Davonte Fore Photo: Screenshot / Fox 5 Atlanta

A Georgia man convicted of murdering a trans woman is on the run after jumping bail during his trial.

Davonte Fore, 26, was convicted along with accomplice JaQuan Brooks, 25, on Oct. 4 of malice murder, two counts of aggravated murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a Felony Murder in June 2021 on 25-year-old Skyler Gilmore.

Family:

According to a press release from the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office DeKalb County Police found Gilmore unresponsive with a gunshot wound to the torso in her apartment in Stone Mountain, Georgia, in the early morning hours of June 4, 2021, after receiving a 911 call from a female friend reporting that The 25-year-old had been shot.

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The friend told police she had been on the phone with Gilmore when Gilmore told her she had to hang up to let someone in the gate of her apartment complex. Gilmore later called the woman back and told her she had been shot. The friend went to Gilmore’s apartment, where she called 911.

The friend told investigators that Gilmore was transgender and had been involved in “survival sex,” which the DA’s press release describes as a form of sex work that involves “sex in exchange for basic necessities like food or shelter.”

Investigators were able to link Fore’s phone number to several calls and text messages on Gilmore’s phone in the hour leading up to the murder, including a text message in which she entered the code to the apartment complex’s gate. They were also able to identify Fore and Brooks as the driver and passenger of a car that drove into the apartment complex shortly before the shooting via surveillance video. Detectives say Fore and Brooks were members of a local gang and had been ordered to kill Gilmore for sleeping with another gang member.

Fore was arrested in November 2022 but released on bail last February over objections from state prosecutors. At some point during the trial, Fore failed to return to court and is now considered a fugitive. Brooks was arrested after the conviction in October.

“That’s why our office works hard to get bond denied in cases like this, but it’s not our decision to grant bail,” said Jacques Spencer, supervising investigator with the homicide and gang unit of the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office. Fox 5 Atlanta.

Gilmore’s father, Chauncey Gilmore, told Fox 5 that Fore is “a bad guy” and that he hopes he is caught.

“Personally, I don’t think he should have been out on $25,000 bail in a murder case, but he was, and I understand that, but I hope the people get him and they get him fast,” Gilmore said.

“Our focus is to get him into custody,” Spencer said. “We feel he is a danger to society and the victim’s family also deserve to be able to face him in court when he is sentenced for what he did.”

According to prosecutors, Fore has ties to California, and authorities are asking anyone with information about his whereabouts to contact the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office Fugitive Unit at 404-298-8132 but warned not to approach him because Fore is considered dangerous.

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