A Georgia man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a 2022 murder trial. He killed his girlfriend, 23-year-old Lacambria Deonshay Toomer, in 2022, who was also the mother of his son. Identified as 28-year-old Ryan Cooper, he shot Toomer and disposed of her body somewhere in Georgia. The police had still not found the body, while Cooper did not reveal the location. He was the last person to see her alive. According to records, she sent her last text from her phone on August 15, 2022.
Toomer’s mother, Melassia Thornton, appeared in court to deliver a victim’s impact statement in which she pleaded with Cooper to reveal the location of her daughter’s body. He showed no reaction, with a cold expression, as she continued to plead with him with tear-filled eyes.
Melassia described what the loss of her daughter has been like for the family. They have no place to drive as her body has not been found. She said, “You have an opportunity to give me that closure by telling me where my baby’s body is. If you had any heart left in you, before I leave here today, please give me that closure.”
Not knowing where her daughter’s body is has been torture for the mother. She called it a torture of four years. Melassia also explained the impact of this on Cooper and her late daughter’s son. At the time of the murder, he was just a baby, and she has been raising him ever since. She explained he deserves to know what happened to his mother.
Despite the pleas, Cooper had a stone-cold expression. Mellisa hoped for some closure from Cooper, “Closure is where you can finally go, where you can finally mourn your daughter without uncertainty, where you can finally have answers. Without the location of her body, my grief has no resting place. Every day is longer than it should be. Every day I have to live with unanswered questions that should have been resolved long ago.”
Furthermore, the grieving mother added, “Please tell me where my baby is. Please tell me where my baby is, so I can go on with my life and at least have a place to go.” Melassia revealed the lengths she went to find her daughter.
She explained, “I was in places I had no business going. I was in wooded areas, walking in water. I was going to places I’ve not even thought about going before. Day in, day out, I was out looking for my baby, ’cause that is what a mama’s supposed to do.”
Cooper was convicted of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, and concealing the death of another. The judge sentenced him to life in prison while labeling his behavior in court as cringeworthy.
Dougherty County Superior Court Judge Denise Marshall said, “I’ve never sentenced anybody to life without the possibility of parole. But I am going to do it today.” The jury took almost four hours to convict him.
Authorities arrested him on May 31, 2023, and indicted him in March 2026. The prosecutor Gregory W. Edwards stated in court, “Cooper is absolutely, 100% guilty of all the charges.” He held Cooper responsible for erasing the existence of Lacambria Toomer by disposing of her body at an undisclosed location.
Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public video record.
