Man sentenced to life for machete murder in Cobb apartment
Mar. 26—A Lithia Springs man was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus 10 years after murdering his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend with a machete in her apartment on Mableton Parkway in 2020.
The sentence was handed down by Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Rob Leonard Thursday, according to a release from the Cobb District Attorney's Office.
On October 27, 2020, Russell Rendell Jr., 30, entered his ex-girlfriend's Mableton apartment uninvited and was forced to leave. But he returned a few moments later with a machete, using a key that he had secretly kept to get back inside. Then, Russell stabbed her then-boyfriend, 26-year-old Gregory James, over 10 times with the machete. James died of his injuries. Five children under the age of 18 were at the apartment during the murder, according to the district attorney's office.
Last week, a Cobb jury found Rendell guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a knife during commission of a felony, cruelty to children in the third degree, theft by taking, and possession of firearm by a convicted felon.
Assistant District Attorney Larissa Ollivierre and Senior Assistant District Attorney Erman Tanjuatco presented evidence, including testimony from Russell's ex-girlfriend, the children, Cobb police, Puckett EMS personnel and Cobb's Medical Examiner's Office.
"This was a senseless and heinous murder," Ollivierre and Tanjuatco said in a prepared statement. "Gregory James will never see his son graduate elementary, middle, or high school, and no verdict will change that. Still, we are thankful that the jury's verdict brings some form of closure to Mr. James' family and friends."
