The defendant beat Amber Kelly to death after a pattern of threats and earlier violence, allege prosecutors.

ATLANTA, Ga. — A Fulton County jury has convicted Mamadi Tambajang in the killing of his girlfriend, Amber Kelly, a case that began when he walked into Sandy Springs police headquarters in May 2024 and said he had harmed her.

Kelly’s death drew attention because prosecutors said it did not come without warning. By the time of the killing, they said, Tambajang had already been accused in two other cases involving Kelly, and jurors heard that she had called 911 in 2023 to say he had threatened to murder her twice in one week. The verdict and sentence closed the trial stage of the case, but court action is not over: the Fulton County Public Defender’s Office has said it filed a motion for a new trial.

The case turned public on May 15, 2024, when Tambajang arrived at the Sandy Springs Police Department at about 12:45 p.m. and told officers he wanted to turn himself in after assaulting his girlfriend. Police said he told them Kelly was at an apartment, unresponsive, and that he did not know whether she was alive. Patrol officers then went to the apartment and found Kelly dead. Early reporting from police said detectives quickly moved to secure the scene and obtain search warrants for the apartment and for Tambajang’s mother’s home. Prosecutors later said jurors also saw body-camera footage in which Tambajang said he had “snapped,” a phrase that became central to the case as it moved from an initial murder charge to a full trial in Fulton County.

At trial, prosecutors described a brutal killing rather than a sudden burst of anger. Asia Baysah, a deputy district attorney who handled domestic violence matters, said the crime scene was horrific and that Kelly had more than 25 blunt-force injuries. Assistant District Attorney Jazmin Dilligard said the defense position was that Tambajang had been provoked and “snapped,” but prosecutors argued the evidence showed sustained violence. Authorities also said he did not seek medical help for Kelly after the assault. Instead, prosecutors said, he waited more than a day before police were alerted, and investigators believed the killing happened a day or two before he surrendered. They said he drove to his mother’s house in South Carolina before returning to Sandy Springs and presenting himself at police headquarters.

The prosecution placed the killing in a longer record of abuse allegations. Jurors heard that Kelly had called 911 in 2023 and described Tambajang as violent. In that call, prosecutors said, she reported that he had threatened to murder her twice that week. They also said he was out on bond in two other cases from Gwinnett County involving the same victim when she was killed in 2024. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis later described the case as a classic example of domestic violence that escalated over time. Prosecutors said that progression mattered because the defense tried to frame the killing as a moment of provocation. The state’s answer was that the earlier calls, prior charges and the delay in getting help showed a pattern, not an isolated break.

The legal result came in March 2026, when a jury convicted Tambajang of murder and related charges in Fulton County. Local reports said the judge imposed a life sentence with the possibility of parole plus 20 years. Police later said the sentence means he will spend decades in prison before any parole review. The next formal step is post-conviction litigation. A spokesman for the Fulton County Public Defender’s Office said lawyers had mounted what he called a zealous defense, would continue representing Tambajang after conviction and had already filed a motion for a new trial. That motion keeps the case active in court and could lead to hearings, written rulings and, if denied, a possible appeal.

For Kelly’s family, the case never centered on legal wording alone. Her mother, Sharon Henderson, said she felt as if her heart stopped when police told her her daughter was dead. Relatives told television reporters they had urged Kelly to leave the relationship, but said she believed Tambajang could still be a good man. Those comments gave the courtroom record a second life outside the courthouse, turning the case into a public account of warnings that relatives say they saw but could not stop. The details of the surrender, the body-camera statements and the prior 911 call gave the story a stark timeline: threat, assault allegation, delayed police contact, discovery of the body and, nearly two years later, conviction and sentence.

The case now stands at the post-trial stage, with Tambajang convicted and sentenced and a motion for a new trial pending. The next milestone will be a court ruling on that motion or any hearing scheduled in Fulton County.

Author note: Last updated April 17, 2026.