Friend Charged With Murder in Shooting Deaths of Young Couple at House They Were Planning to Move Into

A young Georgia couple were shot to death by someone they knew outside what was supposed to be their new home, relatives and authorities said.

Destiney Hope Kight  and Charles "C.J." Garrett were excited about living together and crazy about each other.

"The smile, the look in their eyes, you know they loved one another," Kight's father, Will Newsome, told WMAZ-TV. Both were 18. The girl's mother, Tasha, told the station, "It's not only what was taken from us, but it was what was taken from them." 

Johnson County Sheriff Greg Rowland said at a Friday news conference that a suspect had been charged in connection with the shooting deaths outside the couple's would-be house on Paul Lord Road.

"Daniel Payton Brinson, age 22, of Washington County, " said Sheriff Rowland. "We have charged him with two counts of malice murder." Brinson was "a known associate of Garrett," the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a statement. The agency assisted in the homicide investigation.

The Newsomes said Brinson had been a friend of the family for years. "I couldn't believe someone so close to the family could be the cause of us not having her anymore," Tasha told WMAZ. 

Kight's father said he had grown up with Brinson's relatives. "I grew up around his family all my life. His daddy, brother, uncles, I grew up with everyone of them."

Brinson had been arrested by the Marietta Police Department on unrelated drug charges three days after the April 23 slayings, authorities said. He remains in custody at the Cobb County Jail. The additional murder charges were filed the same day, according to reports.

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