhardt had left the playground, and they quietly followed him through the woods to the Oglethorpe Ridge Apartments. Just as Mr. Eberhardt was about to enter the Oglethorpe Ridge complex, Housley shot him in the back and leg. Housley and Rowe fled the scene and dumped the gun in a grassy area near the apartment complex.

Mr. Eberhardt tried to run home after being shot in the back. “Help me; They shot me shortly before I collapsed outside the Catoosa County law enforcement officer’s door and died there.

Shortly after his murder, Mr. Eberhardt’s family members notified law enforcement that he had been communicating with Ms. Ragland before his death. Law enforcement interviewed the Raglands in the hours after Mr. Eberhardt’s killing and they denied having any knowledge of his murder. During the interview, Ms. Ragland expressed her sadness at being notified of Mr. Eberhardt’s death.

The day after Mr. Eberhardt was killed, law enforcement officers found Ms. Rowe and Housley in the grassy area where the gun used to kill Mr. Eberhardt was disposed of, prosecutors said. Officers found incriminating text messages on their phones detailing a plan to kill Mr Eberhardt, implicating Raglands. Shortly thereafter, Housley confessed to his role in the murder.

Housley pleaded guilty to felony murder and aggravated assault for his role in Mr. Eberhardt’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Rowe, Ragland and Ms. Ragland were found guilty of capital murder and aggravated assault following a week-long trial that began Sept. 23, exactly three years after Mr. Eberhardt was killed.

Prosecutors said: “At trial, jurors had the opportunity to view dozens of text messages, social media messages and digital evidence that displayed, in black and white, the cold, callous and calculating nature of the defendants’ scheme to kill Mr. Eberhardt.”

Following a sentencing hearing on October 24, Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Don W. Thompson sentenced Rowe, Ragland, and Ms. Ragland to life in prison at the Georgia Department of Corrections.

The case was filed by Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Steve Rogers Jr. was investigated by. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Deanna Reisman and Zachary Trippe.