Execution Date Set in 1991 Murder of Forsyth Witness

Twenty-three years after he killed a Forsyth County man to prevent him from testifying against his son, it appears that Tommy Lee Waldrip may finally be executed.

Waldrip, 68, has been on death row since 1994 for the 1991 killing of Dawsonville’s Keith Lloyd Evans.

According to the Dawson County Superior Court, Waldrip is scheduled to be put to death on July 10. An order from the court sets the window for the execution between July 10-17.

As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, the 23-year-old Evans was a key witness against John Mark Waldrip in his then-upcoming trial for armed robbery of the Food Center on Hwy. 9 in Cumming.

Evans was night manager at the store and his testimony had helped convict John Mark Waldrip for armed robbery in 1990, but the conviction was overturned and the court freed Waldrip on bond while he was awaiting the re-trial.

But just days before the re-trial, Evans was confronted by both Waldrips and Howard Livingston, who on a mid-April night in 1991, first shot Evans and then beat him to death before burying him in a shallow grave in Gilmer County.

As the Forsyth County News reports, Tommy Lee Waldrip in 1994 was sentenced to death after being found guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury and aggravated battery.

In separate trials, the younger Waldrip and Livingston were sentenced to life in prison for their part in the killing.

According to the Forsyth news outlet, Tommy Lee Waldrip has “exhausted his direct appeal proceedings, as well as his state and federal habeas corpus proceedings.” Read more here.