Man pleads guilty in quadruple homicide

A man charged with killing his children and their mother and grandmother has pleaded guilty and will spend the rest of his life in prison, according to published reports.

Henry Lee Stringer faced four counts of murder in a May 2006 murder-arson in the Jackson County city of Hoschton. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty in the case, but agreed to the life sentence as part of a plea deal, the Gainesville Times reported.

“Just the fact that we know he won’t be out on the street to hurt anybody else is a relief,” The Gainesville Times quoted David Hill, who was Hoschton’s police chief at the time of the murder, as saying. “And the fact that he admitted his guilt in open court was also a relief to myself and all the officers who worked on that case, as well as the family members that lost their loved ones.”

Stringer was charged in the murders of Marvelette Strickland, 29 and her mother, Evelyn Strickland, 68, along with the deaths of the two children he had with Marvelette Strickland — J’Majuan, 4, and J’Lasia, 2.

Authorities spent about a year investigating the murder before arresting Stringer and during that time publicly denied he was a suspect. Before he was charged, Stringer was struck by a train in nearby Gwinnett County and spent some time in the hospital recovering from his injuries, the Athens Banner-Herald previously reported.