Man Killed a Mother and Her Teen Son — and Left an 8-Year-Old Alone in the House with Their Bodies By Christine Pelisek

A Georgia man was found guilty of fatally shooting his girlfriend and her 15-year-old son and then attempting to flee to Mexico.

William Jerome Adams, 29, was convicted of two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault for the killing of Mary Lindsay, 39, and her son Atif Muhammad, Jr. March 2021.

Adams was sentenced to two life sentences without the possibility of parole, the Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release on Friday, August 1.

“The verdict and sentence are fitting for a defendant who violently took the life of a mother and son and stole from them,” District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said. “We mourn with the victims’ family and hope that the outcome of the trial gives them some closure and justice.”

The case came to light on March 26, 2021, when Lindsay’s 19-year-old daughter went to check on the welfare of her mother after she hadn’t been heard from in several days.

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The daughter crawled through a window to get into the home in Flowery Branch and discovered her mother and brother deceased inside a locked bedroom.

She also found her 8-year-old brother sleeping in their mother’s bedroom. The boy had been home alone for two days and unaware of the murders.

Investigators found shell casings at the scene and concluded that Lindsay and Atif were killed two days earlier, on March 24, per prosecutors.

Adams was arrested the following day in Laredo, Texas, after he tried to cross the border into Mexico under a different name and without a passport, according to prosecutors.

Investigators also discovered that Adams stole $2,000 from Lindsay’s bank account.

According to prosecutors, Muhammad’s twin sister testified that 10 days prior to the attack, her siblings found a handgun in their mother’s room and took a photo of it, prosecutors said. When they asked Lindsay about the weapon, she told them that it was owned by Adams.

Jurors were also shown a photo Lindsay emailed to herself that showed an injury to her arm, which had allegedly been caused by Adams.