Man found guilty for killing Black man 35 years ago for dating white woman
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Some 35 years after getting away with a murder, Frank Gebhart was found guilty in the 1983 brutal killing of Timothy Coggins in Georgia.
And now Coggins’ loved ones finally got justice and some peace.
Prosecutors in Spaulding County called it a hate crime and Gebhart now will spend the rest of his life in jail, after jurors found him guilty Tuesday.
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Prosecutors said Gebhardt and Bill Moore killed Coggins in a racially motivated murder by viciously stabbing him and then dragging his body behind a truck before dumping him in a field.
“We the jury unanimously find on the count of malice murder, guilty. On the count of felony murder, guilty,” Spalding County Superior Court Judge Fletcher Sams read.
Gebhardt was taken straight to prison.
The Coggins family shared their relief over the conviction.
“I’m so elated with joy I can’t even describe it in words,” Coggins’ niece, Heather Coggins, said.
Heather Coggins gave kudos to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Spalding County Sheriff Darrell Dix, for giving the case a second look after detectives testified that the earlier case had been mishandled.
“It wasn’t just a murder. It was a brutal heinous killing, and now we don’t have to tell our kids and our grandkids anymore than no one cared for your Uncle Tim, and now we have someone who’s guilty, who will spend the rest of his life in prison,” Coggins said.
Bill Moore, the other suspect is set to also be tried in the case sometime this year.
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Three other people were arrested in connection with the case for obstructing the investigation at the time of the murder, including two individuals who were in law enforcement at the time.
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