District Attorney Keith Higgins announces that Octavin Devon Grace, 43, of Kingsland, GA, entered a negotiated guilty plea in Camden County Superior Court on May 15, 2024, to Felony Murder and Aggravated Assault. Grace entered his plea before the commencement of the trial in his case.
The facts of the case show that on the afternoon of August 7, 2023, the defendant, Octavin Grace, pointed a handgun at the victim, Ruby English, in her second-floor apartment residence in Kingsland. English retreated to her bedroom and barricaded her bedroom door with furniture to keep the defendant out. English then called her parents in Miami, who attempted to negotiate with Grace, who had stated he was going to shoot English. English, in an attempt to get away from Grace, then jumped from her second-floor bedroom window and fell to the ground into some bushes.
Grace immediately ran downstairs from the second floor to where English had fell and shot her twice, in the chest and in her mid-section, killing her. The Kingsland Police Department responded immediately. Grace fled into the woods adjacent to the murder scene and was apprehended by police without incident. The murder was witnessed by a property landscaper and captured on apartment complex surveillance video. Grace later admitted to shooting English.
Pursuant to the negotiated plea agreement, Grace pled guilty to Felony Murder and Aggravated Assault, and was immediately sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, plus 20 years for the Aggravated Assault, to be served concurrently with his life sentence, by Superior Court Judge Robert W. Guy. In Georgia, life with the possibility of parole means he will have to serve at least thirty years in prison before he is eligible to apply for parole.
The case was prosecuted for the State by Assistant District Attorney Harold Moroz. Fifteen family members of the victim Ruby English, to include her parents, siblings, children, and grandchildren, traveled from as far away as Miami to attend the trial and were in unanimous support of the plea arrangement and of the District Attorney’s Office for the handling of the case.
Members of the media with further questions may contact the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office at 912-554-7200.
