Justice for Paul & Jennifer Budrawich/ Jesse James Kilgore, 40, was given two life sentences without the possibility of parole/ Benjamen Kelly Mullinax was given two consecutive life sentences and will be eligible for parole in 30 years

BJ in OR wrote:

Booking No... : 2009002148 File Number : 53542
Inmate Name : MULLINAX, BENJAMIN KELLY
Arrest Date .. : 12/20/2009 Booking Date : 12/20/2009
Offense ........ : MURDER X2, TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE
Arresting Officer : 195 GOODIE, RAY
Scheduled Release Date : / /
Age... : 27 Birth Date : 03/06/1982
Sex... : M Race : WHITE
Height : 5'10"; Weight : 250
Hair .. : RED Eyes : HAZ

Total Fines : $ 0.00
Total Bond : $ 0.00
Total Bail.. : $ 0.00

how do you sleep at night knowing you helped desroy two people that were loved dearly? you and jessie will get punished and i for one will sleep better at night knowing justice will see fit to put you and him to death.

Sissy and carroll, my heart goes out to both of you!!!!!!!

Sissy and Carroll,I am so sorry for your loss! I pray Justice will be on your side!

Sissy and carroll I am so sorry for your loss. Those poor kids won't have their Mom and that is going to be really hard for them. I am praying your family gets the justice you deserve.

for your comments, everyone, the family is doing ok i guess, jesse and benjamin waived their rights on the prelimary hearing on the 19th of jan, they knew there was already enough evidence to go to the grand jury, i will keep u updated, we did get paul's car back home, the same car that jesse and who ever helped him, strip well wats left is back home, we hope there r charges brought against her mama for knowing wat jesse done, and the 13th of jan. jesse's son josh kilgore, was arrested fpr raping a 13yr. old like father like son

Carroll1 for your updates! Sending you and your family hugs! My heart goes out to you all!

A Dawson County man faces serious charges, for allegedly taking his online chats with an underage girl way too far.
20 year old Joshua West, of Dawsonville, is being held without bond in Cherokee County, charged with rape and aggravated child molestation.
Lieutenant Jay Baker with the Cherokee County Sheriff's office tells WSB's Bob Coxe West had met the 13 year old girl on "Yearbook.com" about 3 weeks ago. Monday he allegedly came to her house, and they had sex:
"We were notified by school police that this had been reported to a counselor at school by the victim," Baker says."
Did he know she was underage?
"It's my understanding he made statements to detectives that he thought that she was older," Baker says, "but the bottom line is, she's not."
Baker does say West is cooperating with detectives.

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I'm sorry I must have missed reading this thread. Sissy and carroll I'm so very sorry to hear about your loss. Thank you for taking the time to give us updates.

Offender ID: P00037302
Offender Name: JOSHUA RAY WEST
Date of Birth: 01/20/1989
Age: 21
Custody Status: In Custody
Location of Offender: Cherokee County Sheriff's Office
Race: White
Gender: Male



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Sissy and caroll1 I am so sorry for the hell that you have been thru. If you need a place to vent, get a hug or just have someone listen, we at VH are here for both of you. Welcome to VH. May your family get the justice that they deserve.

Baker said West, who was arrested Jan. 13 at his home on Chumbley Road, indicated he thought the girl was older.

The day before West was arrested, someone called Dawson County 911 to report that a Chumbley Road resident was threatening to harm himself.

Local authorities did not say whether the two incidents are related, though they are familiar with the suspect and his family.

West is the brother of Jennifer West Budrawich, who was killed last month along with her husband near the Amicalola River.

The siblings’ stepfather, Jessie James Kilgore, and cousin, Benjamin Mullinax, have been charged in the fatal shootings.

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I'm confused! Is this Jesse Kilgore's son or his stepson? Is Joshua West the brother of Jennifer or her step brother?

josh is jesse's and jen's mama debra kilgore's son he is jen's step brother, he has alot of mental problems look who his mama and daddy is jesse and debra kilgore. jen's death has had a bad inpact on josh they were close,

carroll1 wrote: for your comments, everyone, the family is doing ok i guess, jesse and benjamin waived their rights on the prelimary hearing on the 19th of jan, they knew there was already enough evidence to go to the grand jury, i will keep u updated, we did get paul's car back home, the same car that jesse and who ever helped him, strip well wats left is back home, we hope there r charges brought against her mama for knowing wat jesse done, and the 13th of jan. jesse's son josh kilgore, was arrested for raping a 13yr. old like father like son

This is the same Jessie that was wanting to harm himself. Because he thought the girl was older so now he feels bad. If Jessie is the Son of Deb Kilgore would he not be a half brother rather than a step? I am a little confused on that part yet.

no jesse is jen's stepdad the one that killed paul and jen and teh one that was going to harm his self is josh kilgore jesse kilgore's son. josh's mama is debra kilgore which is jen's mama and jesse kilgore's wife

by carroll1 Today at 7:45 pm josh is jesse's and jen's mama debra kilgore's son

I guess what confused me was that Josh goes by the last name West instead of Kilgore, and that was Jen's maiden name, so I thought that maybe Jen and Josh were ONLY Debra's children. Thanks for helping us understand the relationship.

