Man convicted in 2008 slaying: ‘I’m an innocent man’

A day after jurors found him guilty of murder, Benjamin Finney maintained they were wrong.

“I’m an innocent man,” he said during his Wednesday sentencing hearing. “I hope y’all have mercy on me.”

Gwendolyn Cole’s sisters, brother, son and ex-husband sat in the courtroom as a judge sentenced Finney to life in prison, plus an additional 10 years for his part in her fatal shooting in 2008.

Prosecutors weren’t able to seek life without the possibility of parole without also seeking the death penalty until after a change in the law went into effect in 2009.

Finney, 39, must serve 30 years before he’s eligible for parole.

Cole’s daughter, LaTanya Rose, attended the trial but had to return home to Virginia before the sentencing hearing.

Her aunt, Sonja Russell, read a letter written by Rose during the hearing after she read one of her own.

Rose wrote “a part of my soul died” on the night more than 70 assault rifle rounds were fired into her Bradstone Circle home in east Macon, Russell read. Another man, Marlon Jackson, also charged with murder in the case, is set to be tried separately.

Cole’s son and Finney had been involved in a series of escalating violent incidents in the days leading up to the shooting.

Cole, a 55-year-old widow, had been on the phone when someone came to her door and asked for her son. A moment later gunfire erupted.

A witness during Finney’s seven-day trial said Jackson, 37, likened what remained of the house to “Swiss cheese” and something out of Baghdad.

Another witness, who saw the house soon after the gunfire, said he initially thought it was on fire because of smoke rising from the roof.

Continuing to read from Rose’s letter, Russell said, “The person that taught me that there was good in everybody and everything suffered the most evil, painstaking death possible.”

Russell said her niece was afraid to answer her door after the killing. Depressed, she had trouble sleeping and eating.

But, after much prayer and realizing that her mother’s spirit lives on inside her, Rose wrote that she’s been able to begin to forgive the men who took her mother’s life.

“I was not honoring her by having hate and unforgiveness in my heart,” Russell read.

Addressing Finney, she went on to say, “I forgive you and I forgive Marlon.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2016 at 11:46 AM with the headline "Man convicted in 2008 slaying: ‘I’m an innocent man’."