Deonna Ragland

Keonte Ragland

Keishann Rowe

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Keishann Rowe, 21, Keonte Ragland, 20, and Deonna Ragland, 19, were convicted Sept. 27 by a Catoosa County jury of the 2021 killing of Jaylon Eberhardt, a 19-year-old from Ft. Oglethorpe.

Evidence presented during a week-long trial showed that in the weeks leading up to Mr. Eberhardt’s murder, Ragland had a series of minor disagreements with Mr. Eberhardt that culminated in a physical altercation between the two men.

On the afternoon of September 23, 2021, Ragland, his sister, Ms.

Ragland and their two friends, Rowe and Malachi Housley, were socializing and smoking marijuana at Ragland’s residence in the Catoosa Gardens Apartments. While in the apartment, they observed Mr. Eberhardt walking around the complex and perceived his presence in the complex as disrespectful to Ragland.

The Ragland brothers, along with Rowe and Housley, then conspired to lure Mr. Eberhardt back to the Catoosa Gardens Apartments on the evening of September 23, 2021, and kill him.

Ms. Ragland, 16 at the time of the murder, sent Mr. Eberhardt messages on SnapChat and agreed to meet him outside at the playground at Catoosa Gardens Apartments. Mr. Eberhardt began walking from his residence at the Oglethorpe Ridge Apartments to the Catoosa Gardens Apartments, thinking he would meet Ms. Ragland at the playground. Unbeknownst to Mr. Eberhardt, Mrs. Ragland had ordered Rowe and Housley to intercept Mr. Eberhardt and kill him. While she was texting Mr. Eberhardt encouraging him to come visit her, Deonna Ragland was simultaneously texting Rowe and Housley telling him exactly where Mr. Eberhardt was so that Rowe and Housley could ambush and kill.

When Mr. Eberhardt arrived at the playground, Ms. Ragland informed him that she would not be coming to meet him, and he began to walk home. Ms. Ragland then informed Rowe and Housley that Mr. Eberhardt was leaving the playground and they followed him silently through the woods to the Oglethorpe Ridge Apartments. Just as Mr. Eberhardt was about to enter the Oglethorpe Ridge compound, Housley shot him in the back and leg. Housley and Rowe fled the scene and threw the gun in a grassy area near the apartment complex. Mr. Eberhardt, after being shot in the back, tried to run back to his residence. He cried, “Help me; they shot me!” shortly before he collapsed on the doorstep of a law enforcement officer in Catoosa County, where Mr. Eberhardt died.

Shortly after his murder, Mr. Eberhardt’s family members informed law enforcement that he had communicated with Ms. Ragland before his death. Law enforcement interviewed Ms. Ragland and Ragland in the hours after Mr. Eberhardt’s murder, and they denied any knowledge of his murder. During the interview, Ms. Ragland expressed her dismay when she was told that Mr. Eberhardt had died. The day after Mr. Eberhardt’s murder, law enforcement officers located Ms. Rowe and Housley in the grassy area where the gun used to kill Mr. Eberhardt had been discarded. Officers found incriminating text messages on their phones, also involving Ragland, detailing the plot to kill Mr Eberhardt. Shortly thereafter, Housley confessed to his role in the murder.

Housley pleaded guilty to felony murder and aggravated assault for his role in killing Mr. Eberhardt in June 2023 and was jailed for life.

Rowe, Ragland and Ms Ragland were convicted of murder and aggravated assault after a week-long trial which began on September 23, exactly three years to the day after Mr Eberhardt’s murder.

Officials said: “At trial, jurors had the opportunity to view dozens of text messages, social media posts and digital evidence that laid bare, in black and white, the cold, callous and calculating nature of the defendants’ plot. to kill Mr. Eberhardt.”

After a sentencing hearing on October 24, Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Don W. Thompson sentenced Rowe, Ragland and Mrs. Ragland to serve life in prison in the Georgia Department of Corrections.

The case was investigated by Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Steve Rogers, Jr. The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Deanna Reisman and Zachary Trippe.