Court upholds verdict in 2012 murder of Columbus barber
The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the verdicts against one of three men who in 2012 went on a weeks-long crime spree that included the robbery and murder of Columbus barber Charlie Artis.
Danteviouse J. Doleman is serving two life sentences for his role in Artis’ Jan. 5, 2012, fatal shooting and for other crimes committed in the company of Edward Lee and Demetrice Scott. Scott pleaded guilty to charges other than murder and testified against his codefendants during their May 2016 trial, after which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and Lee to life without parole.
Doleman in his appeal challenged his convictions on various grounds, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict; that evidence police obtained during a search of the home where the three men were living should have been suppressed; and that some of the offenses with which he was charged should have been tried separately.
The court rejected those arguments.
Artis was shot outside his Gunboat Drive barbershop off Milgen Road about 3 p.m. when he took a break to walk out to the parking lot. Witnesses said they saw a man matching Lee’s description run from the scene, and Scott testified that he and Doleman had helped plan the robbery and waited for Lee at a nearby apartment complex.
It was one of several offenses the three men committed from December 2011 through January 2012, in what the court decided was a continuous crime spree.
Besides Artis’ murder, their 21-count indictment cited these allegations:
Doleman and Scott robbed a woman at gunpoint on Dec. 15, 2011, confronting her in a parking lot and taking her Kia Sportage.
Doleman, Lee and Scott that same day drove the Kia to an apartment complex where Lee and Scott used a paintball gun and a stolen revolver to rob a woman of her Lexus.
Scott and Lee on Dec. 20, 2011, tried to rob a man outside a grocery store, firing at him as he fled.
Doleman and Scott on Dec. 21, 2011, were driving around in the Kia when they broke into a woman’s home and stole a flat-screen TV, laptop, cellphone and the keys to a Chevy Equinox. Doleman, Scott and Lee returned to the woman’s home the next day and stole the Chevy, which Lee later crashed into a utility pole.
On Jan. 11, 2012, about a week after Artis’ homicide, the three invaded a woman’s home and took a TV, laptops and a red and white jacket.
Doleman, Lee and Scott on Jan. 15, 2012, broke into a woman’s home in East Highland, where Scott held her at gunpoint while the intruders rifled through her possessions, after which Doleman and Lee left, and Scott raped the victim.
Doleman, Lee and Scott also were charged with stealing from a woman on Jan. 19, 2012.
They were captured after trying to trade a revolver and the flat-screen TV they stole on Dec. 21, 2011, for tattoo work. The man giving them tattoos in his home refused to finish the work when he discovered the TV had lines across its screen, so they stole the man’s Xbox 360 video gaming system, prompting him to tell police where they were living.
They were living in a woman’s apartment in the 1400 block of 19th Street. When police came to the door on Jan. 19, 2012, three men ran out the back of the residence, and officers ordered them to go back in. Police at the front door saw Scott inside the apartment and asked him about the Xbox, and he took them to a bedroom to prove he didn’t have it.
Officers saw the gaming system under the bed and arrested Scott, after which the woman renting the apartment gave investigators permission to search it. Police then found a .38-caliber revolver they suspected was used in Artis’ murder.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Doleman is serving his sentence at the Wilcox State Prison in Abbeville; Lee is in the Telfair State Prison in Helena; and Scott is in the Johnson State Prison in Wrightsville.
This story was originally published December 10, 2018 at 2:25 PM.