Eight years after the killing, victim’s family feels closure

Eight years after 55-year-old Gwendolyn Cole was killed in a barrage of bullets that two men fired into her home, her family got some measure of closure on Friday.

“I’m glad it’s over with,” Alfonso Rose Sr., the father of Cole’s son, said after court. “I think justice was did.”

Marlon Jackson, the second gunman in the Feb. 4, 2008, slaying, pleaded guilty Friday to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Cole’s family was in the courtroom when Bibb County Superior Court Judge Ed Ennis said 37-year-old Jackson was a part of “the most heinous conduct I’ve ever been exposed to, and I’ve been around for a while.”

Jackson, who has been in prison since 2012, was sentenced to 20 years, 12 to be served in prison, for his part in the killing at 242 Bradstone Circle.

Last month, his accomplice, Benjamin Finney, was found guilty of murder after he declined the same plea deal offered to Jackson. Finney was sentenced to life in prison.

Evidence during Finney’s trial showed that he and Cole’s son, Alfonso Rose Jr., became involved in a series of violent episodes. Those clashes culminated in the firing of more than 70 shots from two assault rifles at Cole’s east Macon house. She died the next morning but was able to tell police what happened at the hospital.

Rose said he wished both of the gunmen had been sentenced on the same charges, but “Mr. Finney, he didn’t have no remorse at all. (Jackson) did have a little remorse.”

Prosecutor Sandra Matson said part of the reason the state offered a plea deal was because Jackson’s connection to two firearms used in the crime was revealed in wiretap evidence that was thrown out during Finney’s trial.

The judge said he would allow Jackson to plead to the lesser charge “only because of some evidentiary pitfalls that the state might confront” should his case reach a jury.

“It would be a travesty of justice to see Mr. Jackson walk free in the event of an acquittal,” the judge said.

After court, Rose said he was relieved.

“Sometimes you just have to accept things and go on and try to forgive,” Rose said. “Never forget, but you can forgive.”

This story was originally published December 16, 2016 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Eight years after the killing, victim’s family feels closure."