Murder suspects indicted

The two Dawsonville men accused of killing an Effingham County couple last year each have been indicted on felony murder charges.

A grand jury returned true bill indictments against Jesse James Kilgore and his nephew, Benjamin Kelly Mullinax, on Monday. They are charged with the December deaths of Jennifer West Budrawich, 22, and her husband, Paul Joseph Budrawich, 35, who were in town visiting their children for the holidays.

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Jan. 27, 2010 ~ Son to testify against dad in theft case
Defendant also accused of murder

A Dawson County man has agreed to testify against his father and another relative in a case involving more than $25,000 in stolen home appliances and furnishings.

Jessie Archie Kilgore, 19, pleaded guilty Jan. 19 in Superior Court to participating in a burglary spree last spring in western Dawson.

As part of the plea, he received a 12-year sentence, with six to serve and the remainder on probation, according to court records.

He must also testify against co-defendants Jessie James Kilgore, his father, and another relative, James Adam Rogers.

The three men, each of whom has a criminal record, were arrested in May with more than $25,000 in stolen goods, including appliances, bedding, cabinets and decorative fixtures.

Officers discovered the Kilgores taking cabinet measurements at a Hubbard Road home they had reportedly robbed a month before.

According to authorities, the men had reportedly returned to the home to collect appliances, furnishings and cabinetry for use in a house the elder Kilgore was building a few miles away on Toads Place.

Rogers, 30, of Dawsonville, was arrested after authorities found a cache of missing items at his home on Chumbley Road.

Jessie Archie Kilgore has remained in Dawson County Sheriff’s custody since his arrest.

His father was released on a $35,000 bond, but was arrested again in December in connection with the shooting deaths of Jennifer and Paul Budrawich.

According to the bail order, Jessie James Kilgore, 40, of Dawsonville posed “no threat or danger to any person, to the community or to any property in this community.”

Authorities say the elder Kilgore shot the couple, who was in town to visit their children last month, with a small caliber handgun and dragged their bodies into the Amicalola River.

He is reportedly married to Jennifer Budrawich’s mother and fathered one of the slain woman’s children.

Authorities have not released a motive in the slayings.

Also arrested in the deaths was Benjamin Kelly Mullinax, 27, of Dawsonville, who authorities say was with Jessie James Kilgore at the time of the shootings. He also is related to the Kilgores.

Both Mullinax and Jessie James Kilgore were scheduled to be in Superior Court last week, but waived their preliminary hearings.

Northeastern Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney John Wilbanks has said the case will go to a grand jury in March.

According to officials, the slayings appear to fit the criteria for a capital case, though authorities have not decided whether to pursue the death penalty.

The county’s last death penalty case was in 1994, with one of three men convicted in the shooting death of Keith Evans sentenced to death.
Tommy Waldrip, who is now 63, is awaiting execution at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson.

His son, John Mark Waldrip, and another relative, Howard Livingston, both received life sentences for their role in the crime.

Evans, a Dawson County man, was set to testify against the three in an armed robbery case.

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June 07, 2009

Three men are accused in a series of home burglaries, including the theft of an entire kitchen out of a Dawson County home. In each case, investigators said the men targeted furniture, appliances, and even light fixtures. Investigators said the men were in the process of building their own home, but instead of going to stores to buy things like beds or kitchen cabinets, they just stole them. Dawson County Sheriff's Lt. Tony Wooten revealed a storage shed full of evidence looked more like a fully furnished apartment. "These are the kitchen cabinets from the house that was for sale," said Wooten. The house for sale is in rural Dawson County and it's one of several targeted homes, police said. Police said James Rogers, 19-year-old Jessie Archie Kilgore and his father, Jessie James Kilgore are accused of stealing everything from a bathroom towel rack to an entire kitchen appliance set in a methodical series of crimes. "When we say they took everything, we mean they took everything but the frame in the kitchen. They took everything," said Wooten. They didn't stop at the kitchen sink. Police said they took the drain stopper from the sink and the pipes underneath it. Investigators said the burglars stashed most of the loot inside and next to Roger's trailer while the threesome built their own house, install stolen light fixtures, sleep on stolen beds and decorate with a stolen deer's head. "When you're building a house, a lot of the expense you have is decorating and furnishing the house, and that's what they did here," said Wooten. Authorities said the three were extremely careful targeting summer homes and homes for sale, and using expertise from a construction background, not to damage anything they took. Lt. Wooten said, "We're looking at probably hours they spent in there, taking apart, and then having to leave, several trips of taking this stuff from that residence, to their residences." Police said the men were only caught, when an officer happened to notice the men carrying interior doors out of a house. All three men are convicted felons and were on probation when they were arrested. Police said the men face a long list of charges that could grow because investigators said they may be linked to similar crimes, in at least one other county.

