The murder of Rodney Castlin
Kennesaw, Cobb County, Georgia · 2000
Overview
Rodney Castlin, 36, a married father working nights as manager of the Wingate Inn in Kennesaw, Georgia, was shot once in the chest on December 7, 2000, when two men robbed the new hotel of $304. His wife was eight months pregnant. Investigators lifted a fingerprint from the front counter, but it was run through Georgia's database in 2000, 2005 and 2009 without a match, and the case went cold. In 2012 a search of the FBI's national fingerprint database returned the name James Lorenzo Randolph, a South Carolina man who had been arrested there for a similar robbery within weeks of the Georgia killing. That same year a Cobb County detective, John Dawes, learned through a Florida detective that a federal prisoner claimed to know about a hotel shooting north of Atlanta. In September 2014, after Georgia granted him immunity, that man, who said he had driven the getaway car, gave a statement naming Randolph as the shooter. U.S. Marshals arrested Randolph in Columbia, South Carolina, on October 6, 2014. A Cobb County jury convicted him on all counts on March 21, 2016, and on April 26, 2016 he was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 35 years. The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the convictions in August 2023.
How it was solved
The case was solved by a fingerprint that was always there and a database that could not yet read it. Investigators lifted prints from the front counter at the Wingate Inn the night of the robbery. According to the Supreme Court of Georgia, they were entered into a database that included only Georgia prints and found no match. Patch reported that Cobb County police ran the print again in 2005 and 2009, and that police agencies then had limited access to the FBI's national database. In 2012 the print was searched against the FBI's database. The court's opinion says the search returned a list of possible matches that included James Lorenzo Randolph, and that a Cobb County analyst compared the prints by hand and found a match, later confirmed by a retired GBI fingerprint expert. Randolph had been arrested in Columbia, South Carolina, within weeks of the killing, for a restaurant robbery committed three days before the Wingate Inn robbery; detective John Dawes told A&E that Randolph served a South Carolina prison term and had been released about a year or two before the match. A second thread arrived the same year. A Jacksonville, Florida detective told Dawes that the lawyer for a man facing unrelated charges said his client knew of a hotel shooting north of Atlanta, at a hotel with 'Win' in its name. In 2014, with the DA's new Cold Case Unit under way, that man, a federal prisoner, was granted immunity from Georgia charges and gave a statement in September naming Randolph as the shooter and himself as the driver. Dawes told A&E the alternative was to wait on the fingerprint alone. U.S. Marshals arrested Randolph in Columbia on October 6, 2014. At trial, jurors also heard a recorded jail call, the hotel manager's testimony that Randolph had never worked or stayed at the hotel, and a police sketch that could be compared with a 2000 photograph. In 2023 the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that the accomplice's testimony had been sufficiently corroborated.
Sources
- Cold Case Kennesaw Murder: Conviction Announced
“Police processed the scene and lifted a useable fingerprint, which was run through Georgia’s fingerprint database in 2000, 2005 and 2009, to no avail. At that time, police agencies had limited access to the FBI’s national fingerprint database.”
- Three Life Sentences Plus 35 Years in 2000 Cold-Case Murder
“Chief ADA Don Geary, who prosecuted the case, reminded the court of Randolph’s lengthy criminal record, including an armed robbery in South Carolina that occurred just days before Castlin was killed.”
- Arrest made in 2000 killing at Cobb County hotel
“Monday, the U.S. Marshals Service announced an arrest in the cold case. James Lorenzo Randolph, 32, was arrested without incident in Columbia, S.C., according to Supervisory Inspector Gavin Duffy with the U.S. Marshals.”
- Trial begins for man accused of robbing, killing hotel manager in 2000
“A man is finally standing trial for a 16-year-old murder case, authorities said Tuesday.”
- Cobb County Jury sends back guilty verdict in 15-year-old murder case
“A Cobb County jury has returned a guilty verdict in a cold case from more than a decade ago.”
- 15 years after killing in Cobb County, man sentenced to life
“In December 2000, Rodney Castlin was 36. His wife was eight months pregnant, and Castlin was working nights at a Wingate Inn near Barrett Parkway and I-75; he wanted his days open so he could pursue a business degree.”
- Sentencing in 2000 Cobb County fatal shooting of man
“The case remained unsolved for nearly 14 years. Investigators periodically ran a fingerprint found at the crime scene through a Georgia database, but never found any matches.”
- Rodney Castlin's Murder: A Detective's 16-Year Journey to Keep a Promise and Solve the Case
“It came down to this: We have an opportunity to grant immunity on state of Georgia charges and let this guy serve out his federal sentence, or we keep working the case with hopes that we can solve it just based on the fingerprint.”
- Randolph v. The State, S23A0636 (Ga. Aug. 21, 2023)
“eventually, in July 2012, a search of the federal fingerprint database maintained by the FBI yielded a list of possible matches that included Randolph's name. Following a manual comparison, a Cobb County Police Department fingerprint analyst determined that Randolph's fingerprints matched the set of prints lifted from the hotel in 2000.”