2nd man convicted in 2016 murder where Atlanta father was killed over $50

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A man was recently convicted for the 2016 cold case murder of an Atlanta father.

Dontavian Jones, 22, was convicted on June 14 for the 2016 murder of Dewenzell Spence, 41, of Atlanta.

Jones was found guilty of murder, kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

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On June 3, 2016, Cobb County police responded to a report of a dead body found in the woods in Mableton.

Officers found a highly decomposed man, later identified as Spence.

According to the Cobb County District Attorney, detectives accessed Spence’s bank account and found two withdrawals from a Bank of America ATM in Mableton.

When they checked the bank’s surveillance video, they saw Spence at the ATM for seven minutes with two unidentified men and a white van in the background.

One of the men had a shirt on his head and a mask and the other made no effort to hide his identity.

In January 2020, detectives used facial recognition software to identify the unmasked man as Terrance Marshall from Cochran, Georgia.

Marshall, then 19, was arrested on June 1, 2016, after a high-speed chase in Alabama involving a white Dodge caravan similar to the van in the bank’s surveillance footage.

Jones was also involved in the chase, which ended with the two men running from the van before it exploded.

Marshall was arrested about nine hours later, while Jones was captured 18 hours later, covering 20 miles before being caught.

Detectives confirmed both Marshall and Jones as the men in the bank’s surveillance footage.

During interviews, detectives learned that Jones, just 14 at the time, traveled to Atlanta with Marshall in a stolen van, where they saw Spence walking down Hank Aaron Boulevard toward the MARTA station.

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They forced Spence at gunpoint to get into the van, drove him to Mableton, forced him to withdraw $50 from his bank account, and then drove him to a wooded area where they executed him.

“What happened here is what we want to believe only happens in scary movies. Mr. Spence was walking to work when he was approached by two teenage strangers, forced to walk several blocks with a shotgun to the back of his head, pushed into a van, taken to an ATM, and driven to foreign woods where he was executed. I cannot imagine the fear he suffered in the last hours of his life. I hope these men never see the light of day for what they did to this innocent, hard-working father,” said Senior Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green.

Marshall was convicted in January 2024 and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus an additional five years in prison.

Jones is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15, 2024.

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