On a January evening in 2000, 21-year-old Isaac Dawkins was found critically injured after what at first looked like a single-vehicle crash on Highway 27 between Rome and Cedartown, Georgia. He was taken to a local hospital where X-rays showed he had been shot in the head while driving his truck; he died shortly afterward and the incident was treated as a homicide.

Early investigation attention focused on a man who had a past dispute with Dawkins over a mutual girlfriend. Joey Watkins was identified as a person of interest; investigators later charged Watkins and a friend, Mark Free, after a jailhouse informant came forward following a reward offer. The prosecution’s theory was that Watkins and Free intercepted Dawkins in a small blue car, that Watkins shot Dawkins while driving alongside him and speaking to his girlfriend on a cell phone, and that Watkins then returned to his own truck.

Defense-aligned evidence and witnesses reportedly placed Watkins in his white truck both before and after the shooting, and cell phone records were said to support an alibi placing him miles away. Questions about the handling of the case, suppressed evidence and juror issues were later raised. Does anyone have information about the scene that night or remember seeing a small blue car on Highway 27?