The Georgia man accused of killing the mother of his child in Monroe County has been found guilty following his trial for murder this week, according to reports.
The Towaliga District Attorney’s Office confirmed the guilty verdict of Jadarius Watts on the office’s Facebook page. Watts was accused of killing Toriyahna Proctor in March of 2022.
Proctor was reported as a missing person to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on the morning of Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Later that day, a woman’s body, later identified as Proctor, was discovered in a vehicle at the Holly Grove boat ramp near Lake Juliette. Deputies located Watts, sitting in the front seat of a car at the lake. Authorities said Watts tried to flee and jumped into Lake Juliette, but deputies pulled him out of the water and took him into custody.
Two days after her death, on what should have been Proctor’s 22nd birthday, her friends and family were mourning her loss and releasing balloons in her memory.
“The outpouring of love, I just want to say thank y’all, from the bottom of my heart,” said Proctor’s mother, Latosha, in 2022. “Today is her birthday and we’re going to celebrate her, not only today but every day.”
In the days following Proctor’s death, an interval investigation by the Forsyth Police Department was completed after the Chief of the department at that time heard rumors of the family being upset with how they handled the case.
A welfare check for their daughter, the officer informed them that a missing person report could not be filed until she was missing for 24 hours. The department’s internal investigation proved those claims were true. It is against Georgia law to put a time period on when a missing person report can be made.
Seven hours later, the family would go on to file that report with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
District Attorney Jonathan L. Adams, commenting after Watt’s guilty verdict, said, “Justice is little comfort for the loss of a loved one.” Adams went on to say, “We hope that the work of Assistant DAs Dorothy Hull and Carolee Jordan along with MCSO to obtain a guilty verdict for the murder of Tori Proctor can help in some small measure.”
Judge Thomas Wilson sentenced Watts to Life in Prison without the possibility of parole.
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