Georgia Man Who Killed Eight Family Members Sentenced to Life in Jail, No Parole

A Georgia man convicted of beating his father and seven other people in a trailer home to death was sentenced Thursday to natural life in prison.

A Glynn County court sentenced 26-year-old Guy Heinze Jr. less than one week after he was found guilty of malice murder in the case of the Aug. 29, 2009 killings, the Associated Press reported. Initially, the death penalty was an option for Heinze, but prosecutors nixed the option of lethal injection for the convicted killer.

"That's the easy way out," Diane Isenhower, whose four children and husband were some of the eight murdered told AP, adding that she is glad Heinze will spend the rest of his years in prison with no option for parole. "It's a relief. Now I just pick up the pieces and go on."

Throughout the trial, Heinze's attorneys maintained that he was innocent, but brought no witnesses to the stand, and reportedly didn't push hard for a lesser sentence or acquittal.

"There are people who believe in Guy and believe he's innocent," a friend from high school named Heather Teston said. "Maybe they should have moved the trial somewhere else. After four years, everybody here has been set in their opinions on the case. I think ultimately he was railroaded by the justice system."

Heinze called 911 the morning that he found the bodies, yelling, "My whole family is dead!"

Prosecutors said Heinze was smoking crack cocaine at the time of the slaying. Each of the deceased were members of either immediate or extended family. They stated that Heinze killed one person first over a bottle of prescription pills he was trying to steal. He then went on to murder the rest of the group, in attempts to get rid of all witnesses. All of the victims were killed from multiple crushing blows to the head. Police said it appeared that the murder weapon was the barrel of a shotgun, which was never found. Following autopsies, medical examiners said that the eight suffered a combined total of at least 220 wounds.

The deceased included Heinze's father Guy Heinze Sr., 45, Rusty Toler Sr., 44, his children Chrissy Toler, 22, Russell D. Toler Jr., 20, Michael Toler, 19, and Michelle Toler, 15. Toler's sister Brenda Gail Falagan, 49, and Joseph L. West, Chrissy's boyfriend, were also killed.

Real Time Analytics