Guilty Verdict in Bryant Murder

Additional Reporting by Lendrez Greene

The three people accused of killing Manchester High star athlete Daryus Bryant received the verdict in the case late in the afternoon on Tuesday, May 26 in Muscogee County Superior Court.
Three Talbot County residents were convicted in the case and are expected to be sentenced on Tuesday, June 23.
The jury deliberated for several days in the case and one juror had to be replaced after it was determined she was not able to complete her duties as a juror.
Talbot County residents Semaj Copeland, a distant cousin of Bryant’s, Zion Horton and Jaquan Mahone were on trial for Bryant’s murder.
Horton and Mahone were both found guilty of malice murder. Copeland was found not guilty on a charge of malice murder. All three teens were found guilty of felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault and five counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.
Muscogee County Court with Judge Art Smith presided over the trial.
Bryant was shot and killed only a few days before his 17 birthday in Columbus after attending the school’s prom on April 20, 2024.
Bryant and Clarence Favors, both attending the school’s prom, received injuries in the shooting that occurred that evening near Macon Road. Favors survived the shooting.
Mahone was arrested in the case and was taken into custody on July 21, 2025, Copeland turned himself in to the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office on July 8 and Horton was taken into custody in Coweta County on July 3.
Chief Assistant District Attorney Wesley Lambertus stated he was happy for the Bryant family and called Daryus a star student, a star athlete and a good kid that did not deserve what happened to him.