A Dougherty County judge sentenced 28-year-old Ryan Cooper to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 15 years, on Friday for the murder of his girlfriend, Lacambria Toomer. The sentencing closes out a case that stretched nearly four years without prosecutors ever recovering Toomer's body.
Chief Superior Court Judge Denise Marshall handed down the sentence at the Dougherty County Courthouse in Albany, according to Fox 8 WVUE. It came just weeks after a jury convicted Cooper of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and concealing the death of another, as reported by Court TV. Jurors deliberated for less than an hour before returning guilty verdicts on all counts on July 14.
What makes the case unusual is that Toomer's body has never been recovered, forcing Georgia prosecutors to build what is known as a “no-body” homicide case. The station's report notes that investigators leaned on digital records, text messages, cellphone GPS data, and witness accounts to establish that Toomer was killed in mid-August 2022.
A Trail of Phone Pings and a False Alibi
Toomer, then 23, was last seen in Albany on August 15, 2022. Cooper told investigators he had dropped her off at a truck stop in Cordele, but that account fell apart once phone and payment records surfaced, per the same account. Her phone last pinged near Dawson, roughly 30 minutes outside Albany, and her Cash App card was last used in Sasser.
Testimony during the trial included a chilling detail from Cooper's best friend, Tevin Davis, who told jurors that weeks after Toomer disappeared, Cooper allegedly said there was “brains on the roof” of his vehicle, according to Law&Crime. Davis also described a toxic relationship dynamic between Cooper and Toomer in the period before she vanished.
A Documented History of Violence
Court testimony and law enforcement records laid out a pattern of domestic violence between the couple well before Toomer's death, Law&Crime reported. In one 2021 incident, Toomer reportedly fled into a beauty salon in a panic, and in another, she jumped from a moving car after Cooper allegedly pointed a gun at her. The two shared a young son together.
Cooper was not arrested until May 31, 2023, when Dawson police took him into custody. He was held at the Dougherty County Jail on $49,000 bond and remained jailed continuously until a grand jury formally indicted him in March 2026, nearly three years later, as detailed by Court TV.
Search Efforts Continued for Years
Even as the criminal case moved through the courts, multi-agency search operations for Toomer's remains continued. As recently as November 2025, Albany Police, the Criminal Investigations Bureau, Albany Fire Department, Dougherty County EMS, and local prosecutors reconvened to search multiple abandoned properties across Southwest Georgia, according to Crime Online.
Toomer's mother, Melassia Thornton Caldwell, has said that while Cooper's conviction brings a measure of justice, her family still lacks the closure that comes with finding her daughter's body. Toomer's young son is growing up without his mother.
A Case That Fits a Grim Statewide Pattern
The killing sits within a broader pattern of intimate partner violence across Georgia. The Georgia Commission on Family Violence recorded 163 domestic violence fatalities statewide in 2024, with firearms involved in roughly 80% of those deaths, according to its 2025 fact sheet. Georgia has consistently ranked among the top states nationwide for intimate partner fatalities, underscoring why advocates continue to push for earlier intervention in relationships marked by documented abuse.
For now, the case remains formally resolved in the eyes of the court but unresolved for Toomer's family. Where her remains might be located is still an open question that neither the trial nor the sentencing answered.
