Ga. man gets life for killing man and hiding his body under brush in backyard

CARROLL COUNTY, Ga. (TCD) -- A 41-year-old man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for fatally shooting a 20-year-old victim in 2020 and concealing his body.

According to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, on Jan. 20, 2020, deputies responded to the 100 block of Rose Street to a report of a body found in a brush pile. At the scene, officials found a deceased male wrapped in a blanket in the backyard.

The Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office said the homeowner, Aaron Tarrie Ashley, shot and killed the victim, Christopher Cook, and moved his body to the backyard. He then reportedly covered Cook’s body with a camouflage sleeping bag and dead tree limbs before hiding the shotgun he used at another person’s home. The gun was eventually recovered.

Officials received a tip that Ashley was at a home on Waddell Street in Bremen. When investigators went to speak with him, he reportedly "barricaded himself inside the residence and a standoff ensued."

After hours of negotiation, the standoff reportedly ended "peacefully." Ashley was taken into custody and initially charged with felony murder, aggravated assault, concealment of a death, and destruction of evidence.

Ashley was found guilty in February following a weeklong trial of one count of malice murder, one count of felony murder, one count of aggravated assault, one count of concealing the death of another, one count of tampering with evidence, one count of theft by taking, and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday, April 28, that Ashley was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

MORE:

• Carrollton Man sentenced this morning after being found guilty by Carroll County Jury in February 2023 of Malice Murder, Felony Murder, and Concealment of a Body, among other charges —Carroll County Sheriff’s Office
• Press Release, 2/14/2023 — Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office
• Homicide Investigation, 1/21/2020 — Carroll County Sheriff’s Office