A DeKalb County jury convicted a Philadelphia man on Wednesday in the May 2024 shooting deaths of two people at a Decatur-area extended-stay motel, and a judge sentenced him the very next day to life without parole plus 10 years. William Leftenent, 39, had spent nearly 10 months as a fugitive before U.S. authorities caught up with him in Orlando, Florida.
DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams handed down the sentence after jurors found Leftenent guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and firearm charges, according to FOX 5 Atlanta, which gathered details of the case from the DeKalb County District Attorney's office. Under Georgia law, malice murder requires proof of deliberate intent or an implied malice showing an “abandoned and malignant heart,” and it carries penalties of life with or without parole, or death, per Justia's summary of Georgia Code § 16-5-1. The state's homicide statutes include a second-degree murder classification, limited to deaths caused during second-degree cruelty to children.
The shooting happened in the early morning of May 28, 2024, at an extended-stay motel in the 3600 block of Flat Shoals Parkway. Officers responded around 4:30 a.m. and found 35-year-old Mariana Greene dead inside a first-floor room from a gunshot wound to her chest, per the FOX 5 Atlanta account of the case. Friends rushed Lamar Pringle, whom AJC described as 33 and FOX 5 as 32, to Grady Memorial Hospital after he was shot in the back, but he did not survive, according to police. Separately, AJC.com placed the shooting at the Efficiency Lodge motel on Flat Shoals Road in the Panthersville area, where crime scene investigators recovered multiple discharged shell casings scattered across the parking lot outside the room. The medical examiner identified her as Mariana Mitchell, according to AJC.
Surveillance Video Led Detectives to a Street Name
Witnesses identified the shooter only as a man who went by “Philly,” the FOX 5 Atlanta report states. Investigators say Philly had argued with someone inside the motel room, then briefly stepped out before returning. Motel surveillance video showed him leave and come back to grab a hooded sweatshirt, after which he fired three shots through the front door from outside and ran.
Detectives learned that Philly frequently stayed with a woman at the motel, and a previous police report linked that woman to William Leftenent. Investigators then confirmed Leftenent's identity by comparing an old photo of him with the surveillance footage, leading to arrest warrants issued the day after the shooting, on May 29, 2024. Authorities have not released specific details regarding what the argument inside the room was actually about.
A separate DeKalb County policy, enacted in December 2022, mandates video surveillance at convenience stores across unincorporated DeKalb County, aiming to help curb violence at gas and service stations, according to AJC.com.
Nearly a Year on the Run Before an Orlando Arrest
Leftenent evaded capture for close to 10 months. Law enforcement arrested him in Orlando, Florida, on March 19, 2025, per FOX 5 Atlanta's reporting.
On Wednesday night into Thursday morning, a non-fatal shooting broke out behind a Family Dollar in the 3800 block following an argument, one of three separate overnight shootings police responded to across DeKalb County during that stretch, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.
