By Joe Johnson
A second defendant initially charged with murder for killing a homeless man in Athens last year has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter.
In a negotiated agreement with prosecutors on Wednesday, 47-year-old Andre Carthens pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for the beating death of Jarrard Pittard in December 2023.
In accordance with the plea bargain, Carthens was sentenced to three years in prison and 17 years of probation.
Co-defendant Antion Donquese Parks last month also pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge in exchange for a sentence of five years in prison and 10 years of probation.
Pittard, 42, was an Athens resident who police said was homeless at the time he was killed. His body was discovered near 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 body had been inflicted by a tool handle, according to police, who believe that Pittard had been killed the day before his body was found.
Carthens and Parks, who were both homeless, were arrested two weeks later. Authorities never disclosed if they had established a motive for the deadly beating.
Both men were subsequently indicted for malice murder, felony murder, and aggravated battery.