A Waycross man was sentenced last week to life in prison without parole plus 10 years in Ware County Superior Court for the murder three years ago of his teenaged daughter in Waycross.
Jacmine Maurice Hicks, 37, was sentenced Thursday, December 18 by Judge J. Kelly Brooks in the guns hot death of Jakayla Hicks in the early morning hours of August 18, 2022.
Hicks was found guilty of felony murder by a jury following a two-day trial that ended December 12 in the Ware County Courthouse.
According to a Waycross Police Department report, officers responded at approximately 4:41 a.m., August 18, 2022, to a call of gunfire on Columbus Street near its intersection with Elizabeth Street. Officers began a search of the area and located a wrecked Dodge Charger in a wooded area just off the intersection of Columbus Street and Georgia 520 (S. Georgia Parkway).
They located a young girl, later identified as Jakayla Hicks, injured in the vehicle’s driver’s seat. She was removed from the vehicle by responders, who administered CPR.
The juvenile, however, succumbed to the injuries suffered in the incident. Jacmine Hicks, who had been a passenger in the car, was found injured some distance away from the vehicle.
Hicks was transported by Ware County EMS to Memorial Satilla Health for treatment.
The resident of 619 Martin Luther King Drive in Waycross, was on parole from prison at the time of the incident, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections website. Hicks had been serving a sentence for Voluntary Manslaughter, but was released April 1, 2021 with his parole set to end April 18, 2023, records showed.
Hicks
Investigators later determined the juvenile had been shot in the car, and the vehicle crashed into the woods.
A warrant for murder was obtained August 19 for Hicks, who was still in the hospital for his injuries.
He was arrested the afternoon of August 23, 2022 on that charge, and additionally charged with Aggravated Assault, Possession of a Sawed-off Shotgun, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of Certain Crimes, and Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon.
He was booked into the Ware County Jail with no bond being set.
