Guilty: How slain Middle GA student Anitra Gunn’s boyfriend was convicted of her murder
The 2020 killing of 22-year-old Fort Valley State University agriculture student Anitra LaShay Gunn captured national attention. The Atlanta native went missing on Valentine’s Day and was found a few days later strangled less than two miles from her home.
Seven days after she disappeared, her boyfriend, Demarcus Devantae Little, now 25, an Army sergeant stationed in Augusta, was charged with murder. Little’s murder trial began earlier this month in Fort Valley.
Here’s a timeline of the Telegraph’s reporting on Gunn’s murder:
11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 14, 2020: The last time Gunn was seen by anyone, other than her killer, was the morning of Valentine’s Day. Her family reported her missing the next day.
“If any harm has befell this young lady, the arrest and prosecution of the subject or subjects responsible will be of the highest priority for all agencies,” then-Fort Valley Police Chief Lawrence Spurgeon said in a statement on social media that day.
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020: Peach County Sheriff’s investigator Brian Stewart finds Gunn’s body found shortly before 3 p.m. along Greer Road, which sits east of U.S. 341 in southern Crawford County.
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020: Officials announce the arrest of Demarcus Little, Gunn’s boyfriend, initially charging him with damaging her car. He was later charged with one count of malice murder in connection with Gunn’s killing. Little was an Army sergeant based in Augusta who grew up in Fort Valley.
Friday, Feb. 28, 2020: Jaivon Thomas Abron, a friend of both Little and Gunn, makes his first appearance in court after allegedly making false statements to detectives on two occasions in Lowndes County in the wake of Gunn’s slaying. Abron would later testify during Little’s 2022 murder trial.
Monday, March 7, 2022: Demarcus Little’s murder trial begins in the Peach County Courthouse with Judge Connie L. Williford presiding. Little’s attorney, Benjamin Davis of Atlanta, argues Little isn’t the kind of person who could commit murder.
“We believe that in time what will be shown is that he’s really not capable of committing this kind of offense,” the attorney said. “If he were the kind of person that would commit a malice murder ... like this, that would have been borne out in the military.”
Tuesday, March 8: During opening statements, prosecutor Neil A. Halvorson described an at-times “toxic” relationship between Little and Gunn, a relationship “filled with control, threats, manipulation (and) possessiveness” on Little’s part.
Halvorson told jurors to anticipate evidence against Little to show that in the small hours of Feb. 14, 2020, “Demarcus had poured his heart out to Anitra, and she spurned him. She laughed. Demarcus Little then struck Anitra, hit her, and choked her — choked her to death, strangled her with his hands.”
Halvorson said that while Gunn was still missing, Little took Abron to the pine thicket in neighboring Crawford County where her body was dumped. Halvorson said the friends went there so that Little could retrieve the front bumper of Gunn’s 2013 Chevy Cruze. The bumper, Halvorson said, had been banged off when Little drove it into the woods to dump Gunn’s body.
The white bumper was found miles away, ditched by Little in an apparent attempt to distance it from Gunn’s remains, the prosecutor said.
Thursday, March 10: After prosecutors methodically laid groundwork hoping to prove a connection between the Chevy Cruze and the site where Gunn’s body was recovered, jurors are led outside the courthouse to see the car themselves.
Investigators testified that Little’s fingerprints and palm prints were found inside the car and on its trunk the day it turned up.
Friday, March 11: Jaivon Abron testifies that he didn’t know his friend had killed Gunn until he and Little were driving north of Fort Valley near Little’s aunt’s place on the afternoon of Feb. 16, 2020, when Little told him he had choked Gunn to death.
Abron said Little told him, “If I tell you this, bruh, you can’t say nothing to nobody. And if you do, you know what’s up.”
The trial continued Saturday. The court took a break Sunday and resumed Monday, March 14.
Tuesday, March 15: Little’s defense team rests, closing arguments are made, and the case is sent to the jury for a verdict. Tuesday evening, shortly after 8 p.m., the jury returned a guilty verdict, convicting Little of felony murder. He was sentenced to life without parole by Judge Williford.