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Man pleads guilty in Dawson County double murder
Second suspect still faces charges in couple's death along Amicalola River

By Michele Hester
Times regional staff
UPDATED April 5, 2010 10:35 p.m.

A local man admitted Monday to his role in the double homicide of a South Georgia couple along the Amicalola River in Dawson County in December.

Benjamin Kelly Mullinax, 28, told Superior Court Judge Bonnie Oliver he was guilty of all charges in relation to the deaths of Jennifer Budrawich, 22, and Paul Budrawich, 35.

The couple was in town Dec. 19 visiting their children when they were killed and their bodies dragged into the river.

Authorities say Mullinax was not the trigger man, but was involved in luring the couple to the river and concealing their bodies. In the negotiated plea, he received two consecutive life sentences. He will be eligible for parole in 30 years.

Authorities say Jesse James Kilgore, 40, who is the father of Jennifer Budrawich’s oldest son and married to her mother, shot the couple over an ongoing child custody dispute.

“If I’d known what was going to happen, I never would have gone there, and I never would have let (Kilgore) go there either,” Mullinax said Monday as he addressed the court.

Lee Parks, Mullinax’s court appointed attorney, called the slayings a tragic situation.

Mullinax said he hoped the victims’ families could forgive him.

Joy Gaddis, who now has custody of the deceased couple’s youngest boys, said it was a mixed blessing that they are too young to know what happened to their parents.

“This was a senseless and incomprehensible act,” Gaddis said. “We need to be able to grieve, heal and move on so we can give these innocent little boys a normal, secure life without the stress and trauma of a long trial and endless appeals.”

She said the oldest son still asks for his “mommy with the red hair.”

“You could just hear in her voice how proud she was to be their mother,” Gaddis said.

Mullinax has agreed to testify against Kilgore if his case goes to trial.

Though prosecutors say the case fits the criteria for the death penalty, no motions to seek the death penalty have been filed, District Attorney Lee Darragh said.

Paul and Jennifer Budrawich had traveled from Effingham County to visit their children the weekend they were killed.

Authorities found their bodies a day apart after receiving a frantic 911 call from a woman saying she was going to be shot.

The call was from Jennifer Budrawich.

A woman’s voice could be heard asking: “Why are you shooting us? Why did you bring me down here to the river?”

A man’s voice replied, “I’m going to kill both of you.”

A .380 caliber handgun believed to be the murder weapon was found last month a few miles from the scene of the crime.

Kilgore is represented by Rob McNeill from the Dawson County Public Defender’s Office.

At the time of his arrest in the murder investigation, Kilgore was out on $35,000 property bond for a May 2009 burglary charge.
A court date for Kilgore has not been set.

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Jennifer and Paul must be looking down and smiling. One down, one to go!

A Dawson County killer pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and other charges in the Superior Court of Dawson County on Monday.

Jesse James Kilgore, 40, was given two life sentences without the possibility of parole in connection to the December shooting deaths of his stepdaughter and her husband. Kilgore's stepdaughter, Jennifer West Budrawich, 22, also was the mother of his young child. Budrawich and her husband, Paul Joseph Budrawich, 35, were in town visiting that child and their two other children at the time of their Saturday morning murders on the Amicalola River in western Dawson County last year. Kilgore shot the couple with a .380 caliber handgun.

Kilgore, who did not address the court Monday, entered negotiated pleas of guilty. He could have faced the death penalty had his case gone to trial. Seven sheriff's deputies were present in the courtroom, presided over by Superior Court Judge Andrew Fuller.

Fuller told Kilgore there was an “abundance of evidence to support your plea of guilty.” Public Defender Brad Morris said he felt the life sentences were the “appropriate decision” when Fuller asked him if had anything to say on behalf of Kilgore's defense.

