David Lee Burnette, 51, was found dead in his Athens, Georgia, apartment on June 13, 2019. The Athens-Clarke County Police Department determined he had been fatally shot and ruled the case a homicide; investigators initially suspected robbery as a motive.

In May 2020 authorities arrested 24-year-old Willie Tremaine Nickholas Evans, who had lived in the same University Oaks apartment complex, on charges including murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Evans fled to Florida after the shooting and was arrested there on unrelated charges. Forensic testing linked a firearm found in Evans’s possession to the weapon used in Burnette’s death.

At a December 2021 trial the prosecution also examined a possible drug-related motive. Evans said he had found the gun on the side of the road in Oconee County; the jury acquitted him of all charges. The death remains an open, unsolved homicide in Athens-Clarke County. Does anyone have information about David Burnette, his movements in June 2019, or the University Oaks complex at that time?