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Death sought for shooter who killed PTC girl in drug robbery

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Coweta County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the Forest Park man accused of killing a Peachtree City girl in a drug-related shooting at a Newnan apartment complex.

Police said Roderick Calvin Thomas, 24, shot and killed Heather Rhodes, 17, when he and an accomplice broke into the apartment at the Lakeside Apartment Complex March 30. Rhodes had been dating one of the men who was living at the apartment, police said.

Coweta Assistant District Attorney Rudjard Hayes said it was determined that the case met the aggravation standard necessary to file for the death penalty.

“We thought long and hard about this,” Hayes said Tuesday morning.

The case has already met its first delay, ironically because prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty. Thomas’s arraignment was postponed so he can be appointed a special attorney who is qualified to handle death penalty cases.

Georgia law has stringent requirements for death penalty cases, Hayes noted, adding that he was not sure how long it might take before the case is ready to go to trial.

Thomas, whose address was listed as 5632 Cypress Dr., Forest Park, is one of three charged in connection with the case. Marquis Damon Cannon, 28, of 72 Thigpen Rd., Newnan, also faces a murder charge. Anricus Rayshun Holston, 21, of Apt. 502, 22 Forest Circle, Newnan, is charged with felony murder (party to a crime).

In arrest warrants, detectives with the Coweta County Sheriff’s Department said the robbery was Holston’s idea to get marijuana from the apartment. Holston also drove Cannon and Thomas to the apartment in a green Ford Explorer, police said.

Cannon and Thomas burst into the apartment after knocking on the door, with Thomas brandishing a shotgun that ultimately killed Rhodes, police said. Rhodes died on the scene of her injuries, police added.

Rhodes was a senior at Starr’s Mill High School this year and would have graduated in May. She was remembered by school officials as having a sweet demeanor and being “very energetic and very polite.”

Rhodes lived with her parents in Peachtree City and was a member of the Vocational Opportunity Clubs of America and Future Business Leaders of America.

Two other men in the apartment were injured but survived the gunfire, police said.