A body camera worn by Kirwin Hinds recorded the confrontation that led to Otis Blakes’ murder conviction.

DECATUR, Ga. — A Georgia man convicted of fatally shooting a parking services employee during a confrontation over a boot on his brother’s vehicle was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, plus five years, after jurors found him guilty on four criminal counts.

DeKalb County Superior Court Chief Judge Shondeana C. Morris sentenced 34-year-old Otis Blakes on Sept. 29, four days after a jury convicted him of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The case centered on the July 19, 2025, killing of Kirwin Hinds, a 47-year-old Empire Parking Services employee who had gone to an Atlanta-area apartment complex to remove a boot from a vehicle. Prosecutors said Hinds was unarmed and that a body camera he wore for work documented the confrontation that ended with his death.

The shooting occurred shortly after 7 a.m. at an apartment complex in the 2300 block of Peachwood Circle. According to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, Hinds had been dispatched to remove a boot from a vehicle that had been parked in an accessible space without authorization. The vehicle belonged to Christopher Blakes, Otis Blakes’ brother. Prosecutors said Christopher Blakes confronted Hinds soon after the parking worker arrived and demanded that the device be removed. Hinds repeatedly asked for payment of the removal fee while attempting to put distance between himself and Christopher Blakes, the district attorney’s office said.

The confrontation then became physical. Prosecutors said the body-camera recording showed Christopher Blakes shove Hinds. Hinds pushed back, knocking Christopher Blakes to the ground, and the two continued struggling. Otis Blakes then approached them and opened fire on Hinds, according to prosecutors. Local television station WSB-TV, which reported on the footage and sentencing, said Hinds was shot three times, including twice in the head. The district attorney’s office said Hinds had no weapon. Officers responding to the complex found him with gunshot wounds, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Otis Blakes and his brother did not flee after the shooting. Prosecutors said both men remained at the apartment complex and were taken into custody without incident. The arrests came during the first hours of an investigation that initially left some details unclear to the public. Early police reports identified Hinds and announced charges against both men but did not fully explain the relationship between the shooting and the parking dispute. The district attorney’s later account, released after the jury verdict, provided a more complete sequence drawn in part from the body-camera recording and identified Christopher and Otis Blakes as brothers.

The recording became a central piece of the prosecution’s account because it captured events from the perspective of the worker who was killed. Hinds was wearing the camera because of an Empire Parking Services policy, according to the district attorney’s office and WSB-TV. The footage recorded the demands that the boot be removed, Hinds’ requests for payment, the physical encounter and the shooting that followed. Unlike many homicide cases in which investigators must reconstruct a confrontation largely from witness statements and physical evidence, prosecutors in this case could point to a recording made as the encounter unfolded.

The jury returned its verdict Sept. 25, 2026, after a trial before Morris. Jurors found Otis Blakes guilty of malice murder, which under Georgia law describes an unlawful killing committed with malice, as well as felony murder and aggravated assault. They also convicted him of possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony. Four days later, Morris imposed the life sentence with the possibility of parole and an additional five years. The precise timing of any possible future parole consideration was not detailed in the district attorney’s announcement, and the sentence should not be confused with life without the possibility of parole.

At sentencing, the defense asked the court to consider parts of Blakes’ background. WSB-TV reported that his attorney told the judge Blakes had been honorably discharged from the Marines in 2016 and had no prior criminal history. Prosecutors, meanwhile, drew attention to something captured after the shooting. The station reported that about seven minutes into the body-camera recording, Blakes could be heard saying, “Please forgive me.” The state cited the remark as evidence that he felt remorse. Morris ultimately imposed a punishment that WSB-TV described as slightly more severe than the positions advocated by the prosecution and defense.

Hinds’ family used the sentencing hearing and interviews afterward to describe the person behind the case file. His sister, Shermain, told WSB-TV that Hinds was a husband, a father and a man who had simply gone to work to provide for his family. She described him as an older brother who taught his siblings to ride bicycles and swim and as a father who happily took part in tea parties with his daughters. A longtime family friend told the station that Hinds had a way of quickly making people feel like friends and said his memorial drew a large crowd in person and online.

Those accounts added a personal dimension to a case that began over an ordinary parking-enforcement task. Nothing in the district attorney’s account indicated that Hinds went to the complex expecting a confrontation beyond the kind of disagreement that can accompany a boot-removal request. Prosecutors said his task was to remove the device after payment of the required fee. The body-camera footage, according to their description, showed him asking for that payment and trying to create space as the dispute intensified. Within minutes, the routine service call had become a homicide investigation, leaving Hinds’ family without a husband, father and brother.

Christopher Blakes’ legal case remained separate from his brother’s murder prosecution. The district attorney’s office said he faced misdemeanor charges of simple battery and disorderly conduct stemming from the encounter. WSB-TV reported that Christopher Blakes failed to appear for a December hearing, leading Morris to issue a bench warrant. As of Otis Blakes’ Sept. 29 sentencing, Christopher Blakes had not answered those charges, the station reported. His pending misdemeanor allegations are separate from the crimes for which Otis Blakes was tried and convicted, and they had not resulted in a final adjudication at the time of the sentencing coverage.

The case also illustrates how the public understanding of a violent event can change as an investigation moves from an initial police response to trial. On the day Hinds was killed, local reports established that officers had responded to the apartment complex, Hinds had died and two men had been arrested. More than a year later, prosecutors were able to present a detailed chronology, identify the role of the body-camera evidence and obtain a jury verdict. The court’s Sept. 29 sentence marked the end of the trial-level prosecution of Otis Blakes, while leaving his brother’s separate misdemeanor case unresolved.

For Hinds’ relatives, the sentence provided a legal outcome but could not undo what happened during the early-morning parking call. Otis Blakes now faces life imprisonment with the possibility of parole followed by the additional five-year term imposed by Morris. Christopher Blakes’ case remained outstanding as of the sentencing report, and authorities had announced no further criminal defendants in Hinds’ killing.

Author note: Last updated November 10, 2026.