ATLANTA – A man lost his life after flirting with another man’s girlfriend at a block party – and the man who killed him is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Andrew Neloms, 30, was convicted of murder by a Fulton County Superior Court jury on Tuesday of shooting Octavius Brooks to death while he sat in his car during a block party at the Brentwood Meadows Apartments on Alison Court in southwest Atlanta on Nov. 1, 2016.
During the party, Neloms confronted Brooks for flirting with his girlfriend, prosecutors said. Brooks walked away and sat in his car. While listening to music, prosecutors say Neloms walked up behind the car with a 12-gauge shotgun and fired two shots – one bullet struck Brooks in the heart and the other landed in his back.
Police found Brooks dead in the front seat with his legs hanging out the front door of his car, bleeding profusely. Neloms ran and dumped the murder weapon, prosecutors said.
During the investigation, a friend of Neloms told police he bragged about killing Brooks and was “on the run” for murder. Police arrested Neloms two months later in Savannah. Neloms admitted to police that he confronted Brooks about flirting with his girlfriend, but claimed he shot Brooks in self-defense.
During his trial, Neloms took the stand and was asked by the prosecution to demonstrate how he shot Brooks, using a fake gun. He reenacted the shooting, pulled the trigger of the replica shotgun and laughed in front of the jury, according to the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
Neloms has been a suspect in three murder cases, including Brooks’ murder. He was found not guilty for the murder of a woman in Fulton County on Valentine’s Day in 2010 and the state dropped a murder case against him in 2015, after the Georgia Supreme Court granted a motion to suppress evidence a firearm was found in Neloms’ bedroom. In all, Neloms has been arrested 17 times -- seven of those cases were felonies. He was convicted of felony arson in 2016.
Because of his previous arrests, the state has asked Neloms to receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole for Brooks’ murder.
Neloms will be sentenced on Oct. 3, 2018.
