Original subtitles

The following program documents a real homicide case, the investigation, the

pursuit of justice, and the lasting impact on the loved ones left behind.

Unless you're a parent and you've ever

walked in the door and seen a child come to you with that love in their eyes

and embrace you.

You don't understand what I've been going through. We had to deal with a

of rumors and lies about why my son was killed on Valentine's Day, Your Honor.

It's going to be a single gunshot wound to the head.

When I first get the call, I don't know what to think.

That's going to be our suspect vehicle right there.

I believe he may have did something.

Who are you referring to?

Server, jump out of the vehicle slowly.

We may never find out the real truth behind why my son had to die.

The jury wants to know why. You know, the family wanted answers as well.

I'm hoping that he comes out into the light and really tells the truth of what

happened.

There was no direct evidence that my client shot anybody going to war.

Without being able to present a motive, the jury couldn't find him not guilty.

For those most affected by a homicide,

the first 48 is just the beginning.

I just wish you would have a chance to meet me there and you would understand

why we're so passionate about what we're seeking today.

This is the story of the fight for justice.

Anything else? No, not the fight. In the weeks, months, and years after

the first 48.

Today, 911, what is the address of your emergency?

Hunter Ridge Lane, Norcross.

And what's going on there?

We are released six shots, and on the walk outside, this guy, he's laying on

ground bleeding.

Does he feel like he's breathing?

He's still breathing.

We've already got police and paramedics on the way.

It's had 111 to radio.

It's going to be a single gunshot wound to the head.

The victim is clinging to life.

Definitely not normal to get a call just

before noon on Valentine's Day Sunday.

So you're thinking, you know, what kind of case am I walking into?

Is this something that's random or is this something that's personal?

It kind of makes it seem like the person who's responsible doesn't really care

if anybody sees them.

Daylight murder, midday on Valentine's Day, brazen.

When I first get the call, I don't know what to think.

Our victim's name?

Darian Dennis.

24 -year -old Darian Dennis was

a star football player when his high school won the state championship.

A student at Hutchinson Community College, he plans to get a commercial

license.

Right there.

There was some spent shell casings.

They looked to me to be about .40 caliber.

And there was a .40 caliber Glock that was there.

That gun, it was next to his hand that was laid out flat.

Like it was in his hand when he fell.

It appeared that the victim had gotten off some shots.

There was no other shell casings.

So where were the suspects casings?

There's no indications except for what are traditionally known as a defect,

which is where a bullet passes through the wall.

He had two.

bullet holes through his wall.

Hey, can you show us those bullet holes in your apartment?

They went through the kitchen area.

There it is.

Right there.

Then it exited the kitchen interior wall and eventually exited the building. So

high velocity, very powerful round.

Given the size of the hole, it looked to me like it was going to be a rifle

round.

Where are the tasers, man?

But that was it. There was no other ballistic evidence.

The victim's

family had arrived on scene.

You can't help but feel for them.

I got a phone call from his mom, and she was hysterical, and she said, someone

shot Darian.

And my heart kind of went from my chest to my shoe.

Your mind

goes to who did it.

Why'd they do it?

You know, what was it about?

We went to the hospital, and when they walked in the room and told us that he

had passed, it crushed me.

Crushed his mom.

You want to just, you know, just hold him.

And it's strange to feel your child with no life in him.

Two hours in, now with the homicide case.

The dad said that the victim always carried a gun on him.

I made sure that both of my kids, when they were of age, were legal gun

carriers. You want to be in a position to where you can protect yourself.

You don't know what you're going to encounter.

I mean, Darian was walking home from a store that he had walked home from a

thousand times without incident.

He said he decided to walk up to the A1 office.

The convenience store was right across the street from where the incident

happened.

We found someone that was there.

Defect in the driver's side door.

That would match the evidence that he squeezed off two rounds.

So let's say they pull up here.

If someone's sitting in a car here, Dunning, look at the level at which the

is.

See? It's kind of low.

The first things that are going through my mind are inside this car.

Are we going to find shell casings?

Our next move was to see if we can identify that car.

Moments before the 911 call, a license plate reader near the complex captured a

car matching the suspect vehicle.

LPRs are stationed all over Gwinnett County.

License plate reader.

We'll have to see if we can track it.

We were able to locate a cream -colored Toyota Camry. Last hit in Cobb County

off of Bentley Road at 148.

Another LPR just photographed the same car 17 miles away.

