Man sentenced to 35 years in failed plot to kill Troup County investigator

Before his reincarceration, officials said Lawrence had already been sending “menacing and threatening” messages to two people he believed were helping prosecutors prove he was violating his bond agreement. In the investigator’s case, “Lawrence took this investigator’s involvement particularly personally because they lived in the same neighborhood in Troup County,” District Attorney Herb Cranford said in a statement.

On Aug. 29, shortly after the inmate tipped off investigators, they equipped him with a recording device and sent him back into the jail dorm, where he and Lawrence were housed. That day, the recorder captured Lawrence discussing the plot, describing the layout of the investigator’s neighborhood and the logistics and tactics that could be used to carry out the hit. He even drew a map of the neighborhood.

Two days later, Lawrence and the inmate called an undercover deputy posing as a hitman. During the recorded phone call, Lawrence provided contact information for an associate of his who could facilitate a down payment for the hit.

Upon hearing and seeing the evidence, the jury found Lawrence guilty of the conspiracy but acquitted him of criminal attempt to commit malice murder and an additional count of threatening a witness. Coweta Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Erica Tisinger sentenced him Wednesday.

“I am thankful that this egregious, murderous plot was stopped in its infancy,” Cranford said. “This Troup County Sheriff’s Office investigator puts his life on the line every day he is on duty, just like every law enforcement officer in this state.”