Macon man pleads guilty in 2011 shooting death

A Macon man pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter Tuesday in the 2011 shooting death of a man he claimed stole marijuana and money from him.

Gregory Duane Londy, 29, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 more on probation.

During a plea hearing in Bibb County Superior Court, Londy, whose murder trial would have begun this week, apologized to his own family and said he knew his relatives were praying for him.

He was accused of gunning down 39-year-old Michael Dewayne Henderson with a 9 mm pistol at Henderson’s duplex on Rocky Creek Road, a block or so east of Interstate 75, near Triple Hill Drive.

The slaying happened Nov. 16, 2011, but because of a lack of evidence Londy, who lived south of there off Houston Avenue, wasn’t arrested until 2013.

Another shooter, someone firing a shotgun that wounded Henderson, is thought to have been involved, but the person has never been identified. No murder weapon was found.

Authorities have theorized that Londy and Henderson and two other men were part of a group that went around robbing drug dealers, and that their stash was at Londy’s house.

Londy claimed that Henderson had robbed Londy’s girlfriend at their house while Londy was gone, stealing “a significant amount of marijuana and cash,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney Nancy Scott Malcor.

The morning of the killing, Malcor said Londy made threats to members of Henderson’s family in the Rocky Creek Road area.

Malcor said Londy “was over there looking for the victim. He told them what he suspected the victim had done, and he said, ‘You let him know when I see him, I’m gonna spray him where he stands.’”

That night, Henderson died in a barrage of bullets in his front yard.

Londy, who had been charged with murder and possession of a firearm by a first-offender probationer, has been in the county jail since his December 2013 arrest.

Bibb sheriff’s Investigator Shaun Bridger was instrumental in tying Londy to Henderson’s slaying. For more than three years, he helped build the case against Londy.

“He really worked hard on it and promised the victim’s family he would never forget about the victim’s family,” Malcor said.

Bridger said Henderson’s aunt and others were prepared to testify that Londy had threatened to kill Henderson. Another woman who was driving by when Henderson was being shot identified Londy as the gunman.

“I interviewed and talked to everybody I could,” Bridger said.

Of the case’s outcome, he said, “Ten years wasn’t what I wanted, but he did get something and the family at least got some kind of justice.”

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Macon man pleads guilty in 2011 shooting death ."