Curteze Avery was sentenced in the deaths of Breanna Burgess and her 20-week-old unborn child. (Mug shot photo via WXIA-TV/YouTube; Victim photo from GoFundMe)
An Alabama man was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing a pregnant woman in the throat a dozen times, killing her and her unborn child in Georgia.
Curteze Avery, 30, was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences in the deaths of Breanna Burgess and her 20-week-old unborn child. Prosecutors indicted him in October for malice murder and feticide. Avery will become eligible to seek parole in 2052, but the parole board will be authorized to reject his request, officials said.
Burgess was found dead near Fort Drive and Whitesville Road in LaGrange in the early morning hours of July 27, 2022. She had been stabbed in the throat at least 14 times, authorities said.
Police said they quickly identified suspects through cellphone records connecting Burgess to a friend with her shortly before the crime. The friend told police the last she saw Burgess was when he was with Avery, driving away in a neon green Chevrolet Camaro.
Investigators tracked the Camaro using LaGrange traffic cameras to and from the murder scene shortly before and after the time of the murders, officials said.
The Camaro was found at a residence in LaGrange a few hours after the murders with blood on the outside of the car. A search of the car and the residence Avery was found hiding in turned up Burgess’ blood.
“Curteze Avery cut short the life of Breanna Burgess and her unborn child,” said John Herbert Cranford, Jr., District Attorney, Coweta Judicial Circuit, in a statement. “For this, it is just that he is now sentenced to serve life in prison. 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.”
Breanna’s mother, Pamela Smith, was crushed, local ABC affiliate WTVM reported.
“She died in the car, and then they dropped her off on Fort Drive,” Smith said then. “Why did they take my baby?”
A GoFundMe page set up by her aunt said the 26-year-old single mother of three didn’t deserve it.
“This was the last thing we expected to happen,” the aunt said. “We are left to take care of her funeral and the kids left behind.”
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