Wilson will not be allowed to withdraw guilty plea
by Melody Dareing
Jul 30, 2012 | 2428 views | 0 0 comments | 9 9 recommendations | email to a friend | print
FILE: Tyson Wilson
FILE: Tyson Wilson
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The man who pleaded guilty in the 2008 Rockmart shooting that killed a man and injured two others will not be allowed to withdraw his plea, according to Polk County District Attorney Robert Brooks.

Judge Michael Murphy, who also presided over Tyson Wilson’s original trial in 2009, denied Wilson’s request in a Superior Court hearing Friday afternoon.

Wilson, 33, had pleaded guilty, stating in court he was the triggerman in the shooting death of 49-year-old Ronny Ferguson and the gunfire assaults of two others, Ferguson’s girlfriend Melissa Henderson-Smith and friend Alfred Fennell, at Ferguson’s Long Avenue home in Rockmart.

He had asked to withdraw his plea earlier this year citing that he didn’t give his plea freely and voluntarily; that he didn’t understand the seriousness of the charges and consequences of a plea; and that he was misled into entering a guilty plea, failure of the prosecution to disclose evidence, that the process of jury selection was unconstitutional, and “ineffective, denial of effective assistance of counsel,” according to court documents.

Brooks said the action means that Wilson would continue to serve his sentence on the charges he pleaded to: felony murder, aggravated assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Murphy sentenced Wilson to life with the possibility of parole on the murder charge, 20 years on the aggravated assault charge and five years on the firearm charge.

The second man, Rashad Glover, then 17, was sentenced in May 2009 to life plus 25 years on charges that include felony murder, three aggravated assault charges and a firearms charge.
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