By Joe Johnson
A homeless man has pleaded guilty in a murder case involving another homeless person.
In a negotiated agreement with prosecutors on Wednesday, 32-year-old Antion Donquese Parks
pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter for the beating death last year of 42-year-old Jarrard Pittard in December 2023.
He and codefendant Andre Carthens had both been indicted for malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated battery. Carthens is also homeless.
In accordance with his plea bargain, Parks was sentenced to five years in prison and 10 years on probation.
Pittard was an Athens resident who police said was homeless at the time his body was discovered near some abandoned train tracks in a wooded area near Lay Park off of Hoyt Street.
Someone found him face-down in the woods, with his body showing injuries from a brutal beating. Police said that Pittard’s ribs were broken on both sides with bones piercing his lungs, and his hyoid bone in the neck was also broken.
Extensive blunt trauma to Pittard’s had been inflicted by a tool handle, according to police, who believe that Pittard had been killed the day before his body was found.
The case of codefendant Carthens remains pending, with a tentative trial date of October 21.
Prosecutors have indicated that if he is convicted, they will ask that Carthens be sentenced as a recidivist, citing prior convictions for armed robbery, aggravated assault, and robbery by force.
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