COVINGTON, Ga. – A jury was impaneled in Newton County Superior Court Monday afternoon to hear the murder case against a Covington man.
Deante Hall, 38, is charged with murder in the July 6, 2016 shooting of 29-year-old Tony Butler. According to media reports, Butler was pronounced dead at a hospital after being shot at 403 Gross Lake Parkway. Hall was arrested July 29 in Conyers by investigators from the Newton County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force and the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office.
It took lawyers just under three hours to pare the 48 potential jurors down to the seven men and five women who will decide the case. After the jury was seated, Senior Judge J. David Roper, of the 10th Judicial Administrative District, recessed court until 9 a.m. Tuesday morning.
According to the sheriff’s office website, Hall had three previous arrests in Newton County prior to his arrests for Butler’s murder. According to state records, he served time in state custody for a 1997 aggravated assault conviction in Fulton County and a 2011 aggravated assault on a peace officer in Muscogee County.