30 minutes ago, we got pretty lucky.

In Cobb. So they left the area quick.

Come up with an address out of Cobb?

Her last known address is in Marietta. It looked like the vehicle was headed

back to where the registered owner lived.

And so at that point, we head out towards Cobb County.

I'm starting to get excited.

We knew we were on the right path.

Here's a vehicle that we know was at a homicide scene in Gwinnett County

earlier. I knew in my mind that a rifle was used. That's a game changer.

I don't want you guys to get shot.

In order for our safety, we kind of backed off a little bit, and then the

left the apartment complex.

Your heart's racing.

How's this going to play out?

Is it a suspect?

Does the suspect have the weapon in the vehicle?

Driver! Step out of the vehicle, slowly!

Stop!

Was there anyone else in the vehicle? No.

It appears that this is going to be the registrar on this drive in the vehicle.

Seven hours into the investigation.

Initially, we kind of wanted to go soft.

However, she may know exactly what happened.

Trying to figure out where you were and what you were doing today.

I got back home around 8.

Okay. Are you currently living with somebody?

Some. My ex -boyfriend, his friend lives with me.

What is his friend's name?

Quinton Walton.

So you came back at 8 a .m. Where was Quinton?

I went to my room and saw he might have been there. I'm not sure, but it's him.

Around 10 -ish, he came over.

She says a friend, then picked her up to go shopping.

So what time did you actually get back to your apartment this evening?

It was around 6.

And then I got in my car and I drove off.

Did you notice any damage to your vehicle?

When I was getting pulled over, I get out the car, I see, like, there's two

holes on the driver's side.

It was taped.

I'm just like, what's going on?

Not really sure if I was buying that.

When you first get in the car, it's pretty clear that your mirror's broken

there's duct tape on your driver door.

So we knew we kind of had to go at her a little bit harder.

The reason why I'm asking all these questions is because your car was

in a shooting.

Unfortunately, the person who got shot didn't make it.

So this is a homicide investigation.

You're more than welcome to start over.

She did kind of, like, take those deep breaths, like the, okay, reality's kind

of setting in.

I believe he may have did something.

Who are you referring to?

Quentin.

I do have a spare key.

I keep it in the kitchen.

So Quentin could potentially have access to your car?

Mm -hmm.

He called me a lot today.

It was after 11.

He was like, something happened.

He went and told me what happened.

I did text him, and I was like, are you good?

He said, cleaning.

When he said he was cleaning, you didn't say, what the hell are you talking

about? I was just doing my own thing, so I was like, okay.

Did he say anything about anybody being with him?

He didn't say, but I kind of, like, heard his voice.

He's, like, fixing.

Second individual.

Sounds like what our initial witness said.

You don't have a problem with us looking through the phone?

She has contact information for both the

teenager and Quinton.

30 -year -old Quinton Lawton grew up in Florida and recently got married.

He has a prior conviction for armed false imprisonment and served six years

robbery in Broward County, Florida.

We have Quinton, who is a grown man, driving around potentially with a

teenager. And outside that teenager being a family member, That's a little

sketchy.

Maybe there's some angle, street gang or something like that, and this could be

an initiation where the teenager ends up committing a crime.

We have our ideas and theories, but evidence hasn't come to light. We still

don't know what happened.

The next morning.

The surveillance.

footage from the A1 market.

That's Darian right there.

Definitely eerie to see this.

We're talking just minutes before he gets gunned down.

Apparently there wasn't an issue just prior to the homicide because he's not

acting like there was.

So what had happened on the street?

It's like He was supposed to meet somebody there or something.

He's kind of walking off away from the building now, heading in the direction

his apartment complex.

That's it. That's going to be our suspect vehicle right there.

That kind of got me excited. What happened? What interaction did they

Do I believe that suspect vehicle was maybe following the victim in the

apartment complex?

Could it have been some sort of a drug deal? There's no evidence of it.

But it had the feel that this was a personal thing as opposed to just a

act. Got to be a connection.

But the video doesn't show any interaction between the suspect vehicle

victim. So that just, once again, leaves it as a mystery.

Turns right.

Pulls left into the apartment complex.

To see someone not a care in the world, and then within a minute or so, I mean,

your life can be turned around in literally a second.

This is one minute away from when the gunshots go off.

What happened back there?

What led to Darian being killed?

My brother always wanted me to do the right, like a real big brother. And

Guardian, like, he really took his role, like, seriously.

