RINGGOLD, Ga. -- A jury convicted 49-year-old Brian Colby Davenport this morning of murdering his girlfriend.
Davenport told investigators that Debora Abney killed herself in March 2016 in a rural stretch on Taylors Ridge Road. But members of the Catoosa County Sheriff's Office did not believe his account after crime scene technicians found mud in the barrel of the revolver, even though Abney supposedly shot herself in her car.
Davenport later told a detective that the gun flew out of the window after Abney shot herself. Then, he said he took the gun from her after she died, dropped it on the ground in a panic and tried to put it back in her hands.
Medical examiners later determined that Abney shot herself in the back of the head, which Lookout Mountain Assistant District Attorney Chris Arnt argued meant it was almost impossible for Abney to have killed herself.
The jury convicted Davenport of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, two counts of making false statements to investigators, two counts of possession of a firearm in the commission of a crime and two counts of tampering with evidence.