An Alabama man was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences in prison after pleading guilty to the murders of a pregnant 26-year-old and her unborn child in Georgia, according to the Coweta Judicial Circuit district attorney.
Breanna Burgess, who was 20 weeks pregnant, was found dead early in the morning of July 27, 2022, near Fort Drive and Whitesville Road in LaGrange, Georgia, Atlanta News First reported. District Attorney John Cranford Jr. said she had been stabbed in the throat at least 14 times, and she and her unborn child were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police used cell phone records to locate a friend Burgess was with before she was killed. The friend told officers she had last seen Burgess with 30-year-old Curteze Avery of La Fayette, Alabama, as they were driving away in a neon green Chevrolet Camaro, the district attorney said.
Investigators were able to use traffic cameras to locate the car coming to and from the crime scene, prosecutors said.
Officers found the car at a home in LaGrange a few hours after the murder with blood on the outside of it, Cranford said. Subsequently, investigators obtained a search warrant for both the car and the home and found Avery hiding inside the home, according to the report.
“Police found blood throughout the inside of the car, inside the home, and blood-stained clothes in the washing machine and dryer,” the report states, citing prosecutors.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab performed a DNA analysis and found the blood was a match for Burgess, Cranford said.
“Another suspect, Shallandra Freeman, was also arrested at the home and charged with murder and feticide. The status of her case is unclear,” according to the report. “Investigators at the time said Avery, Freeman, and Burgess had been acquaintances for several years and Burgess was targeted.”
Shallandra Freeman (LaGrange Police Department)
Avery was indicted on charges of malice murder and feticide by a Troup County grand jury on October 26, 2022. On March 27, 2024, he pleaded guilty to the charges.
He will become eligible for parole in 2052, “but the parole board will be authorized to reject his request,” Cranford said.
“Curteze Avery cut short the life Breanna Burgess and her unborn child. For this, it is just that he is now sentenced to serve life in prison,” Cranford said in a statement. “While the family of Ms. Burgess will never fully heal from this senseless crime, the District Attorney’s Office is relieved to have obtained a Life sentence without the family experiencing the difficulty and uncertainty of a jury trial.”
