Christopher Collin Demmon
A man who was charged with murdering his co-worker has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, said the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia.
“On the October 06, 2022 Plea negotiation was held in Morgan County Superior Court, Georgia within the Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit,” deputies wrote about the malice murder case against Christopher Collin Demmon, 34.
Authorities alleged that he shot co-worker Justin Yeng Xiong, 29, to death and dismembered his body with a chainsaw, according to The Union Reporter. He was arrested up in Aiken County, South Carolina on unrelated charges. Authorities reportedly said he was acting strangely outside of a Jeep.
The two men had only just moved in together as co-workers for a local businessman. That businessman, identified in the Union Reporter only as Gary, said he reported Xiong missing after Xiong did not show up to work. Gary said he found the remains behind a shed, though he initially believed it was not a body.
“I thought, it couldn’t be a body because a body is kind of oblong and has hands, feet, legs, and arms …,” he reportedly said.
EMS confirmed it was a body.
“They came back from there with their eyes wide open and said there’s a body in the plastic,” he said.
“On Friday, June 4, at around 7:30 p.m., the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office requested that the GBI conduct a homicide investigation in Devereux, GA,” authorities have said. “At approximately 6:57 p.m., the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office 911 Center received a call stating they believed a deceased person had been located. Deputies responded and confirmed that an individual was deceased on a property on Main Street in Devereux, GA.”
Gary said he suspected the victim was Xiong.
“Something told me that the person wrapped in that plastic was Justin,” he said. “I just knew it was. Something in my gut just told me it was him.”
He described Xiong as being a “good worker” and seeming like a “really nice guy.” Gary said Xiong needed help. He said he did not mind giving Justin a chance to turn his life around.
“He was trying to turn his life around,” Gary said. “He really was. He didn’t deserve what happened to him. He really didn’t. He wanted to stop using drugs and he wanted to stay away from anybody who was doing drugs.”
Demmon has a medium-length rap sheet for relatively petty crimes including grand theft, burglary and credit card fraud in Tampa, Fla. Overall, the defendant spent some 3-and-a-half years behind bars for his previous infractions. He was released from prison in December of 2020.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
[Image via mugshot]