On Wednesday, a DeKalb County man was ordered to serve 60 years in prison after a jury found he shot his pregnant girlfriend in the head and left her near a walking trail in Decatur in March 2023. She survived following emergency care and a medically induced coma, and the couple’s unborn child was delivered prematurely and also survived. Prosecutors say digital footprints and recovered messages were key to making the case stick.
The DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office said 27-year-old Donald Wooten was convicted of criminal attempt to commit murder, criminal attempt to commit feticide, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and received a 60-year sentence, according to WSB-TV. A jury returned the guilty verdict on April 20, 2026.
Where It Happened
Chapel Hill Park is listed on the county’s parks pages as a DeKalb County facility that features walking trails and open green space, according to DeKalb County. After the shooting, the injured woman was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for emergency treatment, per Grady Health.
Prosecutors' Case
Prosecutors told jurors that officers responding on the morning of March 4 found the visibly pregnant woman curled up near the trail, with a gunshot wound to the back of her head. Doctors later determined the bullet had entered behind her left ear, and she was placed in a medically induced coma. Investigators introduced cellphone location data and movie theater receipts that they said clashed with Wooten’s early statements and undercut his claim that he simply left the area after seeing a film. They also presented messages and jail calls in which he allegedly asked a relative to wipe his phone remotely, talked about retrieving a gun, and exchanged texts about the pregnancy, and jurors heard the victim testify that her last clear memory was walking through Chapel Hill Park, as reported by WSB-TV.
What The Law Says
Under Georgia law, feticide is treated as a serious felony, and the statute allows for a life sentence when the conduct causes the death of an unborn child, per O.C.G.A. § 16-5-80. State rules for serious violent felonies also sharply restrict parole and early-release eligibility, so a multi-decade term like Wooten’s typically translates into a long stretch in prison before any potential review under O.C.G.A. § 17-10-6.1.
