◀︎ ▶︎
The Brief
- A Walker County jury convicted Marshall Payne of malice and felony murder in a 2016 killing first believed to be a suicide.
- Investigators reopened the case in 2023 after a medical examiner reversed the original ruling.
- Payne was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
WALKER COUNTY, Ga. – Nearly nine years after the crime, a Walker County jury has convicted Marshall Payne of malice murder and felony murder in the 2016 shooting death of Donald Edward Fickey Jr. – bringing closure to a case that investigators originally believed was a suicide.
Case turned from suicide to murder
The backstory:
On October 3, 2016, Payne called 911 three times, initially telling dispatchers that Fickey had taken his own life. He claimed the shotgun discharged accidentally as he tried to take it away from the victim.…