COVINGTON, Ga. — A Gwinnett County man now has two attorneys representing him as required by law as the state moves to seek the death penalty against him for his alleged role in the murders of two women in March 2020.
Arrief Lamont McKenzie, 52, of Lawrenceville, appeared Wednesday, July 13, in Newton County Superior Court to address the status of his representation in the case.
McKenzie is accused of the murders of his estranged wife and another woman on the same day on March 3, 2020, in Newton and Gwinnett counties.
The state has filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty in the case, which makes it subject to requirements of the Georgia Supreme Court’s Uniform Appeal Procedure (UAP).
McKenzie is facing charges of malice murder, felony murder, burglary, home invasion and other charges in Newton County related to the March 3, 2020, death of his estranged wife, Niki McKenzie, at a residence in Covington.
Deputies reportedly found 51-year-old Niki McKenzie dead in the garage of the Keyton Drive home.
Gwinnett County officers also arrested McKenzie on a murder charge after police found 36-year-old Jillian Myles-Walters dead earlier on March 3, 2020, at her home in unincorporated Lawrenceville. Myles-Walters and the suspect reportedly had been in a prior relationship.
McKenzie has been held without bond in the Newton County Detention Center since December 2020. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in May 2021, according to jail records.
District Attorney Randy McGinley filed the Notice against McKenzie in early December 2020.
According to Georgia law, the procedure for imposition of the death penalty states, “The judge shall consider, or he shall include in his instructions to the jury for it to consider, any mitigating circumstances or aggravating circumstances otherwise authorized by law” as well as any of 12 “statutory aggravating circumstances which may be supported by the evidence.”
The notice charges that McKenzie committed murder under two of the listed circumstances, including “which was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved torture, depravity of mind, or an aggravated battery to the victim” and “while the defendant was engaged in the commission of burglary.”
The UAP mandates that a defendant in a death penalty case have a lead counsel and a co-counsel who each have specific experience and education.
McKenzie originally had two attorneys but lost one. He recently was provided a new second attorney and the new attorney’s qualifications had to be placed on the record before a judge Thursday, McGinley said.
The judge also asked both sides to submit a proposed scheduling order so that deadlines could be set for motions and hearing dates.
After the orders are filed, the judge will issue a final scheduling order and the case will proceed, McGinley said.
McGinley said previously the UAP seeks to ensure that all legal issues that should be raised on behalf of the defendant have been considered by the defendant and defense counsel and asserted in a timely and correct manner. It also seeks to minimize the possibility of errors and correct as promptly as possible any error that nonetheless may occur, he said. The UAP also seeks to make certain that the record and transcripts of the proceedings are complete for unified review by the sentencing court and the Supreme Court, he said.
