Marietta Man Pleads Guilty in Hit-and-Run Motorcyclist's Death

MARIETTA, GA -- A Marietta man has pled guilty in a 2011 hit-and-run that killed a motorcyclist.

Brandon Michael Weston, now 36, acknowledged in court Monday that on the evening of Aug. 20, 2011, he was driving his 1987 Porsche 944 southbound on Interstate 75 near Windy Hill Road when he swerved left for unknown reasons and hit a motorcycle ridden by Emanuel Mitchell, 31. Mitchell was knocked off the motorcycle and skidded across several lanes of the interstate before being hit by another vehicle.

Weston stopped briefly then left the scene, limping his Porsche off of the Interstate and parking it behind a nearby hotel, where he covered it with a car cover. Several other drivers, meanwhile, stopped and tried to render aid to Mitchell, who succumbed to his numerous injuries.

Weston and his girlfriend, Pamela Kay Rice, whom he later married, had the Porsche towed to Alabama. There, they took it to an automobile repair shop and asked the owners to paint the vehicle and wheels black, to burn any parts that came off of the vehicle, to back-date the repair invoice, and not to look on the internet regarding any parts for the vehicle.

Suspicious, the repair shop owners searched the internet and discovered there had been a fatal hit-and-run involving that type of vehicle in Georgia, and they contacted police. A light lens recovered from the crash scene matched Weston’s vehicle.

“Mr. Mitchell was a 31-year-old man with his own business. He loved riding motorcycles, and he was a family man. He wasn’t doing anything wrong,” ADA Patricia Hull told the court during the plea hearing. “Sometimes in these cases all of the focus is on the defendant, but I think it’s important to remember the victim, and how the actions of one person can impact many lives.”

Sonni Smith, a young woman who was driving on the interstate and tried to avoid hitting Mitchell as he suddenly came skidding across the highway, tearfully addressed the court about the continuing devastation she feels as a result of the crash, even nearly five years later.

“I’m a mother now, of a one-year-old, and I couldn’t imagine losing a child,” she sobbed.

Weston pled guilty to hit and run, homicide by vehicle in the first degree, and tampering with evidence in this case. He also pled guilty on Monday to battery and theft by taking in a separate case stemming from a 2013 domestic incident.

After accepting the guilty pleas, Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert E. Flournoy III sentenced Weston to 15 years, with eight years to serve in prison and the balance on probation.

Image: Emanuel Mitchell. Cobb DA's Office