TRUE COUNTY, GA (TCD) — The 41-year-old will spend the rest of his life in prison after being recently found guilty in 2021 of murdering two victims who were trying to collect money from him.
According to the Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office:The jury on March 19 found Joshua Nutt, who also attended Joshua Bradley, two counts of malice murder, six counts of felonious assault, two counts of armed robbery, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of murder. was found guilty. Use of a firearm by a convicted felon during the commission of another felony, and guilty in connection with the deaths of Marcus Caswell Jr., 46, and Travis Lodato, 31. There was one incident where a convicted felon was in possession of a firearm. The judge then sentenced Nutt to four consecutive terms of life in prison without parole, followed by an additional 40 years without parole.
At Nutt's sentencing, prosecutors said the defendant had ties to the Ghostface Gangsters, a “violent and notorious statewide prison and street gang.” According to the Anti-Defamation League, the organization is a “large-scale Georgia-based white supremacist prison gang” that originated in California in the 1970s.
On the evening of August 7, 2021, Caswell and Lodato went to Nutt's home to collect a debt he owed, but the defendant was not there. When Nutt returned to his home, he told someone he was with that he was going to rob Caswell and Lodato and then get on his motorcycle.
According to the District Attorney's Office, the victims returned to Nutt's home on a motorcycle the next day to receive the money. Nutt's girlfriend was reportedly outside the home when Nutt shot Caswell once, striking him “in the back of the base of his skull.” Nutt shot Lodato several times, including once in the head, the district attorney's office said.
After the shooting, Nutt stole jewelry and other items from the victim's body. He reportedly spray-painted Lodato's motorcycle and then drove it to the victim's house and broke into it.
On the morning of August 9, Nutt and an accomplice who has not yet been indicted drove the victim's body to the Lower Glass Bridge, where Nutt dumped the victim's remains into West Point Lake. A fisherman reportedly discovered Caswell's body on August 9, and a boater discovered Lodato's body the following day.
Investigators with the Troup County Sheriff's Office searched Nutt's home on Lower Big Springs Road on Aug. 12 and found the victim's motorcycle in a trailer, according to the district attorney's office. Investigators also found two pools of blood in the crawl space of Nutt's residence.
Despite the defendant's attempts to clean the house, investigators recovered the victim's blood and DNA. Nutt reportedly tried to tear up the drywall and set it on fire.
During the search, the sheriff's office saw Nutt's vehicle driving away and a chase ensued. Deputies eventually used stop sticks to stop Nutt's truck and found Caswell's motorcycle helmet and car keys and Lodato's chest plate in the vehicle.
In August 2021, Nutt told law enforcement officials that he did not know how the victim died. But during the trial, Nutt claimed he killed the victims in self-defense.
At the time of the crime, Nutt was on parole and had previous convictions for armed robbery, entering a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, violation of the Georgia Controlled Substances Act, trafficking in cocaine and possession of a controlled substance by an inmate.
Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney John Cranford Jr. said, “This defendant is a cold-blooded murderer who deserves to die in prison. He chose a life of crime that has resulted in multiple felony convictions in multiple Georgia counties due to his association with a violent criminal street gang known as the Ghostface Gangsters. .”
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