Left inset: Albert Wright (Clayton County). Right inset: Fernando Barber (W.D. Lemon & Sons Funeral Home). Background: The Georgia supermarket complex and parking lot where Albert Wright shot and killed Fernando Barber (WSB).
A Georgia man has been convicted of murder for shooting an unarmed man five times while the victim sat outside a supermarket eating tuna and crackers.
Clayton County jurors found Albert Wright, who was 18 at the time of the killing, guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and two firearm offenses for the August 2023 slaying of 42-year-old Fernando Barber.
Wright is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 17.
At trial, state prosecutors presented evidence that Wright walked up to Barber in the early morning hours of Aug. 25, 2023, and gunned him down outside a supermarket in Morrow.
Police responded and found Barber "lying in the middle of the parking lot unresponsive with five gunshot wounds to his body," according to a Clayton County District Attorney's Office press release.
"The victim was unarmed eating tuna and crackers when he was shot," the DA's office says. "Detectives were able to obtain surveillance footage from the supermarket which identified the defendant … as the shooter."
Wright allegedly fled to Virginia after the shooting, where authorities located and arrested him. Authorities brought him back to Clayton County to prosecute him.
Prosecutors and police never disclosed a motive for the killing. It's also unclear whether Wright and Barber knew each other.
"We don't know why," said Barber's aunt, Gloria Chisholm, in a 2024 interview with local ABC affiliate WSB. "He was shot multiple times. Not one. Not two. But multiple times."
Wright remains in custody pending sentencing. His trial ran from Oct. 26 to Oct. 30.
"Our thoughts remain with Mr. Barber's family, who have endured unimaginable pain and loss," Clayton County District Attorney Tasha Mosley said in a statement. "I hope this verdict brings some measure of closure and peace to them."