ELLENWOOD MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE PLUS 90 YEARS AFTER CONVICTION IN DEADLY VALENTINE’S DAY DOUBLE SHOOTING

Thursday, August 7, 2025

State v. Javoka Shumaker

Decatur, Ga.- DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announces a conviction by jury trial in the case against an Ellenwood man who shot two people outside an apartment, killing one of them.

On Thursday, July 31, 2025, a jury found Javoka Shumaker, 46, guilty of Malice Murder, two counts of Felony Murder, Aggravated Assault, Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder, Aggravated Assault-Family Violence, Cruelty to Children in the First Degree, Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon, and Possession of a Firearm After Having Been Convicted of Certain Felonies in connection with the double shooting on February 14, 2024.

During a sentencing hearing held today, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Gregory A. Adams, who presided over the trial, sentenced Defendant Shumaker to Life without the Possibility of Parole plus 90 years to serve consecutively.

According to the investigation, officers with the DeKalb County Police Department responded to a report of a person shot at an apartment complex on Embarcadero Road in the City of Stonecrest. When officers arrived, they found two adults with gunshot wounds lying on the ground outside an apartment building. One of the victims, Paul Wilson, 23, was pronounced dead on the scene. Police immediately began to give medical attention to the other victim, a 28-year-old woman, who had been shot in the leg and chest.

The woman told officers that her ex-boyfriend, Defendant Javoka Shumaker, shot her and Wilson, a close friend of hers.

First responders rushed the female victim to Grady Memorial Hospital in critical condition. While at the hospital, the woman explained to investigators that Defendant Shumaker had ended their relationship a month prior, but Shumaker refused to move out afterward and would come and go as he pleased even after the woman changed the locks. The female victim said Wilson had stayed at the apartment with her the night before the shooting. Defendant Shumaker arrived at the apartment later that night and she allowed him inside, but Shumaker did not interact with or see Wilson.

At around 5:30 the next morning, one of the woman's co-workers came to pick her up to drive her to work and drop her child off at school. As the female victim and Wilson loaded their belongings and the woman's child into her co-worker's car, Defendant Shumaker followed them out of the apartment and began arguing with his ex-girlfriend. Shumaker pistol-whipped her and knocked her to the ground.

Nearby surveillance video shows Defendant Shumaker point a handgun at Wilson who runs away before collapsing to the ground. The female victim then ran to try to join her child in her co-worker's car and escape, but Shumaker shot her before she could get into the vehicle. Video shows Defendant Shumaker calmly leaving the scene on a motorcycle shortly afterward. The female victim's coworker drove off after the shots started, so both she and the child escaped unharmed.

Police had responded to calls about domestic incidents between Shumaker and the female victim at their apartment in the past related to her trying to keep Shumaker out of the home, though he was never arrested. Defendant Shumaker was previously convicted in a domestic violence case involving a different victim in Gwinnett County.

The case, assigned to the Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit, was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Tarver, with assistance from Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Nicole Finnie, and District Attorney Investigator Jose Berrones. DeKalb County Police Department Detective C. Heavner led the initial investigation.