He had a tattoo on his ribcage, five -inch letters, my brother's keeper, and

a pair of boxing gloves that had Devontae and Jaden's names.

Darien, he was a big car head. He loved cars.

This is Ruby B.

This 03 Crown Vic is number one, baby.

I'm going to give it another paint job, definitely make sure they get the rims

on it, put it back as his dream, look at how he wanted it.

If he was around you, he was going to have an impact on you.

He made me better, and I don't know.

if I got a chance to let him know that he did that.

But I know for a fact he loved me.

And I know for a fact that he knew that I loved him.

You've got to find a connection and you've got to find a motive.

What happened and how it happened and who was involved, ultimately our goal is

to find those things.

But as to why it happened, a motive is important to come up with.

The day after Darian's murder.

So we did the search warrant on the suspect vehicle.

Hello.

Layered out.

You could see based on the trajectory of the bullet, it went from the inside

out.

See it singed and burnt?

Yeah. That's from the muzzle.

The firearm that was used was almost touching the door. So that would

place it in the driver's possession.

It's almost in line with the steering wheel.

If it was being shot from the passenger side, the driver would have to be laying

back like completely.

There's duct tape on the floorboard.

Hoping we can find Prince.

A week after Darian's homicide.

The owner of the vehicle, we got her phone records back.

Her fake time message was at 11 .55.

Just 13 minutes after the murder.

The owner of the vehicle FaceTimed with Quinton.

At 12 noon, she's researching body repair shops near me.

At 2 .30 that afternoon, she was researching Gwinnett County and, like,

homicide.

That would show that the owner of the vehicle knew that we were investigating

homicide while we were talking to her in the initial interview.

I'm just like, what's going on?

She was feigning all this surprise.

She's a liar.

We definitely need to have another conversation.

Hopefully that will lead us in the direction to obtain an arrest warrant

Quentin.

When people lie to you and you catch them in a lie, how do you go about a

second interview with them?

Give him a chance to correct himself.

Did he physically come to you and say, hey, can I use your car? I've got to run

out. Did that happen?

Yes.

And did he tell you what he needed to use your car for as opposed to his car?

No, he didn't say.

So he does whatever with your car.

And then he makes a couple of phone calls to you.

Mm -hmm. Yep.

He was coming to me.

And he said that somebody's trying to rob him.

You see where this is, like, different than what you told me the initial day?

It went from don't know a whole lot to now I have an armed robbery that

that was never reported to the police.

So I basically kind of spelled it out for him.

You did a search warrant on your phone, okay?

At one point, you start searching what happened.

How did you know where it happened?

When we were getting ready to leave, we see him.

He said that he was in picture cards.

I saw that. There was a sign.

You didn't put two and two together and be like, who shot?

Who shot who? Who did what?

There's more to this, clearly, because you didn't tell me everything the first

night. You're still not telling me everything today.

I am. I'm telling you everything.

After two weeks of reaching out to both suspects...

Hey, this is Detective Dunning.

It's headquarters calling.

All right, thanks.

I got some information. It sounds like my main suspect, Quentin Lawton,

an attorney.

Quentin's looking to maybe lay down a sort of self -defense claim.

The story that Quentin's telling him, that Quentin was driving the juvenile

to Petrie Corners to go see a girlfriend.

It was Valentine's Day.

You know, we were lost, we were asking for directions, and somebody got

aggressive with us.

He got agitated real fast and immediately pulled a gun out.

Next, his gunshots are being exchanged.

I didn't buy the story.

You know, GPS on your phone. If you're lost...

Why do you dump off into an apartment complex where our victim is walking to

he ultimately ends up shot and killed?

Everything points in the direction of you being deceptive, that you're guilty,

and that you're running.

It just doesn't make sense.

It just looks like they were prepared for a little bit more than a date.

All we have now is a story from the suspect, which doesn't appear to be

what happened.

And for me to just take a statement from his attorney that this was self

-defense and we should just wash our hands of it, I'm not taking that at all.

You got enough to take warrants out of him.

Since he didn't want to voluntarily come in for a statement, we had to move on

with the evidence that we had.

One month since Darien's murder.

We were able to get arrest warrants for Quinton in the case.

Definitely it's a big win for us.

As the warrants unit keeps watch on the residence of one of Quinton's friends.

I was really motivated to do what I could for Mr. Dennis.

Mr. Dennis, how are you? There

are two individuals that we're looking

at.

One individual, I went ahead and secured arrest warrant.

