WALKER COUNTY, Ga. (WDEF)- Last week, a Walker County man was convicted in a 2016 murder that went unsolved for several years.
A roadside memorial for DJ Fickey sits on the side of Highway 193 in Walker County, near where he was murdered on October 3, 2016.
For nine long years, his family has awaited justice in his case.
Finally, they have received it.
Marshall Payne was convicted by a Walker County jury in less than an hour of murdering DJ Fickey.
Prosecutors say that the murder was initially treated as a suicide in part due to the statements of Payne and the nature of the gunshot wound.
However, Fickey’s family and a Walker County detective, Allen Ellenburg, said that conflicting witness statements raised suspicions.
Ellenberg said, “I continued to investigate the case, even after it was ruled a suicide because I did not believe from the evidence that I was finding and all the interviews that I conducted. I believed that it was not a suicide.”
Prosecutors say that Fickey’s wife testified that she saw Payne shoot Fickey.
Additionally, other testimony suggested that Fickey and Payne had been getting into arguments because Payne had been in an affair with Fickey’s wife, and that Fickey had several wounds from those altercations.
This led to a medical examiner seven years after the fact changing their ruling on the manner of death, partially due to the angle of Fickey’s gunshot wound.
Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Clayton Fuller, who was the lead prosecutor in this case, said, “The medical examiner’s finding was that the was left to right, and the angle was downward so most likely the weapon kind of angle a victim space and that’s one of the things that was highlighted ridiculous of a suicide that would be.”
Fuller says despite bureaucratic slow downs, the persistence of the Fickey family in this case was essential in eventually getting their loved one justice, and motivated him to take on the case on top of both his duties as the District Attorney and doing active military service.
Fuller said, “Perseverance does pay… Continue to ask questions of law-enforcement agencies and continue to to press with allies in your case.”
Payne was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
DJ Fickey’s mother, Kathy Fickey, said, “This Thanksgiving is very special to us because we’ve actually got a lot to be thankful for. This is the first holiday in nine years that we could have some peace and DJ can rest in peace. Now just continue to pray for me and my family.”
Fickey was only 27 years old when he was killed.
