Deona Ragland

Keonte Ragland

Keishann Rowe

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Keishann Rowe, 21, Keonte Ragland, 20, and Deonna Ragland, 19, have been convicted by a Catoosa County jury of the 2021 murder of Jaylon Eberhardt, 19, of Fort Oglethorpe. Each of them was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Prosecutors said evidence presented during the course of a week-long trial showed that in the weeks leading up to Jaylon Eberhardt’s murder, Ragland had a series of minor disagreements with him, which culminated in a physical altercation between the two.

On the afternoon of September 23, 2021, Ragland, his sister and two friends, Rowe and Malachi Housley, were socializing and smoking marijuana at the Ragland residence at Catoosa Gardens Apartments, it was alleged. While at the apartment, they observed Jaylon Eberhardt walking through the complex “and perceived his presence in the complex as a sign of disrespect toward the Raglands.”

The Ragland brothers, along with Rowe and Housley then conspired to lure Mr. Eberhardt back to the Catoosa Gardens Apartments on the night of September 23, 2021, and murder him, prosecutors said.

Ms. Ragland, who was 16 at the time of the murder, sent messages to Mr. Eberhardt via Snapchat and agreed to meet him outside on the Catoosa Gardens Apartments playground. Mr. Eberhardt began walking from his residence at Oglethorpe Ridge Apartments to the Catoosa Gardens Apartments, believing he would meet Ms. Ragland on the playground. Unknown to Eberhardt, Ragland had ordered Rowe and Housley to intercept Eberhardt and kill him, prosecutors said.

While sending messages to Mr. Eberhardt encouraging him to visit her, Deonna Ragland simultaneously sent messages to Rowe and Housley, communicating Mr. Eberhardt’s exact whereabouts so that Rowe and Housley could ambush and murder him, the state said.

When Mr. Eberhardt arrived at the playground, Ms. Ragland informed him that she would not be coming out to meet him and he began walking back home. Ms. Ragland then informed Rowe and Housley that Mr. Eberhardt was leaving the playground and they followed him silently through the woods to the Oglethorpe Ridge Apartments. Just as Mr. Eberhardt was about to enter the Oglethorpe Ridge complex, Housley shot him in the back and leg. Housley and Rowe fled the scene and dumped the gun in a grassy area near the apartment complex.

Mr. Eberhardt, after being shot in the back, attempted to run back to his residence. He shouted: “Help me; I was shot” shortly before collapsing on a Catoosa County police officer’s doorstep, where he died.

Shortly after his murder, Mr. Eberhardt’s relatives informed authorities that he had been communicating with Ms. Ragland before his death. Law enforcement officers interviewed the Raglands in the hours after Mr. Eberhardt was murdered and they denied any knowledge of his murder. During the interview, Ms. Ragland expressed her dismay at being notified that Mr. Eberhardt had died.

Prosecutors said that the day after Eberhardt’s murder, law enforcement officers located Rowe and Housley in the grassy area where the gun used to kill Eberhardt had been discarded. Officers located incriminating text messages on their phones, also implicating the Raglands, and detailing the plot to murder Mr. Eberhardt. Shortly afterward, Housley confessed to his role in the murder.

Housley pleaded guilty to felony murder and aggravated assault for his role in Mr. Eberhardt’s murder and was sentenced to life in prison.

Rowe, Ragland and Ms. Ragland were found guilty of felony murder and aggravated assault after a week-long trial, which began on September 23, exactly three years after Mr. Eberhardt’s murder.

Prosecutors said: “At trial, jurors had the opportunity to view dozens of text messages, social media messages and digital evidence, showing, in black and white, the cold, callous and calculating nature of the defendants’ plot. .murder Mr. Eberhardt.”

After a sentencing hearing on October 24, Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Don W. Thompson sentenced Rowe, Ragland and Ms. Ragland to serve life in prison in the Georgia Department of Corrections.

The case was investigated by Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Steve Rogers, Jr. The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorneys Deanna Reisman and Zachary Trippe.