We've been praying that we can get a resolution to it.

Bittersweet.

The minute that Detective Dunning told us we have a suspect, now you're

You're fixated on why they do it. You know, what was it about?

We're doing everything we can to help you and your family and your son.

This one picture means a lot to us because it kind of embodies Darian's

I want you to have this.

I want you to kind of think about this guy and how you got him to justice.

I'm touched, man. I appreciate it on your desk.

God bless you.

It's one of my favorite pictures of Darian doing something sports -related.

He's perfect in this picture.

He's got the ball high and tight. He's stiff -arming the defender.

If you look at his eyes, he's laser -focused.

He's ready to do a little damage there.

He wanted me to have that as motivation.

Detective Dunning.

At his friend's apartment, Quinton is taken into custody.

All right, sir, thank you.

He did not want to speak with detectives at the time of his arrest.

He was transported to the Gwinnett County Jail.

It's good to know that somebody is being held accountable.

It was exciting, but not case closed.

Almost two months later.

It was nice to get our hands on the phone records.

There's got to be a connection, some communication between Quentin and

some electronic evidence that they knew each other, but that's not what we

found.

There were no phone calls between Darian and Quinton.

I was surprised.

It's still kind of a mystery as to why it happened.

The phone records for Quinton, take a look.

The cell phone location information for the suspect's phone, that's extremely

important because remember, no one was able to ID him. They're the same.

Right at 11 .30, Quinton's phone.

Pings off the nearest tower so close.

That's damning because he was there.

At this point here, the only solution for this case is go to trial.

Quentin Lawton, unfortunately, he didn't make a statement when he was arrested.

So the big question I had when I first got the case was, was why?

There are a number of theories.

It's a drug deal slash robbery.

Was this revenge for something?

Was there some prior difficulties between the parties? Somebody was

someone's girlfriend.

Sales transaction on Facebook marketplace or something similar.

Was this some sort of gang activity?

With ruling out.

All the likely motives, that was the problem.

The jury wants to know why.

The family wanted answers as well.

We knew what type of kid Darian was, man. If you knew him, you wouldn't even

speculate or say anything that ridiculous.

But for whatever reason, this person thought it was justified to kill

Darian. And we had every imaginable weird rumor.

And nobody can give you answers.

Without being able to present a motive to the jury, it wasn't a slam -dunk

There was a risk involved.

The jury could find him not guilty.

There were things left unresolved.

There was still the juvenile.

That phone number that was associated with the juvenile was not in the area of

the murder. It was many miles away, but Quinton could be a source of that

cooperating information against the teenager.

Quinton Lawton needed to cooperate.

I came into the case August of 2022.

At that point in time, the charges were felony murder, aggravated assault,

possession of a firearm.

So that's a pretty serious case.

When I'm going to trial, I like to put the prosecutor on notice.

Don't make any plans for your anniversary.

Don't make any plans for your child's birthday party.

I'm going to war.

If I was a defense attorney, I would go with the self -defense route.

We know the victim fired his gun.

But self -defense requires you to say, I did it. So for me, it wouldn't have

been a self -defense case because Quentin is sort of like a bystander.

And there was no direct evidence that my client, Quentin Lawton, shot anybody.

The evidence against Quentin Lawton, very strong circumstantial evidence.

That's just, that's flat not true.

The car owner indicated that Quentin Lawton had possession of the car.

Quentin borrowed her vehicle.

He easily could have loaned the car to somebody else without her knowledge.

He told her that somebody had tried to rob him, and they shot up her car.

She described him as panicked.

And I suspect he's going to be panicked because he's bringing her car back with

two bullet holes in it.

CSI were able to lift several latent prints off the vehicle, prints of

Lawton, and his fingerprint was found on the exterior side of a duct tape roll.

That makes perfect sense. Put duct tape over the bullet holes so I'm not stopped

by other police saying, hey, why do you have these bullet holes in your car?

His cell phone was in the location of the murder. He had borrowed the car and

was present at the time of the murder.

Quentin's phone is probably there, and it can just be sitting in the vehicle.

But what we don't know from all this evidence is that Quentin was there, and

that's the problem.

We can see very well why they put handcuffs on my client, but we can also

explain to you why you should take the handcuffs off.

I knew there was a risk at going to trial, so I called Dwayne and told him

I was considering offering the defendant a deal for him to plead something less

than felony murder.

It's a tough decision to make as a family, but we need to know the truth

what happened to my son.

