George Prince appears in a mugshot from October 2019. (Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office)
A Florida man was found guilty this week on two counts of murder for killing a 19-year-old pregnant woman and the child she was carrying. Now, he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars.
George Prince, 30, was sentenced by Judge Mark Borello to two consecutive life sentences in Florida State Prison without the possibility of parole immediately after the verdict, the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit said in a press release.
The horrific crime occurred on Oct. 7, 2019, according to an arrest report obtained by Law&Crime. Iyana McGraw, 19, was found in the dining room of her apartment suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. McGraw was rushed to a hospital, but she “died from her injuries,” the report notes.
The victim was nine months pregnant at the time of the shooting, and doctors successfully performed an emergency C-section. Baby Milan McGraw was born and transferred to another hospital in critical condition, then transferred to a specialty children’s hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. The child died on Jan. 10, 2020, “due to complications” from the shooting, the police report notes.
After a less-than-two-day trial, jurors spent 15 minutes deliberating before convicting Prince on two counts of murder in the first degree.
According to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, the evidence against Prince was nothing shy of overwhelming – leading to a recorded confession in which the defendant gave “detailed information” that matched concomitant investigatory efforts about how he killed both McGraw and her baby girl, the report says.
Two guns were used in the shooting, and both were recovered by detectives, according to the JSO. At least one of those guns was used by Prince. One of the guns was found with a co-defendant who later pleaded guilty to his involvement, according to prosecutors.
The arrest report says a witness told police that Prince had promised the second man with the second gun, Gerod Fields, 29, $1,000 for his help shooting up the apartment – but that “he never got paid.”
Fields pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the second degree for his role in the slayings. He is awaiting sentencing.
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A second unidentified witness told police that she had just finished watching TV on the night of the murder when she heard gunshots, the report says. Then, the witness said, she looked outside and saw the man she knew as “Dougie” in the parking lot of the victim’s apartment complex, firing a handgun. That man, she said, was Prince.
As for the motive, the genesis, at least, was steeped in illegal drugs.
According to the report, two people provided law enforcement with information that Prince and Miles Hall, McGraw’s boyfriend at the time, were somehow involved in a drug-related feud.
This feud allegedly culminated in someone firing several shots into Prince’s apartment – just hours before the defendant went off in search of vengeance. The defendant blamed the attack on his apartment on Hall, one witness said. Police later confirmed that Prince’s apartment had been “shot up” earlier that day.
So, prosecutors said, Prince planned to “send him a message.”
Cellphone evidence was later provided to police that placed Prince at and near McGraw’s apartment complex around the time of the shooting. A witness said Prince ran from his apartment around 7:45 p.m. on the night in question, wearing latex gloves and holding a gun. The defendant explained to her he had to “go handle something.”
Ronald McNair, a suspect in another case, said Prince and Hall were previously friends “who had a falling out over drugs.” After he and Prince were arrested on unrelated charges by the ATF two days later, McNair told law enforcement that Prince did believe Hall was responsible for the attempt on his life – and that he was invited along on the reprisal shooting by Prince, who was primed, looking for Hall, and ready to go: wearing latex gloves and with a pistol in tow.
McNair, however, declined to come along with Prince for the fatal crime – saying it was unclear who did the initial shooting.
“I don’t care,” Prince said in response. “I kill women and children, too.”
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