Karlton Sirmons was convicted in an attack that killed Tavarus Joiner, wounded two women and terrorized children inside the home.

VILLA RICA, Ga. — A Georgia man convicted of forcing his way into a family home, killing his former girlfriend’s cousin and seriously wounding two women has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 136 years.

Karlton Marquavious Sirmons was convicted in Douglas County Superior Court of malice murder, two counts of felony murder and numerous other offenses stemming from the Nov. 2, 2024, attack at Tavarus Joiner’s home in Villa Rica. The case reached its conclusion nearly two years later when a jury returned guilty verdicts and Judge Deah B. Warren imposed a sentence designed to keep Sirmons in prison for the rest of his life. The convictions also covered crimes involving the surviving adults and children who were inside the house during the early-morning attack.

Prosecutors said the violence began shortly after 6 a.m. at the home Joiner shared with his longtime partner, Krisna Chea, and their two young children. Joiner’s cousin, Jacquenette Joiner, was temporarily staying with the family. Authorities said she had gone there to get away from Sirmons, her former boyfriend, after an abusive and troubled relationship. Villa Rica police said Sirmons kicked in the front door while looking for her. Tavarus Joiner had no relationship with Sirmons, police said in the days after the killing, and had simply opened his home to a relative who needed somewhere to stay.

Once inside, prosecutors said, Sirmons attacked Jacquenette Joiner. Tavarus Joiner came to see what was happening and was shot in the chest. Jacquenette tried to escape after Sirmons attempted to shoot her and the firearm jammed. She went upstairs toward the master bedroom, where Tavarus Joiner had also made his way after being wounded. The confrontation then moved into the part of the home where other family members were seeking safety, turning what began at the front door into a series of attacks across several rooms.

Chea was trying to call 911 as the shooting continued, prosecutors said. Sirmons shot Tavarus Joiner again, this time in the back, and shot Chea in the leg. He took her phone and ended the emergency call, according to the prosecution’s account. Investigators said he then tried to shoot her again, but the gun malfunctioned. He struck her with the firearm instead. Tavarus and Chea’s two children were in the bedroom, hiding beneath bed covers as the adults around them were being attacked. Prosecutors said one child later came out and went to Jacquenette, who was then struck while holding the child.

Jacquenette managed to reach a guest bathroom and barricade herself behind the door. Prosecutors said Sirmons broke through the lower part of that door and shot her eight times. The attack ended only after the gun ran out of ammunition, according to the prosecution. Sirmons then left the house. Police arriving at the scene found Tavarus Joiner fatally wounded and the two women suffering serious gunshot injuries. An adult relative with autism was also in the home at the time, prosecutors said. Jacquenette and Chea were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and eventually recovered from their injuries.

The first officers encountered a scene that later became important trial evidence. Villa Rica police Officer Deborah Williams testified that police found the front door kicked in and heard a woman screaming from an upstairs window. Officers located several victims inside, including a person who had taken refuge in a closet. Investigators recovered seven shell casings and a firearm from a bathroom sink, according to testimony reported during the trial. Police-worn camera footage also captured a surviving victim identifying Sirmons as the gunman. Those pieces of physical and recorded evidence were presented alongside testimony from the people who survived the attack.

Sirmons had already fled by the time officers secured the home, but investigators quickly identified him and the vehicle he was using. Villa Rica and Cobb County officers located him in Cobb County about two hours after the shooting, according to prosecutors. Early police reports said he had been taken into custody within several hours of the first 911 calls. The rapid arrest shifted the case from a search for an armed suspect to a homicide prosecution centered on what happened inside the Joiner home and the accounts of the people who lived through it.

Both Jacquenette Joiner and Chea later testified at Sirmons’ trial. Their testimony was accompanied by police body-camera footage, crime-scene evidence and accounts from responding officers. A jury deliberated before finding Sirmons guilty of malice murder, felony murder and a series of additional crimes. Local reporting on the verdict identified aggravated assault, aggravated battery, home invasion, burglary, cruelty to children and exploitation of a disabled adult among the offenses for which jurors returned guilty verdicts. The sentence included life without parole and an additional 136 years, reflecting crimes against multiple people in the home.

At sentencing, the focus turned from reconstructing the attack to the harm left behind. Chea spoke about the loss of Tavarus Joiner and the effect his death had on their children. Members of Joiner’s extended family also described relief that the prosecution had ended in convictions. Warren, the judge, characterized the terror inflicted on the family as difficult to comprehend and made clear that she intended the punishment to prevent Sirmons from being released. Douglas County District Attorney Dalia Racine said afterward that a verdict could not restore Joiner’s life or erase what the family endured, but that it held Sirmons accountable.

The sentencing also closed the criminal case against Sirmons at the trial-court level after a prosecution in which the central facts were established not only through surviving witnesses but through the condition of the home, police video and evidence recovered inside it. Earlier reports after the 2024 shooting had described a domestic dispute and a triple shooting. By the 2026 trial, prosecutors presented a fuller account: a woman had sought refuge with relatives, the man she was trying to avoid entered the house by force, and several members of that household became victims of the resulting violence.

Joiner was 32 when he was killed. Police said shortly after the shooting that he did not know Sirmons and had been helping a family member by giving her a place to stay. His partner and cousin survived severe injuries and were able to appear in court nearly two years later. With the guilty verdicts entered and Warren’s life-without-parole sentence imposed, Sirmons faces permanent imprisonment. The criminal case has reached sentencing, while the family continues living with the death, injuries and trauma caused inside the home.

Author note: Last updated October 19, 2026.