And the only way we could really get access to that was by making a deal.

Quentin Lawton's plea hearing begins.

When I saw him, strangely, I felt sorry for him.

He looked pitiful.

I'm not interested in any BS.

I want the truth about what happened to my son.

But there is a delay.

Quentin Lawton can say, no, a defendant always has the ability to stop the

process.

You've been sitting in a cell for almost three years.

You knew this day was coming.

What was going on?

No, no.

I think Quentin felt the weight of the moment.

He's just making sure you're doing what you want to do.

Do you want to go ahead and proceed with the plea today?

Yes, ma 'am. Even though you may appear to be hesitant?

Yes, ma 'am. Okay, go ahead.

There's a difference between saying, yes, I'm going to take voluntary mass

slaughter at the jail and now standing in front of the judge and saying, I did

it.

So please give me 10 years in prison.

Quentin Law admitted in front of the world, in front of Darian's family, his

involvement in the murder of Darian Dennis.

Part of me wanted to speak directly

to the defendant.

Because you kind of want to peer into that person and see if they have a soul.

Unless you're a parent and you've ever walked in the door and seen a child

come to you with that love in their eyes and embrace you,

you don't understand what I've been going through.

I wanted to make sure he heard.

The pain in my voice that he understood and what they took from us

was immeasurable.

We had to deal with a bunch of rumors and lies.

One of the things that is the most hurtful about this is we may never find

the real truth behind why my son had to die.

The plea negotiation was the beginning of another chapter in the case.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

Given a chance to let you know what really happened, I would do that.

Well, the special terms and conditions of probation outlined by the state, and

in my personal opinion, most important one is the cooperation.

Is that something you are giving everybody your word that you will carry

Yes, ma 'am.

I'm hoping that he comes out into the light and really tells what was the

and the truth of what happened on Valentine's Day on 21.

He had a beautiful family. Tell people to make sure they're very alone during

this process.

I just wish you would have a chance with me, Jerry, and you would understand why

we're so passionate about what we're seeking today.

And the only thing we're really concerned about is truth and justice and

anything else.

No, not five.

Imagine a big puzzle of your family.

Big, important piece. That piece is gone.

Quentin didn't get sentenced to state. We did.

We got sentenced. We got sentenced to life.

I hope he's cooperative and does what he's supposed to do.

The next day, investigators from Gwinnett County Police Department went

the jail for Quinton to give a statement.

So we're just here to see what you can provide as part of your deal.

We just ended up going to Gwinnett.

Quinton says he was not alone when he rode into Darien's neighborhood.

I knew somebody that lived over there, too.

He was trying to get dropped off first.

So we ended up turning on that little street.

There was an encounter between the occupants of Quinton's vehicle and the

victim, Darian.

Now, this is Dane.

I didn't know him.

I never met him before.

We talking about the victim?

Yeah. Okay.

Turned around, backing up.

Don't see him.

And almost hit him.

Quinton Long claims that started an argument.

Quinton says Darian was carrying a weapon.

Kind of reminds me of a road rage incident where, you know, someone gets

for what?

But who was shooting?

There were other, at least one other individual that was involved in the

shooting. So the investigation of this case is ongoing.

There are obviously things that we need to kind of hold tight so we can follow

up on and not jeopardize any future prosecutions in the case. But the

as to motive, I felt like Duane really needed that question answered.

Six weeks later.

Hopefully, you know, speaking to the DA, finding out what evidence they've been

able to compile, we'll kind of put the pieces of the puzzle that we don't know

back to you.

So Quentin Lawn did make some statements as to the why.

He stated that they were turning the car around and he bumped Darian or got very

close to him.

which started an argument.

There was an individual in the car that was armed, and shots were fired.

Your son was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wow.

Right.

So it seemed like a random act.

That's a... Wow. You know, I don't even know how to...

How to process it. How to process it, you know, because...

That's something that could have, it didn't have to escalate to that.

To hear confirmation that our son

is exactly who we've always thought he was, the word I keep using is

bittersweet. And, you know, and it's more bitter than sweet.

Valentine's Day brings up all those emotions. Like when you're walking into

store, everybody else is thinking about candy and teddy bears and balloons, and

we're thinking about Daring.

Whenever I see a picture or I hear a story that I haven't heard before, it's

kind of like opening up a new gift.

So that's the way we keep them alive.

Like always, I miss you.

We miss you.

Can't wait to see you again.