Cumming Suspect in Fatal Custody Swap Sentenced in Unrelated Case

Already facing felony murder and other charges in the shooting death of his children's mother, a Forsyth County judge this month slapped Christopher Erdman with a year-long sentence for his role in a dispute with a security guard from Decatur.

Erdman is the 25-year-old Cumming man who allegedly shot Shannon Lawrence of Canton four times in the face and neck on June 5 as the two met in a bank parking lot across from the Birmingham Crossroads shopping center in Milton, police said. Erdman and Lawrence, 25, who never married, used the shopping center as the drop-off point when exchanging their two children. Lawrence died at in Cumming.

Nearly a year before the shooting, according to Forsyth County Sheriff's Office reports, authorities were called on two different occasions to resolve disputes between Erdman and a security guard at the Longlake Subdivision in Cumming.

The first came on June 23.

Ernest Jones, the security guard, called the Sheriff's Office when Erdman refused to comply with a homeowner association rule prohibiting bikes within the gates of the community pool. Jones asked him to move the bike outside the gate. So did a deputy identified in the report only as R. Riffle. Erdman told both men the bike was going to stay put.

The second call came on June 25.

Erdman told law enforcement that Jones "took an offensive stand toward him while he had his daughter on his shoulders." Jones said Erdman "grabbed him," prompting him to grab Erdman in self-defense.

No one was injured, according to the Sheriff's Office reports, but Jones' uniform was torn under his right arm.

Originally, Erdman was charged with simple battery, simple assault and disorderly conduct. Someone struck through the first two charges in the final disposition, which Solicitor General Leslie Case Abernathy signed 13 days ago.

Erdman waived his right to a formal arraignment and jury trial, and pleaded guilty only to the disorderly conduct charge.

His year-long sentence will run concurrently to any other sentences, court records show. Erdman was given credit for time served. He has been in the Fulton County Jail since the Lawrence shooting.

Open the PDFs on this page for the Sheriff's Office reports, the charges levied against Erdman and the final disposition.