GWINNETT COUNTY — A Covington man was sentenced Nov. 1 for using an online dating site to lure and commit a fatal robbery against a Sandy Springs man.

Mark Antonia White, 23, was found guilty of felony murder, aggravated assault, armed robbery and possession of a firearm in the October 2021 shooting death of Garcia Danielle Gaddis, 39, according to to a news release from the Gwinnett District Attorney. Office.

White was sentenced to life in prison plus five years without the possibility of parole.

Gaddis was last seen leaving his home on the night of October 21, 2021. The news release stated that after his disappearance, police responded to a noise complaint the following Sunday afternoon and were directed to a Dodge Ram 1500 parked in the Lawrenceville neighborhood near Pierce. Brennen Drive and Tech Center Parkway. Inside the vehicle they found Gaddis with a single gunshot wound to the head. His cell phone, wallet and car keys were missing.

Inside the vehicle’s cabin, police found a shell casing matching three shell casings from a gun fired during a July 19, 2021 incident in which White is accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend and her mother. The mother collected the carcasses and kept them until she was contacted by police during the investigation into Gaddis’s murder.

According to the DA’s office, investigators discovered that on the night he was last seen, Gaddis was contacted by White on the dating app Tagged. During the online exchange between the two, Gaddis agreed to meet White near the Little Suwanee Pointe neighborhood.

Surveillance cameras showed Gaddis’ truck driving through the neighborhood shortly after 11 p.m. and picking up a man in the parking lot near the pool club. Minutes after the truck was seen leaving the neighborhood and driving back to the Tech Center Parkway entrance, the man was seen walking from the entrance back to the pool club.

A few weeks later, police dashcam footage from an eviction from a house across the pool captured a man dressed similar to the figure captured on video the night of Gaddis’s murder, and he was determined to be white.

A warrant was issued for White’s arrest and he was taken into custody in June 2022.

Gwinnett Administrative Assistant Michele Sims and Assistant District Attorney Diamond Johnson prosecuted the case. They were assisted by prosecutor’s investigator Christina Newman and victim witness advocate Karen McKinlay.

Gwinnett County Police Department Sgt. Jorstad was instrumental in closing the case, according to the press release.

“We pray that this verdict and the justice it serves will provide some comfort to the family and loved ones of this victim,” Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said in the statement. “The defendant took advantage of Mr. Gaddis and justice was served.”