​District Attorney Marie Broder was the featured speaker at the March meeting of the Griffin-Spalding Pulaski Chapter of the D.A.R. D.A. Broder discussed current issues in the Griffin Judicial Circuit and the role of the District Attorney. If you would like the District Attorney to speak to your group contact her assistant at khaynie@fayettecountyga.gov.

​Today, Joe Louis Arnold, a 46 year old man from McDonough, entered a guilty plea to one count of Rape and one count of False Imprisonment. He was sentenced to 30 years to serve in the Georgia Department of Corrections. District Attorney Broder handled the case and presented the plea to the Honorable Rhonda Kreuziger, who accepted it. The victim and her family were present at the plea and addressed the Court in a victim impact statement.
 
Arnold pled guilty to entering the home of the victim on March 24, 1998, beating her with a baseball bat, and raping her in her kitchen. The case went unsolved until November 18, 2020 when the defendant was arrested. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in 2020 requested that the DNA from the rape kit undergo familial DNA analysis. After that analysis, the defendant’s profile emerged as a match to the profile from the rape kit. A confirmation test was performed at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the defendant’s DNA was indeed a match to the DNA in the rape kit. After the confirmation, the defendant was arrested.
 
District Attorney Broder said of the plea: “this was truly a team effort between my office and the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. I cannot say thank you enough to the Sheriff’s Office and the work they did on this case. I am so proud of the victim and the strength she displayed throughout this case. She is a remarkable person, and I am honored to know her. This plea is a testament to tenacity and a refusal to give up on the part of all involved.” 

​Today, Joe Louis Arnold, a 46 year old man from McDonough, entered a guilty plea to one count of Rape and one count of False Imprisonment. He was sentenced to 30 years to serve in the Georgia Department of Corrections. District Attorney Broder handled the case and presented the plea to the Honorable Rhonda Kreuziger, who accepted it. The victim and her family were present at the plea and addressed the Court in a victim impact statement.
 
Arnold pled guilty to entering the home of the victim on March 24, 1998, beating her with a baseball bat, and raping her in her kitchen. The case went unsolved until November 18, 2020 when the defendant was arrested. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office in 2020 requested that the DNA from the rape kit undergo familial DNA analysis. After that analysis, the defendant’s profile emerged as a match to the profile from the rape kit. A confirmation test was performed at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the defendant’s DNA was indeed a match to the DNA in the rape kit. After the confirmation, the defendant was arrested.
 
District Attorney Broder said of the plea: “this was truly a team effort between my office and the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. I cannot say thank you enough to the Sheriff’s Office and the work they did on this case. I am so proud of the victim and the strength she displayed throughout this case. She is a remarkable person, and I am honored to know her. This plea is a testament to tenacity and a refusal to give up on the part of all involved.” 

​Yesterday, a Spalding County jury convicted Malik Yarbrough of Malice Murder, Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault, and Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony. The jury deliberated for 25 minutes before delivering it’s verdict. Senior Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Presley and Assistant District Attorney Adelle Petersen tried the case for the State. Griffin Police Department investigated the murder.
 
Yarbrough, an 18 year old man from Griffin, was convicted of shooting Robert Donnel Brown in the back 3 times, killing him. The defendant claimed self-defense, but the jury rejected that defense with its verdict. Yarbrough murdered Brown on July 14, 2020 in the yard of a home on Melrose Avenue in Griffin.
 
District Attorney Broder said of the verdict: “Robert Brown lost his life in a senseless act of violence. He was gunned down and executed by a man who did not have any regard for his life. Yesterday, a Spalding County jury sent a clear message to those like Yarbrough who commit violent crimes in our community…these acts will not be tolerated. I am proud of my office who worked so hard to bring this case to a jury. For those in this community who insist on continuing to bring violence to Spalding County, know this, my office is staffed and ready to continue to aggressively pursue and prosecute you.”
 
The Honorable Scott Ballard will sentence Yarbrough on March 24th.