Trial began this week for a 26-year-old man in Georgia accused of murdering a married couple in their new home, allegedly breaking into the home and gunning down the two parents and leaving their 2-year-old son alone and covered in blood for about 12 hours before authorities arrived.

Matthew Scott Lanz is facing a spate of felony charges, including multiple counts of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and cruelty to children in the 2021 slayings of Justin Hicks and Amber Hicks, both of whom were killed in front of their son, Jacob Hicks. Justin Hicks was a six-year veteran of the Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services Department.

Unlike most states, Georgia does not delineate murder by degrees. Instead, the law differentiates between malice murder, killing someone wit

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