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The Southwestern Judicial Circuit is trying two murder charges this week in Sumter County. A guilty verdict has been returned in the first one in which District Attorney Lewis Lamb served on behalf of the State of Georgia. Everette Mays, Jr. has been convicted of all charges. Mays was 23 years old at the time of his arrest. Judge James Sizemore has sentenced Mays to a life sentence plus 35 years. Mays has been found guilty of murdering La’Warrior Gardner in January of 2020.

According to DA Lewis Lamb, Gardner was Mays’ estranged wife’s boyfriend. Mays was a Texas resident who made his way to Americus where he committed the murder and abducted a two-month-old baby from his mother and fled. Mays was apprehended in Alabama. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations issued a Levi’s Call for the baby who went missing from Carter Avenue in Americus.  The call was cancelled within hours of being issued.

Meanwhile in Judge Jimmie Brown’s courtroom, Assistant District Attorney Cania Brown-Gordon is trying a second murder case. A verdict has yet to be reached. The Americus Times-Recorder will be updating these stories as more information is made available.