From left: Danetta Knoblauch and Melvin Cooksey (Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office).
A Georgia judge has sentenced a 37-year-old woman to life behind bars after she murdered the man who hired her to care for him after he suffered a stroke.
Danetta Knoblauch was convicted in November of felony murder in the 2023 beating death of 57-year-old Melvin Cooksey, the Alcovy Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office said. On Wednesday, Knoblauch was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole plus 30 years.
On Feb. 23, 2023, deputies in Newton County responded to a fire at a home on Mote Road. Investigators determined the fire was intentionally set with propane tanks spread throughout the house. But authorities did not find Cooksey and he was reported missing. A highly-publicized search took place but there was no sign of Cooksey.
In May 2023, hikers in the mountains of Fannin County — roughly 130 miles away from Cooksey's home — found a skull and other skeletal remains. Cops found a body with a pacemaker. The pacemaker's serial number matched Cooksey's records. Detectives identified Knoblauch as the suspect using witness statements, social media records and license plate reader cameras.
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She also had a recent criminal history: She was wanted for beating another man with a sledgehammer and screwdriver in Kansas. Police tracked her to a home in East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she barricaded herself in a home with her child for a lengthy amount of time. After she was taken into custody, she gave "incriminating information."
Knoblauch was extradited to Georgia in July 2023 and indicted for murder and other charges the next month.
According to a courtroom report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Cooksey suffered a stroke which caused heart problems and forced him into a wheelchair. He put out an online advertisement for a caregiver. The defendant responded to the ad and moved from Kansas to Georgia to care for him. But within days, she beat him to death with a sledgehammer before transporting his body to the mountains more than 100 miles away.
In addition to murder, jurors also convicted Knoblauch of aggravated assault, first-degree arson and concealing the death of another after the weeklong trial.
"Because of the tireless work of the prosecution team and the lead investigators, the person responsible for this senseless and heinous crime has been convicted," District Attorney Randy McGinley said in a statement. "This was a complicated case that required expertise in so many areas and a dedication to finding the truth."
Cooksey's family members followed the case every step of the way and were pleased to receive justice.
"He had [a] good spirit," his sister Brenda Hardy told the Journal-Constitution. "He didn't deserve what happened to him at all."
As for Knoblauch, she never admitted to the killing.
"I am innocent," she said before deputies led her away in handcuffs.