In March, a grand jury handed down a 10-count indictment against Kilgore. Charges included: two counts of murder, two counts of felony murder, tampering with evidence, false statement to law enforcement, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony, possession of a firearm by convicted felon, and two counts of concealing the death another.

The victims' families were in court Monday. Statements from Paul Budrawich's mother - Mary Budrawich - and Jennifer Budrawich's cousin and custodian of her children - Joy Gaddis - were read aloud in the courtroom by the victim's advocate from the District Attorney's office.

“You are such an evil, selfish, arrogant person,” Gaddis' statement read. “You are too cold-hearted to care about the devastation you have put [the children and family] through. You are nothing to us from this day forward.”

Debbie Harris, Paul Budrawich's sister, read her statement to the court.

“You don't know me, but I know all about you,” she said in her statement's conclusion. “I know what you did to Jennifer when she was younger ... “may god have mercy on your soul.”

Kilgore's wife and Jennifer Budrawich's mother - Deborah Kilgore - did not appear to be present for the proceedings Monday. Authorities have said Kilgore fathered the child with Jennifer Budrawich while he was married to her mother and when Jennifer Budrawich was in her late teens. It was unknown whether the nature of the relationship was consensual.

The “court can say no more than has been said on the record by the family of the victims,” Fuller said.

Addressing the family, he added: “Hopefully today will offer you closure as best as the court system can offer.”

Specific details of the case were not revealed during the proceedings Monday. However, Kilgore's case went before the court just a week after his 28-year-old nephew - Benjamin Kelly Mullinax - admitted to his role in the slayings and received two consecutive life sentences in return for his guilty plea. Mullinax was not the shooter in the crime but was offered the life sentences in exchange for testimony against Kilgore, according to District Attorney Lee Darragh.

District Attorney Lee Darragh said last week that Mullinax was responsible for arranging the meeting between Kilgore and the victims. Darragh said Kilgore had previously told Mullinax that if he were given the opportunity to have the Budrawiches “off somewhere alone” he would kill them. Jennifer Budrawich had also left a note indicating that Mullinax had told her and her husband about some stolen car parts and that “if anything happens, that's where we were.” In addition, Kilgore allegedly told Mullinax that “all of this stuff is going to come to an end.”

While an official motive for the murders has never been released, relatives of the Budrawiches have said the couple was about to regain custody of their children.

The Budrawiches' bodies were pulled from the Amicalola River in the days following their Dec. 19 deaths - after a frantic 9-1-1 call made by Jennifer Budrawich helped lead authorities to the location.

Authorities have said Kilgore shot the couple and dragged their bodies into the river after a meeting was arranged at the Six Mile canoe put-in on Amicalola Church Road. Mullinax was present at the time of the shootings, according to authorities.

Jennifer and Paul Budrawich, who had been married less than a year, traveled from Effingham County to Dawson County in a black late 80s model Pontiac car the day before their deaths. They were in town to visit one of Jennifer Budrawich's children - all under age 4 - at a family member's Dawson residence for the holidays. Following that visit, the couple stayed at a motel in nearby Jasper for the night. The couple was scheduled to have visitation with Budrawich's other two children at the residence of a family friend in Pickens County at 11 a.m. Dec. 19. The couple never showed for that appointment.

However, at 9:20 a.m. Dec. 19, the Dawson County 9-1-1 center received a call from a female, later determined to be Budrawich. On that call, Budrawich is heard asking, “Why are you shooting us?”

“Please don't kill me,” she's heard screaming. “I've got my babies.”

Later in the call, Budrawich asks, “Why did you bring me down here to the river?”

Three voices can be heard on the tape. One, a male voice, says, “I'm gonna kill both of ya.”

“Please don't do this,” Budrawich cries. “...I want to live.”

Last week, Darragh established that Mullinax was involved in the planning of the meeting and present during the meeting and subsequent murders. Mullinax apparently saw Kilgore shoot Paul Budrawich two times, at which time Jennifer Budrawich began screaming.

What is believed to be the .380-caliber handgun used to murder the Budrawiches was found last month near the scene of the crime. When asked by Judge Oliver last week who the gun belonged to, Mullinax said he was unsure but revealed that Kilgore had brought the weapon with him.

Mullinax addressed the court last week and expressed remorse for the killings.

“I didn't have anything against Jennifer or Paul...I am sorry to all of our family...I would have never gone down there and let him do that...how sorry I am,” Mullinax said.

Before being arrested for the murders, Kilgore had a criminal record in Dawson County.

He was convicted of armed robbery in 1998 and he was one of three Dawsonville men arrested in June when authorities recovered thousands of dollars worth of stolen goods taken from homes in Dawson County earlier in the year. He pleaded guilty to those burglary charges Monday.

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