Judge Denies Motion For New Trial in Tolbert Street Murder Case

A Floyd County Superior Court judge denied a motion for a new trial for a man convicted of the 2022 killing of Derricus Whatley in North Rome.

A jury convicted Stephano Tyrique Green, 22, in November 2023 of felony murder but acquitted him on a malice murder charge.

The crime was reported on July 3, 2022, around 5:50 p.m. when Floyd County 911 received a call about a wreck near the intersection of Tolbert Street at North Avenue. Other callers told 911 the driver had been shot.

Upon officers’ arrival they found the 40-year-old Whatley in his vehicle near 207 Tolbert St. with four gunshot wounds to the torso, leg and groin area. Whatley was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Green turned himself in at the jail in July 2022 after police took warrants out for his arrest.

Green has maintained his innocence and his attorneys filed a motion for a new trial shortly after his sentencing.

In that motion, Green’s attorneys Luke Martin and Stewart Bratcher argued that the court had committed three errors during the trial: the court failed to excuse a juror for checking their social media to see if they were related to Green, allowing photos of testimony concerning bullet trajectory and allowing an autopsy report to go back with jurors during deliberations.

Floyd County Superior Court Judge William “Billy” Sparks, in an order published on June 26, denied the request for a new trial.

“The state introduced evidence sufficient for a jury to conclude that the defendant committed felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony,” Sparks wrote.

That evidence included two surveillance videos of the incident taken from the Hi Tec gas station and Maaco near the area as well as several eyewitnesses at the crime.

Testimony in the case showed that Green and another yet unidentified male were in the car with Whatley, opened fire and then fled. The defense argued that the surveillance videos and evidence from the crime scene proved the shots were fired from outside the vehicle and should have exonerated Green.

“The court disagrees,” Sparks wrote. “Even assuming (for argument’s sake) there was another shooter, it does not preclude the jury from finding the defendant also shot the victim.”