Ohio man convicted in 2020 Brooks Co. murders

QUITMAN, Ga. (WALB) - An Ohio man was convicted and sentenced in connection to the 2020 shooting deaths of two men in Brooks County, according to District Attorney Brad Shealy.

Kenny Pruitt, 38, was convicted on Wednesday on two counts of felony murder and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

The charges stemmed from the October 2020 shooting deaths of Deshawn Scott and John Thompson. The two men were found shot to death on Emerson Road. At the time of his arrest, Pruitt told the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office that he shot the two men in self-defense and showed where the weapon — an AK47 — was hidden.

Pruitt was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole.

“This was a difficult case to try as we had no actual witnesses to the actual crime,” Shealy said. “Without the hard work of the GBI and the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office, we could not have gotten a conviction. This conviction required piecing together what happened with forensic evidence.”