Ga. high court upholds murder conviction of Gainesville man

ATLANTA - In an announcement published Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the 2011 murder conviction and life sentence of a Gainesville man.

While upholding the more serious of the counts, the high court threw out Christopher Slaughter's conviction for aggravated assault, saying the trial court should have merged it with his murder conviction.

Slaughter was convicted of shooting and killing 19-year-old Aikeem Elijah Hall, whose body was found in the parking lot of Atlanta Street Apartments the evening of October 5, 2009. Hall was taken to Northeast Georgia Medical Center where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

Slaughter was 18 at the time of his arrest. Slaughter's attorney had argued during trial that his client shot the victim in self-defense, saying that Hall had been bullying Slaughter.