Accused Atlanta-area spa shooter's murder case put on hold over attorney issues
The murder case of Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in a series of deadly shootings at metro Atlanta spas and massage parlors, has been put on hold after issues with his legal representation.
Long is facing charges that include murder, aggravated assault, and domestic terrorism in Fulton County.
During a status hearing on Thursday, one of Long's public defenders told Judge Ural Glanville that she has struggled to get another qualified attorney to work with her on the case after one of his previous members of counsel left their office in January.
After a conversation between Glanville and the attorneys for both the prosecution and defense, the judge said that scheduling challenges for counsel qualified to defend death penalty cases have left Long's case in limbo.
"We've got four months and nothing's occurred," Glanville told the attorneys. "I don't think that sits well for any of us."
The judge scheduled a conference for June 1 to discuss the issue with the heads of the Georgia Public Defender Council and the Atlanta Judicial Circuit's Office of the Public Defender.
More than five years since the Atlanta-area spa shootings
On the afternoon of March 16, 2021, then-21-year-old Long is accused of buying a gun and shooting five people at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County. Long then drove about 30 miles south to Atlanta, where he shot three women at Gold Spa and one woman across the street at Aromatherapy Spa, police have said.
Authorities say Long intended to carry out similar attacks in Florida, but his parents had called police after recognizing their son in images from security video posted online. His parents were tracking his movements through an application on his phone, which allowed authorities to find him and take him into custody on Interstate 75 in Crisp County.
Long is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in Cherokee County after he pleaded guilty to murder just months after the killings. In Fulton County, however, he pleaded not guilty after District Attorney Fani Willis filed notice that she would seek the death penalty and a hate crimes sentencing enhancement in the Atlanta killings.
Under Georgia law, an individual can not be convicted of a standalone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether the crime was motivated by bias, which carries an additional penalty.
Long told investigators he struggled with pornography and sex and believed he was an addict. Authorities say Long claimed that the killings were not racially motivated, saying that he targeted the businesses because of his addiction.
Advocates have pointed to the violence as another incident of racist attacks that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The hashtag #StopAsianHate was a top trending topic on Twitter hours after the shootings.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
